Tuesday, April 21, 1998
Miller withdraws his name from deputy director pool
Warren "Pete" Miller, acting deputy Laboratory director for Science, Technology and Programs, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the permanent position of deputy Laboratory director for Science, Technology and Programs. But Miller said he will continue to assist Director John Browne and the successful candidate for the position during a transition period. Considered by many at the Lab to be a leading contender for the position, Miller said, "This was a tough decision since I have really enjoyed working with John over the past six months, helping him establish his administration.
"However, John very much needs someone willing to make a commitment on the order of five years. I have decided that I really do not want to commit that long."
Miller, who has been with the Lab since 1974, has held a number of management
positions, including associate director at large, associate director for
physics and mathematics, associate director for energy programs, associate
director for research and education, director for science and technology
base programs and acting Diversity Office director.
UC Directed Research and Development Program at
the Lab gets new leader
Jim Porter is the new team leader for University of California Coordination in the Science and Technology Based (STB) Program Office. Porter's primary responsibilities include managing the UC Directed Research and Development program and overseeing the annual Laboratorywide science and technology assessment, required by the UC/Department of Energy contract for management of the Lab.
The UCDRD program fosters collaborations between the Laboratory and researchers at the nine UC campuses and four New Mexico institutions (University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Highlands University and New Mexico Technical Institute), using funds derived from the university's management fee that are returned to the Laboratory.
With regard to the Lab's science and technology assessment, Porter will work with the technical divisions in scheduling their annual division-review-committee meetings and prepare the Laboratory's science and technology assessment document that is submitted to UC.
Porter has been with the Laboratory 29 years, most recently in the Quality and Planning (QP) Office, where he was program manager for Laboratory planning. He also has been deputy division leader in both Applied Theoretical and Computational Physics (X) and Munitions (M) divisions, program director for nuclear directed energy weapons, and program manager for vulnerability, lethality, and countermeasures.
Porter will be located in Room D314 of the Administration Building, although for the next six to eight weeks he will split his time between his office in QP (TA-3, Building 456, Room 116) and his new location. His e-mail address is porter@lanl.gov; his phone numbers at QP and STB are 5-0736 and 7-7824, respectively.
Secretaries, administrative professionals recognized
this week
Wednesday is Professional Secretaries Day. The day has been observed since 1952, when Professional Secretaries Week was set aside in June to draw attention to the advantages of an administrative career and to attract individuals to the profession. The Wednesday of that week was designated Secretaries Day to recognize the contributions of secretaries and other administrative professionals. In 1955, Professional Secretaries International, which promotes and sponsors activities for the week, moved the observance to April. For more information, including tips on staying ahead in a changing workplace and suggestions for recognizing the contributions of secretaries and administrative professionals, see PSI's web site on Professional Secretaries Week.
UC treasurer to talk about investment philosophy and strategies
for annuitants
University of California treasurer Patricia Small will give two talks about investment philosophy and strategies for annuitants April 29 in the Otowi Cafeteria side dining rooms at Technical Area 3.
The UC Northern New Mexico Office in Los Alamos is sponsoring Small's talks at 8:10 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Both are open to Lab employees and retirees and the public.
Small will talk about the responsibilities of the UC treasurer, UC's investment objective, philosophy and strategies, and the university's retirement funds. There will be a short question-and-answer period after each talk.
Small manages UC's $38.9 billion retirement fund, $4 billion endowment fund and $4.3 billion short-term investment pool. She also is responsible for UC's banking relationships and the marketing of university revenue bonds. The UC system includes nine campuses, five teaching hospitals, three law schools and three national laboratories, including Los Alamos.
Small, who has been UC treasurer since 1996, has worked for the university since 1972 and belongs to a number of professional financial boards and associations.
For more information, call Sandra Martinez of the UC Northern New Mexico Office at 7-3232. A sign language interpreter will be available at both talks and light refreshments will be served.
--Steve Sandoval
Pay equity: Not only a women's issue
Pay inequity is a family issue, not a women's only issue, according to panelists who spoke Monday at the Laboratory on why women and men of color don't get paid the same as Anglo men and women.
Panelists urged the roughly 40 people who attended the panel discussion in the Jemez Room of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center to write their congressmen and women, vote into office candidates who will advocate for pay equity and work to make employers and community leaders more aware of the issue of pay inequity.
The panel discussion was sponsored by the Lab's Diversity (DV) Office, the Women's Diversity Working Group, the Employee Advisory Council, MANA del Norte, the Los Alamos branch of American Association of University Women and the Business and Professional Women.
Panel members were Carolyn Glen Kaye of the American Association of University Women and public policy chairperson of the AAUW of New Mexico; Berta Rodriguez, president-elect of the New Mexico Business and Professional Women and Sandia National Laboratories employee; former state representative and former national president of AAUW Marjorie Bell Chambers; and Gloria Mirabal of Nuclear Systems Design and Analysis (TSA-10). Mirabal is the immediate past President of MANA del Norte, a chapter of MANA, a national Latina organization that advocates for Hispanic women across the country. Mirabal is currently ex-officio officer on the MANA del Norte Board of Directors.
Chambers noted that women today earn about 73 to 74 cents for every $1 that a man in the same job earns. A nearly lifelong fighter for equal pay, Chambers said the issue isn't new. "Pay inequity goes back to biblical times . . . little has changed since then," said Chambers.
She cited a 1960s study commissioned by President John F. Kennedy's newly created Commission on the Status of Women that noted at that time that women earned 59 cents, on average, for every $1 that a male counterpart earned.
Chambers also noted that some employers felt justified in paying a woman less than a man because they said women required more training, were apt to leave when their spouse took a job in another city, or because women take maternity leave to have children.
More men also belong to unions that can advocate for higher salaries for union members, said Chambers.
"Pay equity most likely will continue to be an issue," said Chambers. "It's a fight we can win, I believe, eventually . . .
"It's a fight I began as a young woman. I'm 75 and I can't say we have narrowed the gap even 10 cents on the dollar," she said.
Chambers also said that women should teach their sons "to understand the issue of equality pertaining to pay."
In response to a question from the audience, Rodriguez of Sandia National Laboratories said fathers, brothers and grandfathers also should learn that pay inequity is a serious issue for women.
Kaye said surveys have shown that pay equity is one of the top two or three issues in the workplace for men as well as women. Men want their spouses to be paid equally, she said. Unfortunately, pay disparity between men and women is closing at a rate of less than one cent a year. "It's even worse for women of color," said Kaye, noting that African American women are paid 65 cents for every $1 dollar an African African male earns in the same job; Anglo women earn 74 cents for $1 their male counterpart earns; and Hispanic women earn 57 cents for every $1 of a Hispanic male.
In New Mexico, Kaye said, women employed in a fulltime job earn on average about 66 cents for every $1 a man earns. Over the course of a year, that equates to about $7,700, she said.
"I think women in New Mexico are beginning to ask 'where is my 33 cents?' " said Kaye.
She also noted that numerous studies have shown that when factors such as level of education and quality of work are excluded, men still make more money on average than women in comparable jobs.
A 1997 federal Department of Labor "glass ceiling" study reaffirmed the pay inequity gap, Kaye added. And yet another study showed that men who enter jobs traditionally held by women also earn a higher salary than women, she said.
Kaye said women can begin to address the pay inequity issue by learning what other employees in their workplace earn. And women can find out their "job worth" by going to online to the Department of Labor's home page, which tracks average salaries for jobs in hundreds of professions.
"Once you're armed with facts, then you can go to human resources or your boss . . . and present a rational, analytical discussion for a pay raise," said Kaye.
Kaye also said women should ask their human resources department to conduct a pay-equity study.
Mirabal of the Lab said women and people of color should channel their anger over pay inequity into constructive ways to improve the situation. Continually enhancing skills and obtaining education also help address some of the pay disparity, she said.
And Mirabal said women's and professional groups that have taken up the issue of pay inequity should take a lesson from civil rights groups that worked together effectively in the 1960s to force social change.
"I quit looking for the white knight to come rescue me a long time ago," said Mirabal.
--Steve Sandoval
BEAM robotics workshop draws students from around the state
Student winners in seven categories were named in the Laboratory's
annual BEAM robotics workshop and competition last Saturday at Los Alamos
High School.
And 14-year-old Ian Bernstein won the special Leonardo D'Vinci Award for the outstanding beauty and functionality of his motorized butterfly, which he called "Robofly."
Eighty students from home schools and schools around the state took part in the workshop and competition, sponsored by the Science and Technology Base (STB) Program Office.
The fourth annual workshop provides participants with information, mentoring and materials for constructing their own robots or for improving constructions they bring to the workshop. Competitions in specific BEAM events took place on Saturday.
The acronym BEAM stands for biology, electronics, aesthetics and mechanics and refers to the revolutionary approach to robotics pioneered by BEAM founder and Los Alamos scientist Mark Tilden of Biophysics (P-21). BEAM robots are modeled more on the simple, repetitive biological processes of insects than the complex, human-like operations that are the goal of traditional robotics.
Bernstein won the special award because his "Robofly" robot shows beauty and design furthering the cause of BEAM robotics, said Paul Argo of Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1). The award also honors the artistic creativity of Tilden.
Other winners by category are as follows:
Sumo contest: winner is the robot remaining on a 6 foot circular platform (six competitors)
1. Gavin Argo; 2. Daniel Guziec; 3. Marc Valerio
Solaroller classic: time required to cover 1 meter, or distance traveled in 3 minutes (five competitors)
1. Ian Bernstein; 2. Kevin Claytor; 3. Brian Davenport
Solaroller: distance of movement in one solar charging cycle (16 competitors)
1. Joseph Mathews; 2. Michael Linzey; 3. Ian Mathews
Photovore Contest: competitors judged on activity and interaction with competitors; all competitors put in Robotic Jurassic Park (15 competitors)
1. Tristan Tafoya; 2. Chris Stup; 3. Corry Pensabene
Aesthetics: design and construction of BEAM robot (12 competitors)
1. Ian Bernstein; 2. Antonio Fresquez; 3. Esteban Figueroa
Walker: straight line race covering 10 feet in minimum time (seven competitors)
1. Antonio Fresquez; 2. Chris Sheeley, graduate student from University of Arkansas; 3. Ian Bernstein
Walker Sumo: winner is the robot remaining on a 6 foot circular platform (eight competitors)
1. Jonathan Sandoval; 2. Ian Bernstein; 3. Jerome Valdez.
More information about this year's competition and about BEAM robotics can be found at http://nis-www.lanl.gov/robot/ online.
--Steve Sandoval
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Comprehensive energy strategy announced
Secretary of Energy Federico Peña has announced a Comprehensive National Energy Strategy designed to improve the way energy is produced and used in the country. The plan is the product of year-long discussions involving the Department of Energy, other federal agencies and the public. More information is available in a DOE news release, which includes electronic links to the plan.
DOE, contractor reach agreement on possible safety violations at Rocky Flats
The Department of Energy and Kaiser-Hill Co., integrating contractor at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, have agreed to resolve several self-reported potential nuclear safety violations with a $100,000 payment by the contractor. A consent order signed by both parties covers several incidents from January 1996 to January 1998 that indicated programmatic problems with radiological controls at the site. More information is available in a DOE news release.
March weather cool and wet
March was cool and wet in Los Alamos and White Rock, as the so-called El Niño made a late winter return to the area.
Less than one inch of liquid precipitation was recorded in Los Alamos and White Rock combined in February, according to Laboratory meteorologist Jeff Baars of Air Quality (ESH-17). But last month, precipitation was 130 percent of normal in Los Alamos and 172 percent of normal in White Rock.
Baars said it rained five consecutive days in the middle of the month and a total of 1.59 inches of precipitation was recorded at the Technical Area 6 measuring station at the Lab for the entire month.
Temperature extremes also were pronounced, ranging from a high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit on March 24 to a low of 8 degrees F on March 1.
And three high temperature records were established or tied, said Baars. The 65 degrees F recorded March 22 tied the record for the date established in 1990. The 70 degrees F on March 24 set a record; the next day the temperature rose to 67 degrees F, breaking the old record for the day established in 1986.
Wind gusts of 48, 40 and 41 miles per hour were recorded March 18, 26 and 28 respectively in Los Alamos.
It was about 1 degree F below normal in White Rock in March, said Baars, with both average high and low daily temperatures below normal.
Seven temperature records were established or broken last month, including four consecutive record- or record-tying high temperatures March 22 through 25. On those four days, the high temperature was at least 69 degrees F, said Baars.
The overnight low temperature of 14 degrees F on March 10 broke the old record set in 1969, Baars said. And on March 16, the overnight temperature of 34 degrees F tied a record for the highest low temperature, he said.
Nearly a half-inch of liquid precipitation was recorded at the Technical Area 54 measuring station in White Rock on March 15, Baars said. That broke the old precipitation record for the day set in 1975.
Wind gusts of 44, 42 and 41 miles per hour were recorded March 26, 28 and 29, respectively.
--Steve Sandoval
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Jesse Nord of Marie Hughes Elementary School in Albuquerque
looks at the "Roswell 1.0" robot created by Mark Tilden of Biophysics
(P-21) during the annual Los Alamos BEAM robotics workshop in the multi-purpose
room at Los Alamos High School. Eighty students from schools around the
state -- several home-schooled students also participated -- took part in
the two-day workshop, which culminated in a robotics competition. Photo
by Fred Rick
Wellness Center schedules back-care workshop and class on
healthy eating