5 budget 6 university close-up: over future funding for

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Volume 21 Friday, February 20, 1998 Number 4 by Sharon Butler, Office of Public Affairs With budget surpluses on the horizon for the first time since Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon (as the New York Times noted), members of the scientific community met in Washington to hear how the field of physics might fare when the nation’s red ink turns to black. At URA’s Council of Presidents Annual Meeting Cautious Optimism Over Future Funding for Science Congressional representatives and Administration officials address policy forum. continued on page 2 f INSIDE 5 Budget 6 University Close-up: Boston Universities 9 Awards 10 Accelerator Update Representatives of URA’s 87 member universities attended the organization’s annual meeting and policy forum. At the annual meeting and policy forum of the Universities Research Association, Inc., which oversees the operation of Fermilab, congressional representatives and Clinton Administration officials briefed URA members on future budget scenarios and on proposals in the Senate to double the funding for science.

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Page 1: 5 Budget 6 University Close-up: Over Future Funding for

Volume 21 Friday, February 20, 1998 Number 4

by Sharon Butler, Office of Public AffairsWith budget surpluses on the horizon for

the first time since Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon (as the New York Times noted),members of the scientific community met inWashington to hear how the field of physicsmight fare when the nation’s red ink turns to black.

At URA’s Council of Presidents Annual Meeting

Cautious OptimismOver Future Fundingfor ScienceCongressional representatives and Administration officials address policy forum.

continued on page 2

fINSIDE

5 Budget

6 UniversityClose-up:Boston Universities

9 Awards

10 Accelerator Update

Representatives ofURA’s 87 memberuniversities attendedthe organization’sannual meeting andpolicy forum.

At the annual meeting and policy forum of the Universities Research Association, Inc.,which oversees the operation of Fermilab,congressional representatives and ClintonAdministration officials briefed URA memberson future budget scenarios and on proposals inthe Senate to double the funding for science.

Page 2: 5 Budget 6 University Close-up: Over Future Funding for

FermiNews February 20, 19982

Just two nights before, the President’s Stateof the Union address had left the impressionthat science’s day had finally arrived, but themood at the URA meeting was more reserved.Administration officials were pleased with whatthey had to offer researchers in fiscal year 1999, but cautioned the assembled physicists,university chancellors, deans, vice presidents and provosts not to become complacent.

The day-long meeting on the eve of therelease of the Administration’s budget includedURA business items for the representatives ofthe 87 member universities. On the agendawere reports from URA President FredBernthal; Fermilab Director John Peoples; thespokesperson for the Pierre Auger ObservatoryProject, James Cronin; Chair of the URA Boardof Trustees Joe Wyatt; and Chair of theFermilab Board of Overseers John McTague.The group adopted several resolutions with achorus of “ayes” and formally elected WayneState University a new member.

But the policy discussion was the maindraw, as scientists wondered whether any of thepredicted budget surpluses would be slated forresearch—more specifically, for particle physicsresearch. With both Republicans and Democrats

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addressing the forum in the wood-paneledLecture Room of the National Academy ofSciences, the URA gathering had a sneakpreview of the political wrangling that wouldgreet the President’s budget proposal in thedays to come.

The speakers included John Gibbons,assistant to the President for Science andTechnology; Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), cosponsor of the NationalResearch Investment Act (S. 1305);Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Committeeon Science; and Martha Krebs, director of the Office of Energy Research in the U.S.Department of Energy.

Administration optimisticGibbons said he was elated that this was

the first mention ever of the National ScienceFoundation in a President’s State of the Union address.

Referring to the projection of budgetsurpluses as “this extraordinary change inevents,” Gibbons said he believed that thenation could now “begin to focus more on those investments that in turn will meancontinued economic growth and progress in the coming decade.” These investments, he said, included education, research andinfrastructure.

Future Fundingcontinued from page 1

URA President FredBernthal addresses theCouncil of PresidentsAnnual Meeting.

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FermiNews February 20, 1998 3

John Gibbons,assistant to thePresident for Scienceand Technology, saidCongress should notjudge science fromthe “input side”—the amount ofmoney allocated tothe enterprise—butfrom the “outputside.” Investment inscience, he says,brings enormousrates of return.On February 13,Gibbons announcedhis retirement.

Martha Krebs,director of DOE’sOffice of EnergyResearch, saidpriority projects forDOE for the nextyear include U.S.participation in thebuilding of CERN’sLarge HadronCollider.

continued on page 4

Krebs said she was more optimistic aboutprospects for science funding than she hadbeen in years. The budget, released onFebruary 2, requested $2.7 billion for DOE’sEnergy Research programs, an increase of$246 million, or 10 percent, over the 1998level. (See accompanying article on theAdministration’s proposed budget for DOE for fiscal year 1999.)

Krebs listed several priority projects for DOE—including U.S. participation inconstructing elements of the Large HadronCollider—where DOE needed to demonstratecommitment, accountability and soundmanagement. “Delivery on the LHC,” Krebs said, “is crucial to the future of high-energy physics.”

Authorizations, not necessarilyappropriations

The optimism of the Administration wasreflected in Lieberman’s presentation. “With a budget agreement last year and the realprospect in the near term of a surplus in thefederal budget, we have entered a new era inAmerican politics,” Lieberman said.

“...Basic research is not a luxury; it’s anecessity,” he added, preaching to an audienceof the converted on the merits of funding forscience.

According to Lieberman, federal supportfor research and development was roughly 2.2 percent of the gross domestic product in1965; as of last year, that figure had droppedto .8 percent.

“Some recent projections indicate thatnondefense federal R&D spending will declineanother 14 percent by the year 2000 if currenttrends continue,” Lieberman said. “That’s onetrend of the 1990s that we cannot afford tolinger over and muse about. We need to actnow.”

Lieberman, along with Senators PhilGramm (R-Tex.), Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.)and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has proposed theNational Research Investment Act of 1998,which would double the federal investment inbasic scientific, medical and precompetitiveengineering research from $34 billion in fiscalyear 1998 to $68 billion in 10 years.

“There is money on the table,” saidLieberman in answer to a question, “and wecan make an argument for [supporting science]in terms of education, economic opportunityand quality of life.” While he agreed that basicresearch in areas such as high-energy physicswas more difficult to sell to the public, he saidhe believed that “we have turned that corner.”“The best thing for pure science,” he said, “is to lie low and go along.”

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FermiNews February 20, 19984

Future Fundingcontinued from page 3

Representative James Sensenbrenner warnsthat authorizations in Congress do notnecessarily mean appropriations.

Senator Joseph Lieberman has proposeddoubling the budget for basic scientific,medical and precompetitive engineeringresearch over the next 10 years.

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“…New money

must be

justified

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coherent,

long-term

science policy….”

~RepresentativeJames Sensenbrenner

While Lieberman claimed “growing, broad and bipartisan support in the Senate” for S. 1305 and endorsement among Houseleaders of at least the concept of increasedfederal funding for science, Sensenbrenner was far more reserved. S. 1305, he said, was“putting the cart before the horse.” He madeit clear he would not countenance any“return...to the bad old days when scienceauthorization simply increased spending foreach account by 10 percent every year.”

“While I support increasing the federalbudget for science,” Sensenbrenner said, “I believe that new money must be justifiedwith a coherent, long-term science policy that is consistent with the need for a balancedbudget.”

Because appropriations do not necessarilyfollow authorizations approved by Congress,proposals similar to S. 1305 have notsucceeded in the past, the Congressmanpointed out.

“The authorizations,” Sensenbrenner said,“had no credibility with the appropriators, andscience was sent to the end of the discretionaryspending line where it had to fight for fundingscraps.”

Sensenbrenner said he did “not intend to let this happen again.” But he demandedfrom the assembled physicists and universityadministrators a “credible science policy thatjustifies increased funding and sustains it over time.”

Sensenbrenner was equally critical ofPresident Clinton’s State of the Union address.While he was pleased that the President had“joined the Congress in recognizing the needto adequately invest in scientific research,” hesaid his “optimism [was] tempered by the factthat President Clinton acknowledged the needto invest in a lot of programs.... PresidentClinton’s rather vague reference to doublingthe budget for three scientific institutionsleaves many questions unanswered: How longwill it take to double those budgets? Wherewill we get the money? Will other scienceaccounts suffer as a result?”

And with those words, the budget battlelines were clearly drawn right there in theLecture Room of the National Academy ofScience, presaging the full-scale tug-of-war thaterupted a few days later when the Presidentformally delivered his budget request to Capitol Hill. ■

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On the minus side, Laboratoryexpenses will increase. Fermilabemployees who have been busy designingand building the Main Injector will beneeded to operate Run II. The basebudget will have to increase by roughly$8 million to cover their salaries, whichwere previously paid from Main Injectorproject funds. With accelerators turnedback on, next year’s power costs will rise by $7 million over this year’s bill.Inflation, while not as great as in previousyears, will also increase costs. It all addsup to increased expenses of over $20 million.

“Nine million dollars isn’t going tocover it,” says Fermilab Deputy DirectorKen Stanfield.

“This budget request is not a disasterfor Fermilab,” Stanfield said. “But itdoesn’t keep pace with inflation. We willmanage, but it’s going to be extremelytough. We won’t be able to start projectslike MINOS as fast as we had planned.We will have to move more slowly onR&D for future accelerators. We willpostpone the power pole replace-mentthat we know we need to do.”

Still, Fermilab officials said, they see encouraging signs in Washington for all U.S. scientists. In remarks to theUniversities Research Association Council of Presidents last month,Fermilab Director John Peoples praisedincreased support for science in both the Administration and Congress.

“These efforts are very heartening to researchers in a wide range ofdisciplines,” Peoples said. “Just as we strongly support increases in fundingfor biological and medical research, wemust make sure that this rising tide alsolifts astronomy, chemistry and physics.”

If so, by next Ground Hog Day,perhaps prognostications for high-energyphysics funding will look a little lesswintry. ■

FermiNews February 20, 1998 5

Monumental Changein Science Budgets?The Clinton budget request for FY1999 calls for more sciencefunding—but not much more for high-energy physics.

by Judy Jackson, Office of Public AffairsThe Clinton Administration’s

spending plan for FY1999 emerged onGround Hog Day. And for the first timein years, science funding didn’t see itsshadow and dive back underground. Thegood news is that the President’s budgetrequest for basic science research fundingrose by a full eight percent from FY1998levels. More good news: the request forboth the Department of Energy and theNational Science Foundation was up by11 percent. For DOE’s Office of EnergyResearch, which includes the HighEnergy and Nuclear Physics Program, the request called for an increase of 10 percent.

When it came to high-energyphysics, however, the numbers didn’tlook so stratospheric. The FY1999budget request for high-energy physics is $691.0 million, an increase of $11.3 million, or 1.7 percent, from the FY 1998 level of $679.7 million. The request included $65 million forU.S. work on CERN’s Large HadronCollider, as well as $14.3 million forFermilab’s NuMI project and $6.7million for Wilson Hall repairs.

What will the budget request meanfor Fermilab? Well, the results are mixed.For the fiscal year that begins on October1, 1998, Fermilab’s total budget willdecline by about $6 million, from about$260 million in FY1998 to about $254million in FY1999. But constructionfunding for the Main Injector accountedfor $31 million of the FY1998 budget,and the Main Injector project will becomplete in the current fiscal year.

After all the additions andsubtractions, the so-called “base budget”(it pays for everything but construction)for Fermilab in FY1999 will actually riseby slightly over $9 million to $230.5million, to pay for such things as thecontinuing CDF and DZero upgrades,the commissioning and initial operationof the Main Injector, and ongoingLaboratory operations. That’s the plusside of the ledger. Ph

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DOE and NSF $ up a lot

Basic Science $ up substantially

High-EnergyPhysics $ up a little

Fermilab $ not down much

President’s 1999 BudgetRequest

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The physics of high-energy collisionsseemed to be going nowhere during theXVI International Conference on HighEnergy Physics.

A summary report in that areaconcluded: “The rate of progress in thisfield has clearly slowed down in the pastfew years.”

Fittingly, part of that conferenceseemed to be taking place in the middleof nowhere.

“You couldn’t find a goodrestaurant, and there was quite a shortageof motel rooms,” recalls Jack Schneps,then and now of Tufts University.

The time: September 1972. Theplace: a brand-new but dusty facility onthe prairie, the National AcceleratorLaboratory, yet to be renamed Fermilab.The banner event of the conference wasan inaugural walk through theaccelerator’s four-mile tunnel. Schnepswas there at the beginning.

“I remember Robert Wilson(Fermilab’s founding director) was in anexuberant mood, as one would expect,”Schneps recalled. “He said it might be avery long time before anyone got to dothis again. There was no beam yet, so itwas okay for us to walk through.”

FermiNews February 20, 19986

There is still a trace of wonder inSchneps’ memories of the walk.

“We walked past four miles ofmagnets,” he said. “Everything lookednew. It was a very exciting time. And I would say the Lab has lived up to itspotential.”

A quarter-century later, the Lab isupgrading for Run II, with integral rolesfor six universities from this pivotallocation in American history.

Like the inaugural walk through the accelerator, Run II has a particular airof excitement about it, with the highercollision rates of the new Main Injectorpossibly lighting a path to the Higgsboson and physics beyond the StandardModel.

“I don’t want to sound like a used-car salesman,” said MIT’s Gerry Bauer,“but if we learn how to fully exploit thatmachine, and if we get lucky, this couldbe an extremely interesting run. In fact, it has some prospects of being a uniquerun, as the last run was unique in findingthe top quark. It’s not impossible wemight see the Higgs, though it would be very difficult.”

And the future—beyond Run II?Possibly beyond the Higgs? Asking“What if?” is central to any high-energy

physicist’s thinking, but ponderingFermilab’s future is the specific charge ofthe Lab’s Physics Advisory Committeeduring summer meetings in the highaltitudes of Aspen, Colorado (Coloradowas one of the sites originally proposedfor Fermilab). While the PAC alsoconsiders the feasibility of experimentproposals, the annual Aspen meeting hasa future focus—especially important withCERN’s Large Hadron Collider loomingon the not-too-distant horizon.

“We mainly tend to think of thelonger range, the next five to 10 years,”said PAC member Ken Lane of BostonUniversity. “And one of the major issueswe’ve talked about is the question of aRun III. Will the LHC blow us out ofthe water between 2003 and 2007? I think the Committee is very much infavor of a Run III, but it depends onwhat interesting things come out of Run II.”

There are encouraging signs fromWashington, the key to all hopes for thefuture of physics research. RepresentativeJoseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass.), whose8th Congressional District includes theBoston-area universities, is a booster ofincreased funding for the sciences.

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Boston: City of Universities a Critical Link to Fermilab’s Past, Present and Future

The Charles River runs through the Boston-Cambridge area, home of Harvard (above), Boston University, Brandeis University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and Tufts University.

By Mike Perricone, Office of Public Affairs

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FermiNews February 20, 1998 7

Representative Kennedy has formeda bipartisan Research and DevelopmentCaucus aimed at insuring that federalR&D spending continues to grow “at anadequate rate.” The caucus will also beworking with the National BusinessCoalition for Federal Research, organizedby the Greater Boston Chamber ofCommerce. The Coalition worked with the Clinton Administration andcongressional leaders to build support for research funding.

“At a time when advances intechnology play an increasingly importantrole in determining which nations’economies thrive and which do not, theUnited States cannot afford to squanderits competitive advantage in industrieslike technology, communications, andhealth care,” Representative Kennedy saidin a statement. “If the country’s labs slowdown, so will the engine of economicgrowth.”

Still, the next decade at Fermilabvery much depends on “interestingthings,” and as Bauer said, on gettinglucky.

“If God puts that particle there foryou to see, then you’re lucky,” Bauersaid. “Maybe we’ll fall just short of ourgoals—but maybe we’ll go just beyond.There’s some speculation among thetheorists that we’re right at the edge of walking through a new door.”

Boston UniversityTheorist Ken Lane is on the

“road less traveled” toward the Higgs:technicolor, the less-popular brand ofelectroweak symmetry. Technicolorpredicts the appearance of Higgs bosonsnot as elementary point particles but asbound states. The result would be a fifthforce, but as Lane says, “anything thathappens with the Higgs would be a fifthforce.”

At DZero, John Butler and a gradstudent have been joined by Fermilab’sUli Heintz and his wife, Meena Narain,as assistant professor and assistantresearch professor, respectively. They’reworking on the electronics for triggeringmuons, and their emphasis is on studyingthe tagging of b quarks. “One way is tofind muons, and another way is to lookfor b’s decay lengths with high-precisionvertex detectors,” Butler said. “We’retrying to attack from every angle.”

Brandeis UniversityJodi Lamoureux can pay less

attention to the weather now.Lamoureux, postdoc Steve Behrends andthree Brandeis students are responsiblefor temperature control in thephototubes for the calorimeter at CDF.The old device, removed after the lastrun, was a gas calorimeter that had to becorrected for changes in barometricpressure. The Brandeis task then was tostabilize high voltages running through awire.

The replacement is a scintillatorcalorimeter, a plastic array wrapped inaluminum foil. The goal is to have thecollisions’ jet spectra extended to a higher intensity.

“That way we’ll be able to measureelectrons in the calorimeter and in theend plug as well as we do in the centralpart of the detector,” Lamoureux said.“The stability depends on the tempera-ture of the tube. If it’s not stable, theresolution goes down. Now that wedon’t have to worry about storms, it’s a lot easier.”

Brandeis professors Jim Bensinger,Craig Blocker and Larry Kirsch areworking in a wide variety of physics atCDF, including the search for exoticparticles like the Higgs.

Harvard University“Dirty physics” is what Maria

Spiropulu calls it: the search for telltalemissing energy that points to thesupersymmetric partners of quarks andgluons. “Missing energy is the only thingyou see, or don’t see,” she says. “I knowit’s crazy. I am searching for nothing.”

In perhaps a unique view, Spiropulusees supersymmetry as “hugging”previous theories of symmetry.

“That’s the way physics evolves,” shesays. “Something encloses the lastfinding. Every step we take does not saythe previous step was a mistake, butinstead incorporates the previous step.For example, first there was electricity,then magnetism, then electromag-netism—each discovery was incorporatedinto a bigger symmetry. And the end of it, if there is an end, would be theGrand Unified Theory.”

Spiropulu at CDF is part of a 17-member Harvard crew directed byprofessors Melissa Franklin and JohnHuth. The Harvard group is engaged in

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BU’s Ken Lane tackles questions aboutlarger issues (and larger particles) duringthe annual PAC conference in Aspen.

continued on page 8

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Offering the stabilizing influence ofBrandeis University are (from left) Jodi Lamoureux, Dana Partos, Mike Kirkand Hongquan Niu.

Checking in by videoconference with the rest of the team at Harvard are(from left) Andrew Gordon, Robyn Marak and Maria Spiropulu.

Page 8: 5 Budget 6 University Close-up: Over Future Funding for

FermiNews February 20, 19988

available in the Main Injector,” Woodsaid. He and Taka Yasuda also areconcentrating in electroweak physics,assailing the W and Z bosons.

“We hope in Run II to take moreprecise measurements of the W and Z,”Wood said, “to point up the constraintsof the Standard Model and point tosomething beyond. We made the mostsensitive tests of couplings of gaugebosons in the last run, and we hope tocontinue that in the next run.”

Northeastern and BU jointly hostedthe annual DZero workshop in 1996, aweek of physicists getting together tofocus on longer-term issues. “It wasbetween quarters, and we had a couple ofhundred physicists in for the workshop,”Wood recalled. “We basically took over abuilding or two.”

Tufts UniversityThe long-baseline neutrino

oscillation experiment will send beams of neutrinos underground from the Main Injector at Fermilab to the MINOS detector 730 kilometersaway, in a mine in Soudan, Minnesota.

“We’re very deeply involved in it, if you’ll forgive the pun,” said JackSchneps, speaking for the Tuftsdelegation. “The Fermilab beams aremuon neutrinos, and if the muon turnsinto some other kind of neutrino, thenthey have mass and it’s question ofwhether or not they mix. If they havemass, we say this is evidence for physicsbeyond the Standard Model.”

Schneps, Tomas Kafka and BillOliver are searching for the directobservation of the tau neutrino in theE872 “DONUT” experiment. Experi-menters are analyzing data from the firstrun, with the next run slated for 1999.Rick Milburn and Austin Napier areworking on an experiment to examinehundreds of thousands of charm particles, improving the sensitivity ofmeasurements. And Krzysztof (Kris)Sliwa heads up a Tufts team on the CDF upgrade. ■

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Jack Schneps of Tufts was on the four-milewalk when the accelerator was dedicated,and remains active at Fermilab.

a wide array of physics, with AndrewGordon focusing on precisionmeasurements of W mass with Run IBdata; Fotis Ptohos working on the topquark cross section and George Michailworking on B physics and b quarkmixing.

MITThe MIT group is working on

rejection, although filtering might be amore polite term. The Level III triggerwill be the highest authority in siftingthrough the readouts of proton andantiproton collisions at CDF.

“At Levels I and II, the triggers areactually implemented in detectors and siton the detectors,” said Kirsten Tollefson.“Voltage or current goes to electronicboards with computer chips smartenough to say, ‘This is enough energy tomake this event interesting.’ If events arestill interesting, they’re passed on to LevelIII, which is all software and computers.”

MIT has the charge of puttingtogether the Level III triggercomponents and making them work. The approach is a “farm” of 300 to 500PCs, in place of the former mainframecomputers. Right now, the “favored”operating system for the trigger isLINUX, though a formal choice hasn’tbeen made. One unique feature will bethe use of commercial switchingtechnology to organize readouts.

“It’s used in any digital phonesystem or any internet-type packetswitching,” said Gerry Bauer. “High-energy physics often uses its owntechnology, but in this case industry hasthe money to drive the development andwe’re feeding off it. There are enormousdemands for data networking in industry,and that’s good for us.”

Northeastern UniversityAt DZero, where four Northeastern

students have recently earned Ph.D.s,Darien Wood and three postdocs areworking on the readout electronics andon-line software in the muon detectorsystem.

“For Run II, our main purpose willbe to read out the muon detector withmore speed, with the higher luminosity

MIT’s Kirsten Tollefson (left) and Gerry Bauer check on improvements tothe Level III trigger at CDF.

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Darien Wood of Northeastern examinesupgrades in muon detector electronics.

Bostoncontinued from page 7

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FermiNews February 20, 1998 9

Gregg Kobliska and John Carsonhave a combined total of nearly fourdecades of experience at Fermilab. Onthe dipole magnet project for the MainInjector, the key to Run II, they alsocombined to produce more than $3 million in savings.

Kobliska, for his project manage-ment, and Carson, for his toolingdesigns, have been named recipients ofFermilab Employee Recognition Awards.

“They worked on a project whereevery single challenge that could possiblybe cooked up was put in front of us,”said Director John Peoples at a Decem-ber 22 ceremony. “And because of thesetwo gentlemen, we triumphed.”

The Main Injector ring will use 216 six-meter dipoles and 128 four-meterdipoles to guide protons and antiprotonsaround the two-mile ring.

Kobliska, Carson EarnEmployee Awards forDipole Magnet Savings

The award, which includes a financial bonus, is described in theFermilab Personnel Policy Guide as“instituted for outstanding contri-butions to the Laboratory demon-strated by innovation, discovery,extraordinary effort, and/or costreduction in one of the following areas: technical project management,management of major functionalLaboratory areas and scientificallysignificant programmatic contributions.”

For Kobliska and Carson, the correctchoice is “all of the above.”

Carson has taken machine tooling tothe level of art at Fermilab’s TechnicalDivision Engineering and FabricationDepartment.

“Go to any place where super-conducting magnets are made,” saidTechnical Division Head Peter Limon,“and you’ll recognize John Carson’swork. Even if they weren’t built by him,they all have his distinctive features, and I think that’s astonishing.”

In nominating Carson, Main Injectormagnet project manager Gale Pewitt andRecycler magnet project manager DavidHarding noted six specific innovationswhere he increased safety, economy, orboth in building the magnets.

“As a result of his tooling design,”said Pewitt, “we saved about $1 millionover the estimate we had for labor.”

Characteristically, Carson shared the credit.

“I really feel this award is shared byeverybody here,” he said. “You can’t doany of this without managers whosupport what you do, who give you theopportunity to put forth your ideas andmove ahead with them. You can’taccomplish anything without lots of help from other folks....This award isextremely humbling, and I just want tosay ‘Thank you for the recognition.’”

Kobliska, the Technical Division’sMaterial Control Group head, was amajor contributor in setting up Fermilab

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as a general contractor on the project.Assembling the magnets at the Labrepresented only five percent of the totalcosts; the remaining 95 percent was spentwith vendors outside the Lab, as nearby asSkokie and as far away as England.

Pewitt and Harding cited Kobliska’swork in dealing with vendors to meetspecifications and quality requirements,hiring on-site inspectors, monitoring day-to-day activities—and lowering the priceon 15 million pounds of steel. Previously,Fermilab had one vendor supplyingmagnet steel; Kobliska got bids from five companies and lowered the price by $2 million.

Limon cited Kobliska’s efficiency:“Gregg is one of the few managers whoknows the meaning of the word ‘now.’”

“I have a whole department thatunderstands the meaning of the word‘now,’” Kobliska replied. “They’re greatpeople, they solve most problems on theirown, and that allows me the time to doother things that offer potential savings. I appreciate them.”

Kobliska had special thanks for Pewittand Harding, Dixon Bogert and PhilMartin at the Main Injector, Steve Holmesof the Accelerator Division, the businessoffice, Charles Matthews in the machineshop, and past and present TechnicalDivision heads who have encouraged him throughout his career.

“I appreciate the many opportunitiesI’ve been given at the lab,” he concluded.“I’m a very lucky individual.” ■

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By Mike Perricone, Office of Public Affairs

Gregg Kobliska managed to find hugesavings in the construction of MainInjector dipole magnets.

John Carson, who has raised toolingto the level of an art, inspects one ofhis designs.

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10 FermiNews February 20, 1998

By Mike Perricone, Office of Public AffairsThe next time you’re lining up for a

toll booth, cool off a little and think kindly of antiprotons and Paul Derwent.

At your toll booth, the number ofcars on the highway hasn’t changed;they’re packed more densely andfunneled toward the coin basket. Thedenser the crowd at the booth, and themore cars going through, the bigger thepayoff.

Substitute antiprotons for cars and what you have is stochastic (or random)cooling. That’s one of the ways Derwentis upgrading the Antiproton Source inpreparation for Run II and the increasedluminosity of the Tevatron.

“We need lots of collisions, so that means lots of protons and lots ofantiprotons, and a very densely packedbeam,” said Derwent, who made anunusual switch from particle experimentsto beams when he shifted over fromCDF in December 1995.

Derwent Makes Changesat Antiproton Toll Booth

Derwent has the tall, rangy look of a basketball player—with a cast as his credentials. He broke his left wristplaying hoops and faces another monthwith his hand immobilized. But it hasn’tslowed him down in reconfiguring theold Antiproton Source.

“Protons are easy to make,”Derwent explained. “All you need is abottle of hydrogen. Antiprotons are a lotmore difficult to produce. First you haveto make them, and then you have toaccumulate them. And you need high-energy protons to make antiprotons.”

To produce them, acceleratoroperators will circulate protons in theMain Injector, then aim them at a metaltarget. From the results, they will selectparticles with a negative charge and adefining momentum of 9 GeV/c. Thenext step is the Debuncher Ring, wherethe particle pulses are spread out moreevenly along the direction of the wave so that they aren’t clumped or bunched

RunIIUpDateUpgrade

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Paul Derwent(left) examinesa beam pickuparray with AlSondgeroth andDave VanderMuelen (seated)of the BeamsDivision’s PbarSourceDepartment.

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Lunch served from11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

$8/personDinner served at 7 p.m.

$20/person

For reservations, call x4512Cakes for Special Occasions

Dietary RestrictionsContact Tita, x3524

-Lunch

WednesdayFebruary 25

Cheese FondueField Greens Salad with Fresh Herbs

Bananas in Orange Caramel Sauce

DinnerThursday

February 26 Booked

LunchWednesdayMarch 4

Reddened Catfish Filletwith Lime Watercress Sauce

Saffron RiceVegetable Medley

Pecan Pie

DinnerThursdayMarch 5

Grilled Vegetable Salad withPistachio Vinaigrette

Shrimp with Tomato Saffron SauceLemon Pepper PastaArugula Salad with

Creamy Dijon DressingChocolate Orange Cake

-

-

-

-

FermiNews February 20, 1998 11

FEBRUARY 27Fermilab International Film Society presents: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Vittorio De Sica(dir.), Italy (1970). Admission $4, at 8 p.m., Ramsey Auditorium, Wilson Hall.

FEBRUARY 28Fermilab Art Series presents: Caribbean Jazz Project,$20. Performance begins at 8 p.m. in RamseyAuditorium, Wilson Hall. For more information or reservations, call 840-ARTS.

MARCH 3Wellness Works presents: Covert Bailey, Body Fat inAmerica, at 12–12:30 p.m., 1 West.

MARCH 8Barn dance at the Village Barn from 7–10 p.m., withlive music by the Chicago Barn Dance Company.Contra, square, and circle dances. All dances aretaught. All ages and experience levels are welcome.You don’t need to come with a partner. Admission$5. Children under 12 are free. For moreinformation, contact Lynn Garren, x2061, or Dave Harding, x2971.

MARCH 15Barn dance at the Village Barn 2–5 p.m. Contra,square, and circle dances. All dances are taught. All ages and experience levels are welcome. You don’tneed to come with a partner. Admission $5. Childrenunder 12 are free. For more information, contactLynn Garren, x2061, or Dave Harding, x2971.

ONGOINGNALWO coffee mornings, Thursdays, 10 a.m. in the Users’ Center, call Selitha Raja, (630) 305–7769.In the Village Barn, international folk dancing,Thursdays, 7:30–10 p.m., call Mady, (630) 584–0825; Scottish country dancing,Tuesdays, 7–9:30 p.m., call Doug, x8194.

Conversational English classes, 9–11:30 a.m.,Thursdays, Users’ Center.

CALENDAR

May I bring to your attention that the U.S.S.Princeton, referred to in “Twenty-One Tons ofBroken Symmetry” (FermiNews, January 23,1998), was not a “battleship” (not a generic word)but an “Essex” class aircraft carrier and is amongfive now listed as being, at least in part, at Fermilab.Suggest you reference the “Village Crier” (whatFermiNews developed from), vol. 7, no. 14.

As a side note, I served in an air group squadron onthe U.S.S. Philippine Sea, one of the five, duringthe early days of the Korean War (1950–1951) andremember “Essex” class carriers quite well.

Sincerely,

Richard L. Nelson

(Payroll no. 145) Retired

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

in pockets. By the time the particles exit the Debuncher, pions and muons havedecayed. What’s left are the stableantiprotons.

From the Debuncher, the antiprotonsare transferred to the Accumulator Ring,where the individual pulses are pushedtogether into a dense core. The goal is totransfer 100 million antiprotons to theAccumulator in every pulse of 1.5 micro-seconds, with about 2.5 hours required togradually stack up 500 billion antiprotonsin the Accumulator to meet the needs ofthe collider. Various cooling systems,including stochastic cooling and the stack-tail system, slowly build the distribution ofparticles into a dense core.

Antiprotons pay for the use of thefacilities with some of their temperature—temperature being a measure of theiraverage kinetic energy. They receive a“kick” delivered by a signal from one pointon the Accumulator Ring to a diametricallyopposite point along the beam’s path. Thekick keeps them in line, reducing theirtendency to move in directions at tangentsor cross-purposes to the beam path.

Derwent uses computer modeling to test the locations and configurations ofeight beam pickup arrays, plastic-backedcopper panels each with 16 crescent-shapedpickup perforations. The arrays collect thecurrent induced in the wall of the beampipe and produce a single output. Thissignal is amplified and relayed across thediameter of the ring to meet the beam.Another set of pickups reverses theprocess—takes in the single signal anddisperses it to the beam, delivering thekick, focusing the beam and improving itsquality by concentrating the distribution of energy.

The trick is to have the signal reach thebeam pickups concurrently with the beam,which travels at nearly the speed of lightbut on a longer path around the ring.

“You need very precise timing,”Derwent said. “The beam is traveling very close to the speed of light, so onenanosecond (a billionth of a second)represents one foot of the distance traveled,and each pickup (perforation) is only onecentimeter. The timing needs to be keptconstant at a level of 10 picoseconds (10 trillionths of a second).”

Imagine being that fast and accuratewhen you’re slamdunking dimes, and youmay never view a toll booth in the same way again. ■

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FOR SALE■ ’96 Corvette “Collector’s Edition” SebringSilver, black interior, automatic, loaded, very clean,$27,000. Call Jim, x3371 or (815) 729–9072

■ ’94 F150 Ford pickup, 36k miles, extended cab,dual fuel tank, bed liner, a/c, am-fm radio. Excellentcondition, $10,900. Call Debbie, x3045 or (630) 985–2241 (evening).

■ ’94 Mazda B2300 cab +1/2 pickup truck. Clean,31k miles, 5 speeds. Best rational offer. Call Greg, 1–888–896–4204 or (630) 554–2259.

■ Inherited new van, must sell one of thefollowing: ’87 Nissan Maxima, 139K miles, greatcondition, $3,500, or ’88 Plymouth Voyager, 135Kmiles, new tires, great condition, $3,000. ContactJerry, x4571, (630) 801–9408, or [email protected].

■ American Racing Equipment aluminum wheels(4), 15" x 8", with P275/60R15 BF Goodrich T/A radial tires. Fits full-size Chevy truck (5 lugs).Never used in winter. $400. Contact: x4396, (630) 859–8596, or [email protected].

■ ’96 Fishing Boat, Sun Dolphin Pro 110. Length125", width 54", weight 145 lbs. Capacity 461 lbs,and HP rating 15. $550. Call Steve Barath, (630) 554–1922.

■ Keyboard, ergonomic Infogrip BAT chord (left hand) for Macintosh, unused, asking $200. (I bought it because of carpal-tunnel syndrome buthave since recovered.) Original packaging anddocumentation. Contact Dan, (312) 567–3389 [email protected].

■ Digital Camera, New Apple QuickTake 200Color, $200. Call Pete, x4699 or (630) 879–1541.

■ House, 4-bedrm ranch in Batavia, 2 bathrm,large eat-in kitchen, living room, family room, 2-cardetached garage with storage room. Large yardw/mature trees. Geneva schools. Price reduced,must sell, $120,000. Call Peter or Penny, (630) 879–0837 (evenings).

FOR RENT■ Rent w/option to buy. Home in Summerlakes.<1 min. from Fermilab by car. 3 BR, 1-1/2 baths, 2 stories w/attached 1-car garage. LR, DR, kitchen,fireplace, deck, storage, pool & clubhouse privileges,whole house fan, ceiling fans in most rooms, wholehouse humidifier. Freshly painted. Move-incondition. $1,300/mo. with $200/mo. credittoward purchase option @ $127,000 (locked) or$1,200/mo. and $200/mo. credit with floatingpurchase price (determined by market value). Fordetails, contact Henry, x4157, page 0141,[email protected] or (630) 665–2434

Published by the Fermilab Office of Public AffairsMS 206 P.O. Box 500 Batavia, IL 60510630-840-3351ferminews@ fnal.gov

Fermilab is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc.,under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.

✩ U.S. GOVERNMENTPRINTING OFFICE: 1998--646-054/80010

50% TOTAL RECOVERED FIBER

10% POST-CONSUMER FIBER

FermiNews February 20, 199812

C L A S S I F I E D S

M I L E S T O N E SHONORED■ Phil Livdahl (retired), by St. Olaf College. Livdahl, who received the Distinguished Alumniaward, is a former deputy director of Fermilab.

RETIRED■ Filip Johnson, ID 1489, on February 27, from TD/Development and Test.

The deadline for the Friday, March 6, 1998, issue of FermiNews is Tuesday, February 24.

Please send your articlesubmissions, classifiedadvertisements and ideasto the Public AffairsOffice, MS 206 or e-mail [email protected].

FermiNews welcomes letters from readers. Please include yourname and daytimephone number.

LAB NOTES■ The Fermilab Golf League at Phillips Park islooking for players. We play every Thursday nightfrom early May to the end of August. For moreinformation and to sign up, contact Steve Baginski,x3721 or [email protected], or Joe O’Malley, x2504.

■ Reach out to Europe! Host families are neededfor a group of students from Spain (ages 14–18)who will be visiting Naperville from approximatelyJuly 1 to August 1. The students will have twoexcursions a week and their own spending money. It is not necessary to have a teen in the family; someof our best placements have been families withyoung children or no children. Be a part of thisexciting and educational opportunity! For moreinformation, please call: International Education andExchange, Meg Stromberg, Local Coordinator, (630) 778–7366.

FREE■ Tire, BF Goodrich non-radial tire (one only), size F78-14ST. Raised letters, approx. 7/32" treadremaining. Call Henry, x4157, page 0141 or (630) 665–2434.

WANTED■ Commodor 64/128 games, especially “The Train.” Good chance to clean out those closets and crawl spaces. Contact Tom, x6366 [email protected].

■ Enclosed trailer, 5' X 8'; Kodak slide projector;snowblower, 5hp or larger. Call Ed Dijak, x6300 or(630) 665–6674 (after 4 p.m).