Tuesday, July 17, 2012
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Tuesday, July 17
10:30
Research Techniques Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Dirk Wiedner, University of Heidelberg
Title: A Novel Experiment Searching for the Lepton Flavor Decay mu → eee

Noon
Undergraduate Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: Don Lincoln, Fermilab
Title: The Energy Frontier

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

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Wednesday, July 18
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO FERMILAB COLLOQUIUM THIS WEEK

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Tuesday, July 17

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From symmetry breaking

DOE facilities receive praise from Republicans and Democrats alike

On June 21, the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment heard testimony on the Department of Energy user facilities. The witnesses included, from left to right: Antonio Lanzirotti, Persis Drell, Stephen Wasserman, Suzy Tichenor and Ernest Hall.

In a strong showing of bipartisan support, both Republican and Democrat members of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment offered robust praise for the U.S. Department of Energy national scientific facilities at a hearing last month.

Ranking Member Brad Miller (D-NC) said that from the national facilities, "We get scientific capabilities that do not exist anywhere else…. Academic and industry researchers are able to break new scientific ground, as well as accelerate the process for translating scientific discovery into marketable products."

He continued: "At user facilities, federal funds support more efficient cars and trucks; more effective drugs; lighter and stronger metals; cheaper and more durable batteries; cleaner power plants; reduced reliance on foreign energy; a clearer picture of our changing climate; and even a better understanding of the origins of the universe and the nature of space and time. Perhaps most important, we get the talent and technologies that provide for stronger and more competitive high-tech and manufacturing sectors in the U.S. We get jobs."

The DOE's 31 user facilities host researchers ("users") from both academia and industry, awarding resources based on a merit review of proposed work and without regard to a researcher's nationality or institutional affiliation. In all, approximately 26,500 scientists are expected to use the DOE Office of Science scientific user facilities in fiscal year 2013.

The facilities range from the accelerator complex at Fermilab, which provides proton beams for probing the fundamental properties of energy, matter, space and time, to the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley Lab, which produces X-rays for probing the electronic and magnetic structure of atoms, molecules and solids.

In the June 21 hearing, representatives from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National User Facility Organization, Eli Lilly and GE Global Research offered testimony on the facilities' role in enabling basic research that drives innovation and growth.

The committee's reactions were upbeat and positive, with members praising the facilities' accomplishments and management.

Read more

Kelen Tuttle

In Brief

New award honors late Fermilab physicist

John Elias, a long-time scientist at Fermilab and recently deceased, has been memorialized by a new award to be presented at the triennial Pisa Advanced Detector Conferences in Elba, Italy. Elias, who worked at Fermilab from 1973 to 2005, was an avid participant at the Pisa Conferences, where he was valued for his wisdom and humor, and where he pursued a lifelong interest in photo-detection instrumentation. In recognition of this interest, Hamamatsu Photonics and the Pisa meeting jointly sponsor the John Elias Memorial Award, a 1,500-Euro award for best poster on photo-detectors at the conference. Hamamatsu presented the first Elias Memorial Award at the 12th Pisa conference, which took place from May 20 to 26, to CERN's Stefan Gundacker.

Gundacker received the award for the poster, "SiPM Time Resolution: From Single Photon to Saturation." He and his colleagues researched a variety of silicon photomultipliers to study ultra-fast time measurements. They found the timing resolution improved with increasing signal size, so that for the very smallest pulses, single photons, they found an accuracy of 180 picoseconds, and an accuracy of 10 picoseconds for the very largest pulses. This work complements research at Fermilab, where scientists are studying ultrafast SiPM measurements for imaging in large-scale astrophysics detectors, medical instrumentation and other applications.

Stefan Gundacker of CERN received the first John Elias Memorial Award. Photo: S. Gundacker
In the News

Finding God, the particle

From the Chicago Tribune, July 14, 2012

After almost five decades of sleuthing, physicists now have pinned the God Particle in their Stuff That Makes the Universe scrapbook.

The Higgs is an invisible field that fills the universe and gives elementary particles their size and mass. Imagine a vat of molasses, with the universe as the vat and the Higgs field as the molasses. Finding the Higgs boson is a quantum leap for science — the equivalent of a moonshot.

Even though the long-awaited bulletin came from Geneva, home of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the discovery of the Higgs carries a strong Chicago imprint. The now-shuttered Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in west suburban Batavia made breakthrough progress in subatomic particle research for years. Many scientists at Fermi collaborate on work at the LHC. And Leon Lederman, who provided the particle's deified nickname, is Fermilab's former director.

Read more
In the News

Visitors discover Fermilab's green spaces

From the Kane County Chronicle, July 14, 2012

BATAVIA – Only visitors with proper clearance get to tour the restored prairie and savannah within the Tevatron ring at Fermilab, but on Saturday the isolated circle was open to all during Discovery Day, an event hosted by Fermilab Natural Areas.

FNA is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the restoration, study and enjoyment of the natural areas at Fermilab.

Volunteers said Fermilab employees created the organization in recent years because Fermilab doesn't have the resources necessary to care for all the natural areas within its 10 square miles.

Read more
Director's Corner

ICFA and ILCSC in Melbourne

Fermilab Director
Pier Oddone

The International Linear Collider Steering Committee and the International Committee for Future Accelerators met recently in Melbourne in conjunction with ICHEP2012. Joining us was Lyn Evans, who in June was appointed to be the Linear Collider Director.

In this column I briefly summarize the situation with the ILC and the new organization that brings together the ILC and CLIC efforts. More information can be found in my presentation to ICHEP attendees.

The linear collider effort has received a big boost with the discovery at CERN of a particle likely to be the Higgs boson. There is a lot of activity around the world to understand how far the LHC can go in its study of this particle and what important physics we would require a "Higgs factory" of some sort to study (e.g., this report). A prime candidate for such an accelerator that could be built relatively soon is the International Linear Collider. The ILC is designed to produce a collision energy of 0.5 TeV in the center of mass, with extendability to 1 TeV. If an ILC with an energy lower than 0.5 TeV is chosen as an initial stage, the technical design will need some re-optimization. The 0.5 TeV design, documented in the ILC Technical Design Report and in its Detector Baseline Design, will be available later this year and will be reviewed by an augmented Project Advisory Committee in December.

The TDR and DBD will include the estimated cost for a 0.5-TeV ILC and its associated detectors, although the detector designs are subject to a larger cost uncertainty. An ad-hoc international cost committee assembled by the ILCSC will review the costs in early 2013. By the next meeting of ICFA and the ILCSC in Vancouver in February 2013, both the technical and the cost reviews should be complete.

In terms of the new linear collider organization, the new Linear Collider Board, with oversight of both the ILC and CLIC efforts, will replace the present ILCSC. ICFA appoints members of the board based upon recommendations by representatives from the Americas, Asia and Europe. A nominating committee brings forward candidates from each region and proposes a final slate to ICFA. The LCB will consist of five members from each region plus a chair. You are invited to contact your regional representatives on the nominating committee with your suggestions.

The nominating committee members are:

Americas: Pier Oddone (Fermilab) and William Trischuk (University of Toronto)

Asia: Jie Gao (IHEP, Beijing) and Sachio Komamiya (University of Tokyo)

Europe: Joachim Mnich (DESY) and Manfred Krammer (HEPHY, Vienna and the new ECFA Chair)

The Vancouver meeting will see an overlap meeting between the ILCSC and the new LCB to review the outcomes of both the technical and cost reviews. In the meantime, Lyn Evans will be working to appoint the three associate directors for the ILC, CLIC and physics research. For the latter appointment, Lyn will work directly with the many stakeholders to design the appropriate procedures and management structures.

ICFA Director Pier Oddone congratulates new Linear Collider Director Lyn Evans in Melbourne on his appointment. Photo: Fermilab
Construction Update

Constructing caissons at IARC

Contractors are constructing caissons - deep substructure foundations - at the site of the future IARC Office, Technical and Education Building. Photo: Ron Foutch

Barton Malow, the company contracted to build the IARC Office, Technical, and Education Building, is constructing the 38 underground caissons needed to support the new building. Caissons are deep substructure foundations made of poured concrete and reinforced steel.

The caissons range from 2.5 feet to 4.5 feet in diameter and extend 45 to 50 feet below ground level. Each day the caisson work will require about a dozen concrete trucks. Soon the company will install grade beams above the caissons, which in turn will support the building's steel columns.

The IARC OTE building is scheduled to be completed late fall of 2013.

You can view more photos of IARC construction progress at the IARC OTE Facebook page.

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University of Chicago Tuition Remission Program deadline - Aug. 17

Live music for International Folk Dancing in Ramsey Auditorium - July 19

EAP Webinar "Do I Have Enough? Saving for Retirement" - today

NALWO tour and luncheon - July 19

Artist reception - July 20

Collider New Play Project - July 21

Collecting school supplies - through July 27

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Howard Levy & Chris Siebold - August 18

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