Wednesday, March 5, 2014
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Have a safe day!

Wednesday, March 5

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Duncan Brown, Syracuse University
Title: Gravitational Waves: A New Frontier in Astrophysics

Thursday, March 6

2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Fabrizio Caola, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Precision Predictions for Single-Top Production at the LHC

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

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Secon Level 3

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, March 5

- Breakfast: breakfast strata
- Breakfast: ham, egg and cheese English muffin
- Grilled chicken quesadilla
- Smart cuisine: baked Cajun catfish
- Country fried steak
- Oven-roasted vegetable wrap
- Shrimp and crab scampi
- Vegetarian harvest moon vegetable soup
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted calzones with marinara sauce

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, March 5
Lunch
- Parmesan-crusted chicken with sage butter sauce
- Roasted potatoes
- Steamed green beans
- Strawberry cream tart

Friday, March 7
Dinner
- French onion soup
- Filet with cabernet sauce
- Potatoes gratin
- Grilled asparagus
- Pear tart

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

LHC Physics Center switches to whiteboard-only forums

John Paul Chou (right), physics professor at Rutgers University, answers questions during the LPC physics forum at Fermilab. The forum began in 2006. Photo: Amanda Solliday

For attendees at Fermilab's LHC Physics Center forum, PowerPoint slides are a thing of the past.

The forum organizers made a switch from slides to chalkboard-style talks about six months ago. This is part of a larger effort by the LPC to shift the biweekly meetings from monologue to dialogue.

"Without slides, the forum participants go further off-script, with more interaction and curiosity," said Andrew Askew, an assistant professor of physics at Florida State University and a co-organizer of the LPC physics forum. "We wanted to draw out the importance of the audience."

More interaction was exactly what the new leadership of the LHC Physics Center wanted when they approached Askew and Yuri Gershtein, a former LPC distinguished researcher, to think of ways to better engage LHC scientists in the United States. The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, currently undergoing upgrades, will come back online for a higher-energy run in 2015.

In one of the recent meetings, physics professor John Paul Chou of Rutgers University presented to a full conference room in Wilson Hall. He held a single page of handwritten notes and a marker, while questions and comments from the audience flecked the formal presentation.

It's not meant to be a lecture, but a discussion. An experimental physicist and a theoretical physicist each lead the forum for half of the allotted hour, without electronic assistance.

"We all feel inundated by PowerPoint. With only a whiteboard, you have your ideas and a pen in your hand," Askew said.

PowerPoint gives speakers an easy way to document their presentation so others can readily review the material later. But Elliot Hughes, a Rutgers University doctoral student and a participant in the forum, says a ban on slides has encouraged the physicists to connect with the present audience.

"Frequently, in physics, presenters design slides for people who didn't even listen to the talk in the first place," Hughes said. "In my experience, the best talks could not possibly be fully understood without the speaker."

The LPC is the United States hub for the CMS experiment. CMS is one of the four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. Many Fermilab scientists and university researchers across the United States are involved with the project, which is designed primarily to look for hints of new physics. The LPC physics forum serves as platform to discuss ongoing work and future goals of U.S. efforts.

Amanda Solliday

Photo of the Day

Controlled spiral

The patterns formed by the hardware on the bubble chamber in front of the SiDet building are as almost as eye-catching as those that formed from particle collisions inside it. Photo: Steve Krave, TD
In the News

Particle beam cancer therapy: the promise and challenges

From the BNL Newsroom, March 3, 2014

Accelerator physicists are natural-born problem solvers, finding ever more powerful ways to generate and steer particle beams for research into the mysteries of physics, materials, and matter. And from the very beginning, this field born at the dawn of the atomic age has actively sought ways to apply advanced technologies to tackle more practical problems. At the top of the list — even in those early days — was taking aim at cancer, the second leading cause of death in the U.S. today, affecting one in two men and one in three women.

Using beams of accelerated protons or heavier ions such as carbon, oncologists can deliver cell-killing energy to precisely targeted tumors — and do so without causing extensive damage to surrounding healthy tissue, eliminating the major drawback of conventional radiation therapy using x-rays.

"This is cancer care aimed at curing cancer, not just treating it," said Ken Peach, a physicist and professor at the Particle Therapy Cancer Research Institute at Oxford University.

Read more

From the Fermi Site Office

Being a good neighbor

Michael Weis

Michael Weis, DOE Fermi Site Office manager, wrote this column.

The Department of Energy, the Fermi Site Office and Fermilab continue to work together to achieve the Office of Science mission and fulfill their responsibilities to the public, laboratory employees, the scientific community and the American people. One of the critically important responsibilities for our team is being a good neighbor, which we foster through partnership and clear and concise communication.

The Fermilab team manages the land on the federal site here on behalf of DOE and works hand in hand with FSO when government approvals are necessary to maintain the land and facilities. To be a good neighbor, we routinely reach out to representatives of the surrounding communities and municipalities and to local stakeholders about the lab's land management efforts. The lab sponsors a Community Advisory Board to solicit feedback from leaders in these groups, and FSO supports these meetings and provides informational updates periodically. FSO also works with the lab to keep the lab informed about discharges and effluents resulting from our operations and to receive feedback in our strategy to minimize environmental impacts. For example, as a team we regularly provide information on our efforts to minimize tritium byproducts as we continue to increase beam power for the lab's Intensity Frontier experiments.

Fermilab's land management practices help build relationships. The lab leases about 2,000 acres through a competitive process and provides land for farming. These practices in turn benefit the lab by preventing the propagation of woody vegetation, which lowers the development costs of future scientific facilities. Additionally, with federal approval, the revenue from the farming allows the lab to fund other land management initiatives such as maintenance of the prairie and the on-site bison herd.

Another example of being a good neighbor is the lab's allowing a pipeline company to stage its equipment on DOE property, as they are performing excavation and maintenance in a residential area near the site with limited storage space in that area.

My colleagues and I continue to look forward to working with you as we build partnerships and relationships with an eye toward a long future of high-energy physics experiments here at Fermilab. You can find more information about us on the DOE Fermi Site Office website, or you can stop by our offices in Wilson Hall anytime.

Safety Update

ESH&Q weekly report, March 4

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ESH&Q Section, contains one incident.

An employee was accidentally struck in the forehead by a car door. No medical treatment was necessary.

Find the full report here.

In the News

Meet the dropleton — a "quantum droplet" that acts like a liquid

From New Scientist, Feb. 26, 2014

Part particle, part liquid, a newly discovered "quasiparticle" has been dubbed a quantum droplet, or a dropleton. The dropleton is a collection of electrons and "holes" (places where electrons are missing) inside a semiconductor, and it has handy properties for studying quantum mechanics.

Read more

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

Budker Seminar - March 10

Help Abri Credit Union celebrate our members and Pi Day

2014 FRA Scholarship applications due April 1

Portions of west atrium stair closed for construction

Interaction Management course - March 6, 13 and 20

Rembrandt Chamber Players - Gallery Chamber Series - March 9

Society of Philosophy Club meets March 13

URA Thesis Award competition deadline - March 20

Photography contest - through March 21

Martial arts

International folk dancing meets Thursday evenings at Kuhn Barn

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings at Kuhn Barn

English country dancing at Kuhn Village Barn

Indoor soccer