Introduction

From Quantum Diaries, Oct. 15, 2010

John Felde

Editor's note: This is the first Quantum Diaries post from new blogger John Felde. Felde was the first graduate student to join the collaboration for the proposed Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment. Read his bio here.

Hello Quantum Diaries. My name is John Felde, and I am a new blogger. I am a Graduate Student at the University of California, Davis studying neutrino oscillations. Since these blogs are meant to reflect the daily life of particle physicists I thought I would introduce UC Davis in my first post. It is my impression that outside of Northern California, UC Davis is not really all that well known by the general public, mostly since we don't have a good football team. In the physics community we are more well known given our involvement in CDF at Fermilab, and CMS at the LHC. Here is a little bit about my town, and university.

UC Davis was founded in 1905 as an extension of UC Berkeley offering farming and agricultural related degrees. In 1959 UC Davis was formally established as an independent campus of the University of California system. Now, the university if made up of four colleges and six professional schools offering 102 undergraduate majors, and 82 graduate programs. In 2009 the student enrollment reached 32,153. Fortunately, UC Davis has the largest campus of the UC's with 5,300 acres (1 acre ~ 4,000 m²).

Work on stairs shows value of employee suggestions

The atrium stairs to the second-floor crossover are getting a new, safer look.

If you’ve ever doubted that work suggestions go anywhere other than into limbo, all you have to do is check out the stairs leading from the cafeteria to the second-floor cross over in Wilson Hall.

You’ll see the beginnings of a new raised handrail, a kick plate and metal slates. While the work adds a nice, aesthetic touch, its real contribution is to safety. A Fermilab employee pointed out that a small child could slip between the widely spaced vertical rails between the steps and handhold. The employee suggested eliminating the gaps, and potential for a fall, by slipping in a few extra rails. FESS thought that was a great idea and started work about a month ago.

The improvement prompted additional safety measures, including the kick plate, which prevents pens or other loose items from dropping off the steps and onto the dining tables below. The new raised, round handrail allows for a firmer grip. This handrail design will continue down the steps leading to Ramsey Auditorium.

Improvement work should finish by mid-November.

Fermilab renews ISO and OHSAS certifications

On Oct. 14, Director Pier Oddone presented certificates to Department of Energy Fermi Site Office Acting Manager Mark Bollinger.

Fermilab earned re-registration of International Organization for Standardization 14001 and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001 in recognition for the laboratory’s environmentally sound management practices.

“It’s not just that we got recertified,” Oddone said. “When they look at us, they judge whether we are mature in the way we’ve approached this and that the improvements are responsive to the previous analysis. I think they found that we have done a very good job in building this into the culture.”

Fermilab builds pioneering accelerator facility

From DOE Pulse, Oct. 11, 2010

DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has started phase II of the construction of a new accelerator test facility to advance the development of superconducting radio-frequency technology. SRF cavities, which operate at -456 degrees Fahrenheit to eliminate electrical resistance, will be critical to the next generation of particle accelerators.

Fermilab is using $52.7 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to advance its SRF program. The new facility, which will occupy three buildings and host a 460-foot-long test accelerator, will be the first of its kind in the United States. Phase I of the test facility construction began in March 2010. Fermilab will use the facility to test SRF cryomodules, validate the SRF manufacturing capability of vendors from U.S.industry, and conduct experiments with electron beams.

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