Thursday, February 24
12:00 p.m. E-Week: The Grid for Engineers - One West
Speaker: Ruth Pordes
3:00 p.m. E-Week: Director's Talk to Engineers and All Engineers Picture - One West
Speaker: Mike Witherell
2:30 p.m. Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: L. Everett, University of Florida, Gainesville
Title: Neutrino Mixing from the Top-Down and the
Bottom-Up
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND
TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY
Friday, February 25
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m. Joint Experimental Theoretical Physics Seminar - 1 West
Speaker: D. Litvintsev, Fermilab
Title: Status of Pentaquark Searches
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Thursday, February 24
Southwestern Chicken Tortilla Soup
Philly Style Cheese Steak $4.75
Baked Fish w/ Roasted Leeks and Peppers $3.75
Tomato Basicl Chicken Parmesan $3.75
Classic Cuban Panini $4.75
Four Cheese Pizza $2.75
Marinated Grilled Chicken Caesar Salads $4.75
The Wilson Hall Cafe now accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover and
American Express at Cash Register #1.
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
Chez Leon
will reopen starting Wednesday, March 2. Call x4512 to make your
reservation.
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Local College Students Work and Learn at Fermilab
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Michael Pogwizd (left), Marsela Jorgolli, and Jameson Gill are doing
research at DZero under Pushpa Bhat. (Click on image for larger version.) |
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While Fermilab attracts physicists from places as far away as Germany and Japan,
the lab also has programs aimed at students from local colleges. Pushpa Bhat,
a DZero scientist in Fermilab's Accelerator Division, for example, has
supervised and mentored over two dozen undergraduates through internship programs
sponsored by grants from the National Science Foundation, Federal Work Study
programs and others.
"We specifically want to encourage students from community colleges that don't
have research programs," said Bhat, who is also an adjunct professor at Northern
Illinois University and Florida State University. "Right now, the three students
are searching for second generation lepto-quarks in DZero using advanced multi-
dimensional analysis methods. The students help process data, make plots and look
at event characteristics. The detectors are very complex and take time to
understand, but it's a good hands-on experience on how research is done."
Michael Pogwizd, a sophomore in physics at the College of DuPage, has worked at
Fermilab since December. "In particle physics, you have to be very precise because
there are a lot of different types of events in the data collection," he said.
"You have to know how to look at the data, and patience is very important."
Marsela Jorgolli, also a sophomore in physics at the College of DuPage, began
working at Fermilab in January. "I've learned more about the physical concepts
behind the data, computer simulations and the UNIX system, which we use a lot."
The third student,
Jameson Gill, a junior in math and computer science at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, has been working at Fermilab for a little over a year, helping
with modeling, simulation and analysis.
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E-Week Today: Grids for Engineers
The Computing Division's Ruth Pordes will present today's E-week featured
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Ed Crumpley talks
about Fermilab
architecture with
photographs of
Fermilab pioneers at
yesterday's E-Week
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talk, "The Grid for Engineers," at noon in One West. Pordes will present
some of the development and directions for Grids of interest and potential
benefit to engineers.
The Director's talk to all engineers will be held at 3:00 p.m. today in One
West and will be immediately followed by an all engineers picture in the atrium.
A social recognition for all engineers will follow at Kuhn Barn.
more information
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From the Daily Herald, February 23, 2005
Fermilab looking to trim staff
By Tona Kunz
Fermilab will ask some staff to voluntarily leave and will close the door on one experiment to mitigate budget shortfalls.
But officials will keep another two dozen experiments and projects running as well as public tours and the hands-on science museum.
"For about the last six years we've had what could be called flat funding, and at some point you have to make an adjustment to that," said spokesman Mike Perricone.
The high-energy physics laboratory on the eastern edge of Batavia plans within the next two weeks to start offering early retirement to its 2,100 full-time staff. At least 90 people, or 5 percent of the work force, need to take advantage of the offer or lab officials will consider layoffs.
read more
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Using Muons to See the Microcosm
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This dimuon mass spectrum demonstrates the
strength and physics potential of the DZero detector. (Click on image
for larger version.) |
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At DZero we are studying and searching for very rare particles, made in
proton-antiproton
collisions. However, these particles live for such a tiny fraction of a second
that we can never directly observe them, but have to reconstruct them from
their decay products.
In fact, of all the particles we know, relatively few survive long enough
to be measured directly. Among those we can detect are muons, which are a heavier
relative of the electron. Muons lose energy relatively slowly, and are generally
the only detectable particle to pass all the way through our experiment without
stopping. For this reason we have specialized muon detectors on the outer
edge of the experiment, which provide an unambiguous and low background
identification of muons.
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Raimund Stroehmur (left) and Pieter van den Berg (right) have worked on the
software used to identify muons. |
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Several types of particles decay to two muons, and by measuring both it is
possible to reconstruct the mass and properties of those particles (see
mass spectrum). At high mass, we see the Z boson and
searches are going on for previously unknown particles which are even heavier.
Muons can also be among the decay products of the heaviest known particle,
the top quark. The Tevatron is currently the only place capable of producing
the top quark, and the muon detectors are a good way of identifying and studying
top candidates. Similarly, measurements of the second heaviest quark, the bottom,
rely heavily on muon identification. Overall, the outstanding design and
performance of the muon detectors at DZero have made it possible to produce
world-class physics results.
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(From left) Dmitri Denisov (Fermilab), Alexei Ferapontov
(IHEP), Gavin Hesketh (Northeastern University), Rob Harrington (Northeastern
University), Dennis Shpakov (Northeastern University), Linda Stutte (Fermilab)
and Fred Bartlett (Fermilab)
have all worked on the muon system used to identify muons in the detector. (Click on image for larger version.) |
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Result of the Week Archive
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Yesterday's article "Fermilab Awards Safety Plaques and Posters," incorrectly
implied that Dave Carlson is associated with the Accelerator Division's Business Services.
Carlson is the head of the Business Services Section, which is not part of
the Accelerator Division. The article also stated a wrong number for the hours
of work performed by the Computing Division.
Director Mike Witherell presented the Computing Division with an award for
the best sustained safety performance for working nearly a million and
a half hours since their last lost time accident.
The article "E-Week Today: Architecture and Science," also in yesterday's issue,
featured a photo of Curt Danner, Maurice Ball and Sten Hansen. The photo caption
incorrectly stated that Curt Danner is an Electrical Engineer in the Particle
Physics Division. Danner is a Technical Specialist in the PPD Electrical Engineering
Department.
Fermilab Today regrets these errors.
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International Folk Dancing
International Folk Dancing will continue to be held once more,
on February 24, at the Geneva American Legion Post at 7:30 p.m.
There will no dancing next week, March 3, but then dancing will resume
at Kuhn Barn beginning with a "Back to the Barn and Anniversary Party"
on March 10. Info at 630-584-0825
or 630-840-8194 or folkdance@fnal.gov.
Tai Chi Classes
Tai Chi classes will be held in the exercise room or gymnasium of the
Recreation Facility on Friday mornings, beginning March 4 through
April 22 from 6:30 AM - 7:15 AM. Classes will be conducted by an
instructor from New Body Health & Fitness, Inc. in Geneva. The cost for this
8-week sesson is $60.00. The deadline to register is February 28.
You must be a current Recreation Facility member to participate.
more information
Upcoming Activities
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