Daily
Newsbulletin
Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999
Bulletin Board | Cafeteria
Menu | Calendar
Page
Director's
News | Reader's
Forum | Road
Report
Laboratory director to give update on FY 2000 budget at 10 a.m. today
Laboratory Director John Browne will discuss the fiscal year 2000 budget, its impact on the Laboratory, workforce management and other topics during a town-hall meeting today at 10 a.m. in the Administration Building Auditorium. The talk is open to all employees; foreign nationals must be escorted. The town hall will be broadcast live on LABNET.
P Division director to return to physics research
After six years as Physics (P) Division director, Peter Barnes is returning to full-time physics research. Effective Oct. 1, Barnes will join Subatomic Physics (P-25) as a researcher in nuclear and particle physics.
Bill Press, deputy Laboratory director for science and technology programs, will lead a nation-wide search for a new P Division director. P Division Deputy Director Don Rej will serve as acting division director.
"Peter has led our division tirelessly, with integrity, energy and superb judgement over the past six years. We wish him the best," Rej said.
Barnes came to the Laboratory in August 1991, after 23 years as professor of physics and researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. Barnes served three years as director of Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, now Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), before moving to the Physics Division top post.
"As I look back at these last six years, I realize that this has been an exhilarating experience and a great expansion of my own scientific horizons," Barnes said. "I found leading the Physics Division and participating in the leadership of the Laboratory to be challenging and rewarding; however I think it's time for me to return to the work I enjoy even more -- research."
Under Barnes' tenure, P Division garnered a number of the prestigious R&D100 awards, attracted about forty new TSMs to the Laboratory and continues to strongly support the Laboratory's mission with creative and ground-breaking research. Barnes said he is eager to stay near the frontiers of modern physics research.
"I am looking forward to participating, once again, more directly in experimental physics," said Barnes. "I would like to find a role for myself in fundamental neutron nuclear research and in research at the new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory. "
--Todd Hanson
Commuter-bus service update
Six months after a commuter-bus service between Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Española and Pojoaque was canceled because of safety and service concerns, the state Highway and Transportation Department is no closer to restarting the program.
Lack of funding support from local governments who previously chipped in money for the service is just one stumbling block, said Pat Oliver-Wright, a management analyst supervisor in the department's Public Transportation Programs Bureau.
The once promising Northern New Mexico Park and Ride Express bus service was shut down last March and a contract with BusRide of New Mexico was canceled.
In early March, a Shuttlejack Corp. bus returning home from a ski outing to Santa Fe Ski Area was involved in an accident. One youth and one adult chaperone were killed, and numerous others were hospitalized with injuries.
BusRide of New Mexico was a separate company formed by Shuttlejack Corp. owners to operate the Northern New Mexico Park and Ride Express.
The commuter-bus service was well received by Laboratory employees and the Department of Energy had provided $100,000 to the state road agency for the park-and-ride program. Los Alamos County Council, the Santa Fe City Council and the Santa Fe County Commission provided a similar amount to the highway department.
Oliver-Wright said the highway department issued a nationwide request for information to ascertain who might be interested in operating the commuter-bus service on a contract, and what operators feel is required to provide such a service. "We did get some interest from big companies, but we just don't have the funding to [restart the program,]" said Oliver-Wright.
If additional funding is located, Oliver-Wright said a request for proposal to operate the commuter-bus service could be issued. But the state road agency has no timeline on when, if at all, the service could be restarted.
The highway department has some $2.7 million in federal grant funds available and about $200,000 from the 1998-99 fiscal year in local funds available for a park-and-ride program, Oliver-Wright said.
In the meantime, a consultant to the state road agency is exploring other issues involved in operating a commuter-bus program, including the availability of natural-gas fueling stations in local communities served by the program.
--Steve Sandoval
Lab employee receives NHMFL distinguished service award
Don Parkin of the Center for Materials Science (MST-CMS) has received a distinguished service award from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the second Laboratory employee to receive the award.
Parkin is the former co-principal investigator of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. "Being recognized by the NHMFL during the National Science Foundation site visit in Los Alamos was extremely gratifying. My work with the NHMFL has been one of the significant highlights of my career," said Parkin.
Parkin, Jack Crowe of Florida State University and Neil Sullivan of the University of Florida in 1989 came up with the vision for the NHMFL, a collaboration between the Laboratory and the two universities. Parkin led the development of the Lab's component of NHMFL, which is located at Technical Area 35. It is housed as a center organizationally in the Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division.
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is the first pulsed-field user facility. The National Science Foundation in August 1990 announced that it was giving a contract to the Florida universities and the Lab for NHMFL.
"Leadership of the Los Alamos program and my former co-principal investigator role has been transferred to Greg Boebinger, who I am confident will lead the program to even more exciting contributions in the future," Parkin said. Boebinger came to the Lab from Bell Laboratories.
Laboratory retiree Larry Campbell was given a similar award in 1997.
The current research objectives of the pulsed-field facility are aligned with the Department of Energy's Division of Materials Sciences' high-magnetic-field programs, said Parkin. The NHMFL also catalyzes interdisciplinary research in high magnetic fields, teams with the Dynamic Experimentation (DX) Division to promote the utilization of explosive flux compression techniques for ultra-high magnetic field research, develops collaborations with the University of California and other universities in high-magnetic-field research, develops synergistic programs with the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center's (LANSCE) national user program for neutron scattering, and serves as the home of Florida State University and University of Florida NHMFL personnel assigned to the Lab.
--Steve Sandoval
Deadline Friday to appeal 1999 maximum annual contribution
Time is running out to appeal the amount of your 1999 maximum annual contribution (MAC) to the Tax-Deferred 403(b) Plan or to elect an alternative contribution limit. The deadline for these transactions is Friday.
All requests to recalculate a MAC or to elect an alternative contribution limit must be received by University of California (UC) Human Resources/Benefits by 5 p.m. Friday.
You can access your 1999 MAC amount and your current contribution level by calling bencom.fone at 1-800-888-8267. You will need your Social Security number and your benefits personal identification number (PIN). If you don't know your PIN, call Benefits at 7-1806 to get one.
To appeal your MAC amount, you also will need to know how your MAC was calculated. This information is available from bencom.fone -- you can request that an explanation of your calculation, including the data that UC used, be faxed or mailed to you.
Nominations sought for Fellows Prize for Outstanding Research in Science or Engineering
Policy: To reward outstanding research performed at the Laboratory that was published within the last 10 years and that has had a significant impact on its discipline or program.
Purpose: To recognize and stimulate high-quality investigations in science or engineering by Laboratory staff members and to encourage publication in appropriate journals, books or reports.
Eligibility: Nominees must be full-time employees of the Laboratory at the time of nomination. All staff members of the Laboratory are eligible, but Fellows and postdoctoral researchers are not eligible. The work may be classified or unclassified.
Prize Nomination: Nominations should be submitted to the coordinator or deputy coordinator of the Los Alamos Fellows, and statements of justification (two pages or less) and letters of support (not exceeding five) from leaders in the field, both internal and external, are desirable. All supporting material -- which should include the publications on which the nomination is based -- should focus strongly on that particular research and the contributions of the investigators. Nomination packages should be simple and brief.
Award Review Procedure: A review committee selected from the Fellows will be appointed by the coordinator of the Los Alamos Fellows. The committee will make the prize selections.
Number of Awards: The number of prizes in any given year will not exceed three.
Amount of Awards: The prize will carry a maximum award of $3,000 for each individual. An appropriate certificate will commemorate the award.
Granting the Prize: The Director will present the prize at a formal colloquium, during which the recipients will describe their research.
Nominations should be received on or before Nov. 1 by either J.C. Solem, coordinator of Laboratory Fellows, T-DO, Mail Stop B210, 7-3856; or by M.B. Johnson, deputy coordinator of Laboratory Fellows, P-25, Mail Stop H846, 7-6942.
Russian visitors learn about U.S. government, economy and business community
PHOTO: Bradbury Science Museum (CRO-2) Director John Rhoades, right, describes one of several items from Russia to Alexander Frolov, left, and Anton Svendrovski. Frolov is the head of the city of Sarov, Russia's housing department. Sarov, formerly Arzamas 16, is Los Alamos' sister city. Svendrovski is an interpreter. The Russian visitors were at Los Alamos recently as part of the Library of Congress' Russian Leadership Program, which attempts to give Russian leaders information on how the U.S. government, economy and business community operates. Paul White, program manager for Russian Nuclear Programs (NIS-RNP), assisted with the visit. Many of the items in the display case were given to Laboratory officials during official trips to Russia. The Los Alamos County Council made an informal presentation to the Russian visitors at its Tuesday meeting in White Rock. While in Los Alamos, the Russian visitors also met with Los Alamos Public Schools, Chamber of Commerce officials and local and state legislators and toured a hydroelectric generating station at Abiquiu Lake. More information about the Library of Congress' Russian Leadership Program can be found online at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rlp/us.html. Photo by Mike Kolb, Community Relations Office (CRO)
| On today's bulletin board | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
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. |
|
Security issues at the Laboratory
Past Daily Newsbulletins
| Last
week's headlines
Searchable database
of past issues
Other news sources
Reflections
| News
Releases | Dateline:
Los Alamos | DOE
Pulse
Diversity Issues | DOE
News | Human Resources
Lab
Memos | Research Library
| UC Connection
Questions? Contact the Newsbulletin at newsbulletin@lanl.gov.
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L
L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University
of California for the US Department
of Energy
