Fire danger: Low
Polygraph 'hearing' set for Friday at the Lab
A polygraph "hearing" is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday in the Administration Building Main Auditorium. The sessions, which are open to the public, stem from the notice of proposed rulemaking concerning polygraph examinations that the Department of Energy published in the Federal Register on Aug. 18.
Requests to present and comments to the panel should be phoned in to Andi Kasarsky at (202) 586-3012 by Wednesday. Each presentation is limited to 5 minutes to ensure that all persons have an opportunity to speak. Only those who have requested time will be allowed to speak during the hearing. Those with comments for the panel must get on the docket by Wednesday.
The Federal Register notice and supporting information on public hearings can be found at http://home.doe.gov/news/fedreg.htm on the World Wide Web. More information also is available in an all-employee memo [http://int.lanl.gov/memos/alldist/LANL_ALL41.PDF].
Researcher's ripple experiments for students featured in "The Physics Teacher" magazine
The September issue of "The Physics
Teacher" magazine features a cover article by Robert Benjamin
of Hydrodynamic Applications (DX-3), who presents a series of
experiments designed to introduce students to fluid dynamics.
The article, illustrated in part by a cover photo taken by Aaron Honey of DX-3, focuses on a physical phenomenon called the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability, or RTI, which Benjamin describes as a gateway to the study of fluid dynamics.
RTI refers to the growth of ripples at the interface of two fluids when the fluid with the higher density is on top. Although discovered in the 1870s, it has been a focus of study only in the latter part of this century.
Benjamin has given workshops and presentations on RTI for the past five years. He also is collaborating with the AIMS (Activities Integrating Math and Science) Education Foundation on "Spills and Ripples," a book scheduled for publication next year that presents experiments in fluid dynamics for students in grades five through nine. Some of these experiments will appear in "Reflections" in coming months as the "Science Fun" feature.
"Rayleigh-Taylor Instability has been of interest at the Laboratory since the Manhattan Project, and it's still important to many researchers here," said Benjamin, a Laboratory fellow who conducts experiments to characterize fluid effects. "I hope to make it a household term."
His article in "The Physics Teacher" begins: " The study of fluids is a dry subject for most students." However, it notes, most people's hands-on experience with fluid dynamics is actually fairly extensive. After the relatively brief introduction, it outlines a series of 10 relatively simple experiments that students can perform to learn about some of the unusual and interesting behavior of fluids.
"The experiments will show that fluids behave in unexpected ways. These unexpected results are designed to arouse curiosity about fluid behavior, then help students understand it," said Benjamin, whose work in fluid instabilities has been supported by the Education Program Office of Science and Technology Base Programs.
"These experiments also will help students become acquainted with scientific methods by showing them that pre-existing concepts may be inadequate and allowing them to test unusual hypotheses experimentally."
Honey's cover photo shows red, green and blue fluids swirling and mixing in a clear medium. He also shot a photo for the article that illustrates RTI with saltwater and freshwater solutions.
"The Physics Teacher," which is published monthly from September through May by the American Association of Physics Teachers, is primarily designed for educators who teach introductory physics courses at any educational level.
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Randall Murch to speak about bioterrorism
Randall S. Murch, deputy assistant director of the FBI Forensics Laboratory, speaks Thursday, Sept. 16 on the threat of bioterrorism. The talk is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Administration Building Main Auditorium. Guard station 42 will be rolled back to accommodate all interested badge holders. See the all-employee announcement at this link The talk will be taped and available from CIC-9. |
Laboratory names pit manufacturing director
The Laboratory today announced the newly
created position of project director for pit manufacturing and
rebuild.
Vann Bynum, who joined the Laboratory last year as group leader for Materials Science and Processing (NMT-11), has been selected for the new position, said Stephen Younger, associate Laboratory director for nuclear weapons.
"I am tremendously pleased to have someone with the qualifications and experience of Vann to be responsible for the establishment of war-reserve pit manufacturing capability at Los Alamos," said Younger.
Bynum, who has a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, has extensive technical and management experience in nuclear-materials processing. Prior to joining the Los Alamos staff, Bynum served in scientific positions for Science Applications International Corp., Rockwell International, EG&G Rocky Flats Inc. and Diamond Shamrock Agricultural Chemicals Inc.
The Department of Energy has charged Los Alamos with capturing the technology to build war-reserve pits. A pit is the trigger of the primary stage of a nuclear weapon that initiates the sustained nuclear reaction. The designation "war reserve" indicates that the component meets the exacting specifications to be used in one of the nation's nuclear weapons.
"It's an honor to be chosen for such an important position," said Bynum. "I look forward to leading this crucial national-defense effort, and I pledge that pit manufacturing at Los Alamos will be conducted in a safe, reliable and environmentally responsible manner."
DOE plans call for Los Alamos to be able to fabricate up to 20 war-reserve pits a year by 2007.
--William Heimbach
Virginia Rey receives Hispanic Heritage Award from the Department of Energy
Virginia Rey of Radiation Protection Services
(ESH-12) is in Washington, D.C., today to receive a Hispanic Heritage
Award from the Department of Energy.
Rey, an 18-year employee of the Laboratory, was honored in the contractor staff category. The award ceremony in DOE's Forrestal Building coincides with the department's kickoff of national Hispanic Heritage Month, which is observed today through Oct. 15.
The department's theme for this year's Hispanic Heritage Month observation is "A Vision for the 21st Century" and focuses on achievements in education by recognizing outstanding achievements of DOE and contractor employees in providing educational opportunities and other community service activities that impact our nation's youth.
Rey was nominated for the award by Aleene Jenkins of the Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Division Office.
"I am deeply honored by this award and am extremely proud of my Hispanic heritage," Rey said. "I recognize the importance of teamwork and diversity. Therefore, I share this award with both Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals who have supported and encouraged me throughout my career.
"I emphasize to our youth the importance of obtaining an education. I firmly believe in setting your goals and persevering. 'Si se puede [it can be done].' "
Specifically, Rey credited her success in part to Laboratory Senior Adviser Warren F. "Pete" Miller; Antonio Andrade, ESH-12 group leader; Gerald Schlapper of Health Physics Operations (ESH-1); Dennis Erickson, ESH Division director; Jenkins; John Fox of the ESH Division Office; and Roberto L. Gonzales of Nuclear Materials Management and Control (NMT-4).
"Virginia exemplifies outstanding commitment and contribution to the educational and career development of students," Miller wrote in a supporting letter accompanying Rey's nomination. "She provides unprecedented forward thinking leadership to our community in the establishment of a Northern New Mexico chapter of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists."
Jenkins noted in her nomination letter that Rey has mentored students and other Lab employees, participated in diversity activities as past chairperson of the Laboratory's Hispanic Diversity Working Group and through the Northern New Mexico chapter of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists, of which she currently serves as vice-president. Rey was one of several Lab employees recently featured in a special issue of the national magazine that the organization publishes.
Rey also is ESH's student adviser and oversees a program that provides a variety of experiences and varieties for ESH students who work at Los Alamos during the summer. "Feedback each year from our student employees clearly indicates these programs and mentorship from Virginia directly impacted career decisions to enter science disciplines," Jenkins wrote.
"She is both an accomplished scientist/engineer serving the Laboratory in radiological engineering and a most caring individual committed to the new generation of scientists," Jenkins wrote.
A native of El Paso, Texas, Rey has a bachelor's degree in education from West Texas State University and a master's degree in nuclear engineering from University of New Mexico. Before joining Los Alamos, Rey taught mathematics at a junior high school in Amarillo, Texas and at Los Alamos High School.
Rey joined Los Alamos in 1981 as a health protection technician and radiological control technician. She also has been a lead radiological control technician, an alternate supervisor, indoctrinator and trainer at Los Alamos.
In her current position, Rey provides support to ESH-12's Radiological Engineering Team. Among other things, Rey reviews appropriate documents of facilities and functions using radioactive material and radiation producing devices for radiological concerns.
Rey also reviews new and existing facilities for compliance with DOE orders, regulations and laws pertaining to nuclear and non-nuclear facilities and assures that radiation protection standards and requirements are incorporated into new facility designs as needed.
Rey is a member of the National Health Physics Society, Rio Grande Chapter of Health Physics Society, American Nuclear Society and Mexican American Engineers and Scientists.
--Steve Sandoval
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The September issue of "Reflections" is now available -- the mailroom began distributing copies this week. Featured in this latest issue are articles on the Laboratory's Welfare-to-Work program, the Lab's process for submitting technologies for the R&D 100 Awards and this year's winners, the High School Supercomputing Challenge and more. If your organization is not receiving enough copies of "Reflections" to distribute to employees or receives too many, contact the mail room at 7-4166. |
Renowned paleontologist to discuss discoveries of early man
Professor Tim White will speak about his research team's most recent discoveries in Ethiopia and what they have revealed about the origins of man at a Director's Colloquium Tuesday.
The talk will begin at 1:10 p.m. in the Physics Building Auditorium. It is open to the public and will be broadcast on Labnet.
For decades, White and his international collaborators and students have explored and excavatied in the fossil-rich East African Rift System, collecting and analyzing diverse fossilized bones for clues about the lives of our earliest ancestors and other early hominid species. One of White's frequent collaborators is Giday WoldeGabriel of Geology and Geochemistry (EES-1), who leads and coordinates the geological investigation in the study area.
White and his team are currently cleaning and analyzing a 4.5 million-year-old find from the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia. It is the oldest and most complete partial skeleton ever discovered, found on Christmas Day 1994.
"I have known Tim White for nearly 20 years, but first worked with him as a project field geologist when his team initiated a reconnaissance survey of potentially fossil-rich areas in the Ethiopian Rift System in 1989, " said WoldeGabriel. "Since 1992, I have spent a month working with his team every year, conducting and coordinating geological investigations to support their paleontological and and archaeological studies."
In 1992, White and his team obtained a permit to work in the Middle Awash region of the Southern Afar Rift System in eastern Ethiopia, and WoldeGabriel, the project's geologist, was there when White's team found a piece of hominid fossil whose discovery marked the beginning of serious exploration on the west side of the Awash River .
"This has been one of the most productive sites in the world for hominid and other fossils," WoldeGabriel said. "The team has collected over 7,000 fossils from the area, including two new hominid species not known before they were found there."
White and his team also have studied other vertebrate fossils in the area, and scraping or scratch marks on those fossilized bones led them to conclude that the technology of tool making may have begun some 2.5 million years ago. Tools enabled primates to become meat-eating scavengers, which in turn led to the development of large brains.
"What a different organism comes out of this experiment," White said. "There was explosive change, and we think this is what pushed it."
The tool making discoveries and resulting theories are featured in the April 23, 1999 issue of Science magazine.
White is a professor of integrative biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is curator of biological anthropology for the P.A. Hearst Museum and a research paleoanthropologist for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
--Kay Roybal
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Lab Counsel offers guidance on dealings with investigators The Laboratory Counsel Office has issued a memorandum that provides guidance to employees who might be asked for documents or interviews by investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation or U.S. Attorney's Office. Click here for the memo. |
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September Reflections'