PPD gets new leaders

Greg Bock (left) and Mike Lindgren were recently promoted to acting head and acting deputy head of the Particle Physics Division, respectively.

The Particle Physics Division recently got new leadership. Director Pier Oddone promoted Greg Bock as acting division head and Mike Lindgren as acting deputy head.

Bock takes over as division head from Jim Strait who left to work at CERN on the LHC commissioning after four years overseeing the PPD.

Bock's promotion comes on the heels of receiving Scientist III rating for his exceptional management and technical leadership of large scientific projects and programs, including KTeV, NuMI/MINOS, and the PPD.

He had served as deputy head of PPD since 2007.

"Greg already knows how to do the job, since I abandoned him for a number of extended absences," Strait said. "I always wondered whether people would really want me back after seeing how well Greg did things!"

Lindgren will fill Bock's shoes as deputy head while still retaining his position as CDF department head, which he has held since 2005.

"While I was Division Head, I sought Mike's advice on numerous occasions - and sometimes got advice from him whether I wanted it or not," Strait said. "I essentially always followed his advice, and things went well as a result."

The vast knowledge of the laboratory held by Bock and Lindgren will aid the PPD as it moves forward to meet the recommendations of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, which favors U.S. research in the energy, intensity and cosmic frontiers, including an expanded accelerator program and neutrino research through NOvA.

Both men have shown dedication and flexibility helping keep the Fermilab PPD program healthy during six months of furloughs, retirements and layoff fears brought on by a budget cut In FY2008, which was restored in July.

"Greg and Mike are both exceptionally talented leaders and managers, who will do a splendid job of running the Particle Physics Division," Strait said.

-- Tona Kunz

DOE environmental documents available on $278 million NOvA project

From DOE press release,
Aug. 29, 2008

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has completed its environmental review of the $278 million NOvA project at its Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL and at a site in St. Louis County, MN, near the U.S.-Canadian border. The Environmental Assessment and the accompanying Finding of No Significant Impact are available to interested citizens.

Read more (pdf file)

LHC finally gets ready for action

From Physicsworld.com,
Sept. 1, 2008

After nigh-on three decades, scientists at the CERN laboratory near Geneva are on the verge of completing the world’s most powerful particle collider. With all of the 1600 superconducting magnets that will be used to guide protons around the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) having been cooled to 1.9 K, the machine is finally ready to start circulating the first proton beams around its 27 km circumference underground ring.

At 9.30 a.m. local time on 10 September, a team of scientists and engineers will attempt to thread a single, low-intensity bunch of a few billion protons all the way round the €76.3 bn LHC. On the day itself, some 200 journalists from all over the world will be present at CERN to watch events unfold, with live footage of the control room set to be relayed into the lab’s science and innovation “globe”.

The beam will then be passed step by step through each of the LHC’s eight sectors until, by the end of the day, the beam should be fully circulating. After repeating the exercise for protons travelling in the opposite direction around the ring, which could take a further day or so, engineers will then tune the collider’s magnets so that the protons can circulate happily for periods of hours without veering off course.

At some point this autumn, strong focusing magnets will bring the two counter-rotating beams into collision at the LHC’s four interaction points, where the collider’s main experiments are located. If all goes to plan, the LHC will be providing proton–proton collisions at energies of 10 TeV by the end of the year, with a target of 14 TeV by spring next year. Then the real fun starts and the quest to peel back the next layer of nature can begin.

Start-up fever

With the world watching the switch-on — even Fermilab in the US will be having a pyjama party to celebrate, with director Pier Oddone allegedly planning to turn up in full nightwear — a lot is riding on a successful day’s work on 10 September.

Read more