Have a safe day!

Monday, Dec. 1

THERE WILL BE NO PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS SEMINAR THIS WEEK

3:30 p.m.
Director's Coffee Break - WH2XO

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II

Tuesday, Dec. 2

3:30 p.m.
Director's Coffee Break - WH2XO

4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Kathrin Schulte, Goethe University
Title: Studies on the Focusing Performance of a Gabor Lens Depending on Nonneutral Plasma Properties

Visit the labwide calendar to view Fermilab events

Extended forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Flags at full staff

Monday, Dec. 1

- Breakfast: blueberry crepes
- Breakfast: sausage, egg and cheese croissant
- Philly-style cheesesteak with peppers
- Chicken creole
- Greek patitsio
- Spicy Asian chicken wrap
- Halal chicken curry with naan
- Chicken noodle soup
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted pizza by the slice

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Wednesday, Dec. 3
Lunch
- Beef bourguignon
- Parsley buttered egg noodles
- Apple walnut cake with cream chantilly

Friday, Dec. 5
Dinner
- Spinach and strawberry salad
- Lobster tail with champagne butter sauce
- Spaghetti squash with scallions
- Grilled asparagus
- Cold lemon souffle

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Andreas Kronfeld presented with Hans Fischer Fellowship certificate in Munich

Gerhard Abstreiter (right), director of the Technical University of Munich Institute of Advanced Study, officially awards the Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship to Fermilab scientist Andreas Kronfeld at the fellowship kick-off symposium. Photo: TUM-IAS

On Wednesday, Nov. 26, Fermilab scientist Andreas Kronfeld was publicly awarded the Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study.

As part of the fellowship, the institute founds an official focus group, made up of the fellow, fellow's host at the institute and a student or postdoc, to conduct research on an innovative, high-risk scientific topic.

The fellowship officially kicked off with a symposium. In his talk, Kronfeld discussed how he and his group could apply effective field theories to new problems for which lattice QCD calculations can provide key input.

Wyatt Merritt, Particle Physics Division, retires today

Wyatt Merritt

Scientist Wyatt Merritt first came to Fermilab 41 years ago not as an employee, but as a scientific user on neutrino experiments. Nine years later she joined the laboratory staff. Now, after 32 years as a Fermilab scientist on numerous projects, Merritt is retiring. Her last day is today.

Merritt's career has spanned the gamut of Fermilab's scientific programs and project roles: She has worked on projects in collider, neutrino, muon and dark energy physics. She has helped build detector components, analyzed data, written simulation and analysis software, and led and managed projects.

Merritt began her career at Fermilab as a postdoc, building three-wire drift chambers and taking and analyzing data for neutrino experiments in Lab E.

After transitioning to regular employee at the laboratory, she began work on the DZero experiment. During her time on DZero, she developed reconstruction and simulation software and conducted physics analyses for searches of leptoquarks. She eventually took on DZero leadership roles, serving as New Phenomena Group convener, Run II Computing and Software co-leader, DZero Computing and Analysis Department head in the Computing Division, and SAM Data Handling Project co-leader.

She earned an Employee Achievement Award in 2002 for her part in computing during Run II of the Tevatron.

A proven effective leader, she went on to assume deputy project manager roles for the DECam and Muon g-2 projects.

Merritt was also one of several founding members of the Women Scientists mailing list, which was used for several decades to bring women scientists together for a monthly lunch. It is still used to alert the women scientists and engineers in the lab community to events and issues of interest.

Having given so much to Fermilab, Merritt leaves her mark on many aspects of the laboratory's discovery efforts. Now a Fermilab scientist emeritus, she will continue to contribute to the Dark Energy Survey.

She and her husband plan to spend more time traveling after she retires.

"It has been fantastic to work with so many creative, knowledgeable and dedicated people at the lab and in our user community," Merritt said. "I am glad to have been a part of some of the physics and the technical achievements here for so long. Time to move on now, though!"

U.S. particle physics program aims for the future

From Scientific American, Nov. 25, 2014

In the last few years, stories have abounded in the press of the successes of the Large Hadron Collider, most notably the discovery of the Higgs boson. This has led some to speculate that European research is ascendant while U.S. research is falling behind. While there is no argument that U.S. particle physics budgets have shrunk over the past decade, it is also inarguable that America is still huge player in this fascinating research sector, collaborating on projects in Europe and Asia while pursuing a strong domestic program as well.

Read more

Slamming physics at Fermilab, dancing to Yuri Gagarin and lifting off from 'Cape Kebaberal'

From Physics World, Nov. 28, 2014

Giving a fired-up talk at a physics conference is a good way for aspiring researchers to make themselves known to the community, but unless you have a natural gift, lots of practice is required. That's why many universities and labs host "slams" to encourage staff and students to talk about their research to a broader audience.

Read more

What's that smell? It's green energy!

Mooove over coal. There's something greener! Photo: Katie Kosirog, ESH&Q

There is no doubt that humans create a lot of waste. It is impossible not to. But what if some of the nastiest waste we create from everyday life could create electricity? Some of the waste that Fermilab produces does just that. Wilson Hall's kitchen has grease traps that get pumped out every two months by a waste hauler. The waste hauler, Darling Ingredients International, takes this smelly muck and mixes it with other organic waste in one of two places to create electricity: Fair Oaks Dairy Farm in Indiana or the Downers Grove Sanitary District. Each has anaerobic digesters that provide energy for their operations.

In anaerobic digestion, bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is the byproduct of this process, most of which is methane. The biogas is captured, cleaned and becomes fuel for an internal combustion engine, which can produce heat in the form of hot water and power in the form of electricity.

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm is the biggest dairy farm in the United States and operates completely off the grid. Manure from 33,000 cows along with other organic waste from places such as Fermilab is processed through anaerobic digesters. The Downers Grove Sanitary District uses sewage sludge in their anaerobic digester to power 50 percent of their operations in normal conditions, with a goal of 100 percent in the next few years. Places like these add restaurant and cafeteria food wastes to diversify the organic feedstock, which increases production of biogas.

Anaerobic digesters on farms and in sewage plants have multiple environmental benefits. Manure is managed in a safer way than traditional methods, reducing the risk of land and water contamination. Also, methane — a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 21 times greater than that of carbon dioxide — is captured and converted to energy, decreasing air pollution directly released by the waste. Since the resulting electricity is not produced by conventional methods, the energy capture method has a multiplying effect in decreasing air pollution and greenhouse gases. And although the smell of cow manure isn't pleasant, it can be contained within the digesters. With one cow producing 20 gallons of manure per day, a large farm can minimize their environmental impact tremendously by capturing the methane gas.

As population increases and traditional resources are depleted, anaerobic digesters, a renewable-energy technology, are viable waste management alternatives that maximize resources, and there are many ways to make use of them. The United Kingdom, for example, has a Bio-Bus that runs on sewage and food waste.

Minimizing waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are very important sustainability goals for Fermilab. Converting that waste into energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions in more ways than one. Fermilab's contribution, about six tons per year, isn't going to power anything on its own, but every little smelly bit helps.

—Katie Kosirog

Pale blue skies

Trees are bare and snow covers the ground on a late November day in the Village. Photo: Rich Blaustein, OC

Wilson Hall southwest stairs closed for construction - today

Zumba Toning registration due Dec. 2

Excel 2010: Advanced - Dec. 3

Goal Setting in FermiWorks course - Dec. 4

Zumba Fitness registration due Dec. 4

NALWO winter coffee and tea - Dec. 8

Scottish country dancing Tuesday evenings at Kuhn Barn

International folk dancing Thursdays evenings at Kuhn Barn

Indoor soccer

Norris Recreation Center discount for employees