Former employee part of space shuttle crew Former Laboratory employee John L. Phillips, who had worked in Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1) until chosen for the astronaut program, is part of a crew of astronauts scheduled to begin an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. Phillips is part of a seven-person Space Shuttle Endeavour crew that is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:41 p.m. MDT this afternoon. This flight will be the ninth shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station. The crew will deliver and install a Canadian-built robotic arm, the Raffaello Multi-purpose Logistics Module, onto the station. The crew is scheduled to take at least two space walks to install the robotic arm, which also is known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System. This robotic system will play a key role in space station assembly and maintenance, moving equipment and supplies around the station, releasing and capturing satellites, supporting astronauts working in space and servicing instruments and other payloads attached to the space station. Phillips, who turned 50 on Sunday, came to the Laboratory as a J. Robert Oppenheimer postdoctoral fellow in 1987. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972 with bachelor's degrees in math and Russian. He earned his master's degree in aeronautical systems from the University of West Florida in 1974 and went on to earn a master's degree in geophysics and space science from University of California, Los Angeles, in 1984 and a doctoral degree in those subjects from UCLA in 1987. While at UCLA, Phillips carried out research involving observations by the NASA Pioneer Venus Spacecraft. At the Laboratory, he performed research on the sun and on space environment. He was the principal investigator for the Solar Wind Plasma Experiment aboard the Ulysses Spacecraft as it executed a unique trajectory over the poles of the sun. Phillips was chosen by NASA (see Newsbulletin article on the World Wide Web at http://newsbulletin.lanl.gov/pdfs/weeklynews/062196.pdf (Adobe Acrobat required) in April 1996 along with fellow Laboratory employee Don Pettit of Energy and Process Engineering (ESA-EPE). He reported to the Johnson Space Center in August of that year. Phillips has been a Navy reservist since 1982, serving as an A-7 pilot and in a variety of nonflying assignments as well. He has logged more than 4,300 flight hours and 250 carrier landings. Currently he is a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve. --Steve Sandoval and Judy Goldie BUS employee to receive New Mexico Distiguished Public Service award Carol Smith of Materials Management (BUS-4) has been chosen to receive a New Mexico Distinguished Public Service award for 2001. Smith was chosen to receive the award in the federal agencies and national laboratories category. Smith was nominated for the award by Mary Van Eeckhout, also of BUS-4 and coordinator of the Lab's Welfare to Work program. Smith has been instrumental in the success of the Lab's Bridge to Employment program, which provides on-the-job training and experience for people who have been receiving public assistance. The program has been so successful at Los Alamos that several other Lab organizations now are participating in the Bridge to Employment program, Van Eeckhout wrote in her nomination submission to the New Mexico Public Service Awards Council. "I am quite honored to have been nominated and to receive this award," said Smith. "There are many people at Los Alamos who have worked hard to ensure the success of our Bridge to Employment program and I share this award with them." Smith is BUS-4 group leader, managing a 120-employee warehouse, a gas plant, the Lab's mail services team, the compliance operations of the packaging and transportation of hazardous and radioactive waste and the movement of special nuclear materials at the Laboratory. Smith also went out of her way to ensure that schools in Mora, Española and Chama had all the peripheral equipment they needed to use computers the Lab donated to schools in those communities. "When schools in Mora, Chama and Española called the Laboratory with a request to deliver computers to their schools, Carol stepped forward and provided the manpower and equipment to get the job done," Van Eeckhout wrote. "Although Carol did not drive the delivery truck, she did ride along to [ensure] that the computers were carefully delivered and installed." Dennis Roybal, the Lab's deputy director in the Business Operations (BUS) Division, also spoke highly of Smith. "I have had the pleasure of working with Carol for [more than] 15 years and she has always shown exceptional vision and commitment to improving the lives of her coworkers," Roybal wrote. "Carol's philanthropic outlook and determination to help Northern New Mexico mothers and fathers become self sufficient and productive members of our society exemplifies Carol's demonstrated high degree of skill and professionalism." In addition to the Bridge to Employment program, Van Eeckhout lauded Smith for her work in local communities, including working with Santa Clara and Pojoaque pueblos in developing childcare options at the pueblos; her insight and sensitivity to issues involving the improvement of business relationships for minority businesses; and for speaking and promoting the Bridge to Employment program to service organizations. Van Eeckhout also spoke about how Smith and her husband maintain a large aquarium at a local nursing home for the enjoyment of residents. Winners of the 32nd New Mexico Distinguished Public Service awards will be recognized at a reception and dinner May 18 in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Albuquerque. At the banquet, Gov. Gary Johnson will present the recipients with a plaque and silver lapel pin. Since the award program's inception in 1969, more than 300 New Mexicans have been recognized for service to the state in one of four categories: federal agencies and national laboratories; state agencies and universities; local and Indian governments; and business and civic organizations. Smith joins former Laboratory Director Sig Hecker, Government Relations (GRO) Office Director Karl Braithwaite, Teresa Trujillo of the Business Operations Division (BUS) and former Education Programs Office manager Dennis Gill as Lab recipients of a New Mexico Distinguished Public Service award. Smith came to the Lab in 1981 in the former Materials Management (MAT) Division. She has a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from Wayne State University. --Steve Sandoval Trash it, but, don't just trash it Toxic waste is something generally thought of as being somewhere else. But it can be under your sink, in the garage, in bathrooms and many other places we don't generally think of. The Laboratory, in collaboration with Duratek Federal Services Inc., is sponsoring Household Hazardous Waste Collection day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in Española. On this day, Española residents can take all their potentially bad stuff to the Española Transfer Station off Fairview Lane for collection and proper disposal. Household hazardous waste includes opened cans of paint, oven and drain cleaners, metal polishes and rust removers, aerosols and pesticides. Other household hazardous waste includes metal polishes, nail polish remover, fertilizers, weed killers, insecticides, automotive antifreeze, wood preservatives and batteries. "It is anything you have at home to do what some commercials call the 'tough' jobs. The problem is they burn easily, corrode metals, irritate the skin, explode and poison living things," according to Therese Trujillo of Facilities and Waste Operations (FWO-SWO). Explosives, biomedical wastes, propane containers, radioactive wastes or any commercial waste won't be accepted at the transfer station. For more information, contact the city of Española's Public Works Department at (505) 753-6880. --John Bass
Supercomputing Challenge poster session to be held next Wednesday More than 150 high school students from throughout New Mexico will be at Los Alamos next Tuesday and Wednesday for the 11th annual New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge Awards Day activities. The goal of the year-long event is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science in high school students, their families and communities. Any New Mexico high school student in grades 9 through 12 is eligible to enter the Supercomputing Challenge. Laboratory personnel can visit the Santa Clara Gallery on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center between 9 and 10 a.m. Wednesday to view posters students designed that describe their computing project, according to David Kratzer of Computing (CCN-7) and Eric Ovaska of Customer Service (IM-2), coordinators of the supercomputing challenge. Student projects will be recognized during the awards ceremony that follows the poster session from 10 a.m. to noon, also in the Santa Clara Gallery. After the awards ceremony on Wednesday, students will take part in tours, talks and demonstrations with Laboratory technical staff members. The Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former Los Alamos Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, president of New Mexico Technet Inc., a nonprofit company that in 1985 set up a computer network to link the state's national laboratories, universities, state government and some private companies. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and John Rollwagen, then chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Research Inc., added their support. More information on the New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge, include a list of student projects, can be found at http://www.challenge.nm.org online. --Steve Sandoval
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