Fermilab Today Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009
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Wednesday, Feb. 4
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: John A. Rogers, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Title: Materials for Stretchable Electronics - Electronic Eyeballs, Brain Monitors and Other Applications

Thursday, Feb. 5
11:30 a.m.
Special Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II (NOTE DATE and TIME)
Speaker: Federica Bianco, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Title: Chasing Shadows: Occultation Surveys of the Outer Solar System
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Christian Sturm, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Title: Heavy Quark Current Correlators for Precise Quark Masses and Strong Coupling Constant
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Hans Weise, DESY
Title: The European XFEL

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Sunny
10°/1°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, Feb. 4
- Portabello harvest grain
- Smart cuisine: Santa Fe chicken quesadilla
- Hoisin chicken
- Smart cuisine: parmesan fish
- Cuban panini
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Pesto shrimp linguini w/leeks & tomatoes

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Feb. 4
Lunch
- Grilled pork loin with braised red cabbage and wild mushrooms
- Baked stuffed apples

Thursday, Feb. 5
Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Fermilab Today
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www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Feature

Brazil honors Fermilab's

Roy Rubinstein

Roy Rubinstein holds an award given to him by the Rio de Janeiro State University

In the 1980s, theoretical physicists called Brazil home, but the country lacked a foothold in experimental physics programs.

Fast forward a little more than two decades and Brazil has a strong contingent of researchers at CERN on the CMS experiment and at Fermilab on the DZero, MINOS and Minerva experiments and in a related research field has built its own synchrotron light source.

A key player in this inclusion is Roy Rubinstein, who oversaw a bid launched by then-Fermilab Director Leon Lederman to bring Latin American countries into the fold of high-energy physics experiments by training them at Fermilab. The expense of building the cutting-edge tools used in HEP research had deterred Brazilian-based research.

To show its appreciation, the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), gave Rubinstein a life-time achievement award Jan. 21 in an elaborate ceremony in Brazil.

Prof. Ricardo Vieiralves de Castro, president of the University Council that oversees the award selection, said when speaking to Rubinstein, it was "a great honor for this house to have you as a member, considering your important work for the development of human knowledge and, in particular for physics development."

In 1983 Rubinstein helped bring the first physicists from Brazil to Fermilab. Their leader was Alberto Santoro, now a senior physics professor at UERJ, who also took part in the award ceremony. The number of Brazilain physicists collaborating on experiments at Fermilab has grown to almost 50. Of the seven Latin American countries that have experimenters at Fermilab, Brazil has the most people from the greatest number of institutions.

Rubinstein has helped researchers from all of the participating Latin American countries transition to working at Fermilab, including through finding receptive experiments and securing initial funding.

"It was only after a few years that their governments realized they had good scientists and that Fermilab and the world thought they had good scientists," Rubinstein said. "Then their governments started funding them because they recognized they had scientists who could do world-class research."

-- Tona Kunz

Feature

Experience the Dixie Hummingbirds, Feb. 14

Members of the Dixie Hummingbirds.

Journey through America's music history on Saturday, Feb. 14, with the Dixie Hummingbirds, a Grammy-winning group with gospel roots and an evolving sound and membership.

Often called a national treasure, the Dixie Hummingbirds have wowed Americans with their music since the 1920s. By 1942, the Dixie Hummingbirds were delighting audiences at Cafe Society, New York's first integrated nightclub, backed by legendary jazz saxophonist Lester Young. In the 1950s, they routinely brought down the house at the Apollo Theater. The group broke into popular consciousness in 1966 when they prompted a standing ovation at the Newport Folk Festival. Still greater fame was in store in 1973, when they backed Paul Simon on his smash hit "Loves Me Like a Rock." The Birds' own rendition of the tune won them a Grammy in 1974.

Don't miss the Dixie Hummingbirds performance at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 in Fermilab's Ramsey Auditorium. Tickets are $25/$13 for ages 18 and under. For more information or for reservations, call 630/840-ARTS (2787) weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. At other times an answering machine will give you information and a means of placing ticket orders. Visit our Web site at www.fnal.gov/culture.

In the News

CERN unveils computer grid linking 7,000 scientists

From Canada.com, Feb. 3, 2009

CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory and creator of the Worldwide Web, on Friday unveiled a new computer network allowing thousands of scientists around the world to crunch data on its huge experiments.

Some 7,000 scientists in 33 countries are now linked through the computing network at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to analyze data from its particle-smashing test probing the nature of matter that began last month.

That experiment, which could provide clues about the origins of the universe, began on September 10 and was shut down nine days later because of a helium leak in the 27 km (17 mile) tunnel of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

When it starts up again next year, physicists involved in the experiment will have access to real-time data on their desktops, thanks to CERN's computing grid that links more than 100,000 processors at 140 institutes around the world.

Read more

From the Accelerator Physics Center

R&D for a muon accelerator

Alan Bross, group leader in the Fermilab Accelerator Physics Center and co-spokesperson of the Neutrino Factory and Muon Collider Collaboration, wrote this week's column.

Alan Bross works in the MuCool Test Area

When he first heard of the discovery of the muon in 1936, Isidor Rabi, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, asked, "Who ordered that?" At the time, the muon didn't fit into physicists' understanding of the subatomic world. Today we appreciate the important role that the muon plays in the Standard Model of particles and forces, and accelerator facilities around the world produce muons for experiments.

More and better experiments could be done if we can figure out how to create ultra-intense beams of muons and how to accelerate them. The applications are numerous. They include the search for lepton flavor violating processes, such as the decay of a muon into an electron and a photon, and the construction of a high-intensity muon accelerator that would drive a neutrino factory, the ultimate facility for studying neutrino mixing. Another application involves plans for an energy frontier muon collider that would smash positively and negatively charged muons into each other at energies that could exceed those of the most powerful electron-positron collider.

The members of the international Neutrino Factory and Muon Collider Collaboration are in full pursuit of these ideas. Comprised of scientists from Europe, Japan and the United States, the NFMCC is developing the concepts and technologies needed to produce and manipulate ultra-intense beams of muons.

The feasibility of a muon accelerator hinges on a technique known as muon ionization cooling. Working with members of the Fermilab Accelerator Division and the Particle Physics Division, the Fermilab NFMCC group carries out experiments on two important components necessary for muon ionization cooling: high-gradient, normal-conducting RF cavities and liquid-hydrogen absorbers. Our experiments take place at Fermilab's MuCool Test Area, located near the southern end of the Linac.

This spring, we will begin our first experiments using a proton beam extracted from the Linac, which will allow us to investigate how high-intensity particle beams affect those cavities and absorbers.

The Fermilab NFMCC group also participates in the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the U.K. When fully operational, MICE will be the first experiment to demonstrate muon ionization cooling with a beam of muons. Fermilab has provided diagnostic tools for the MICE muon beam line and detector components for the MICE spectrometers.

We are also involved in the International Design Study for a Neutrino Factory where Fermilab's NFMCC group studies the front end of the neutrino factory and parts of the muon acceleration system. We are also investigating the feasibility of a low-energy neutrino factory and its corresponding neutrino detector.

There are still many challenges that we need to overcome before we have the technology to build a neutrino factory or a muon collider, but step by step, we are moving closer to our goal.

Safety Update

ES&H weekly report, Feb. 3

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, includes three incidents, one first-aid case and two recordable cases. The first recordable case involved an employee who suffered a laceration serious enough to require six sutures. The second reportable injury was to a service subcontractor who fell while trying to access a vehicle and was rendered unconsious. We have worked four days since the last recordable injury. Find the full report here.

Safety report archive

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Fermilab Blood Drive Feb. 17 & 18

Have a safe day!

Discount Tickets: Disney On Ice Presents Worlds of Fantasy

Daycamp information and registration

English Country Dancing, Feb. 1

Child Care program available

Muscle Toning Classes - Feb.3

Outlook 2007 New Features classes scheduled Feb. 3 and 26

PowerPoint 2007: New Features class offered Feb. 3

Word 2007: New Features class Feb. 4

Excel 2007: New Features class Feb. 4

Nominations requested for job profiles

Barn Dance Feb. 8

Bulgarian Dance Workshop, Feb. 12

Barn Dance Feb. 15

Kyuki Do Classes - Feb. 16

Facilitating Meetings That Work class offered Feb. 16

Discount Tickets to Smucker's Stars On Ice - Feb. 21

Discount Tickets: World's Toughest Rodeo Presents Toughest Cowboy - Feb. 21

Conflict Management & Negotiation Skills class offered Apr.1

Interpersonal Communication Skills class being offered Apr. 8

 
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