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Eric Seaborg, son of Nobel Laureate Glenn Seaborg, will speak on his father's "Adventures in the Atomic Age" at a Director's Special Colloquium Tuesday, April 16, starting at 2 p.m. in the Building 402 Conference Center.
Eric Seaborg will discuss the choices, timing and circumstances that led to his father's success, discuss his father's encounters with U.S. presidents and share some personal insights.
Eric Seaborg collaborated with his father on his recently published autobiography, "Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington."
A physicist, Glenn Seaborg worked on the Manhattan Project, and served for a decade as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
He won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of plutonium and other elements -- including seaborgium -- and advised presidents from Harry S. Truman to George H. W. Bush.
Glenn Seaborg also championed education, serving as a member of President Ronald Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education, and as chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley.
On opening day, the Chicago Cubs pitcher will be John Lieber, a master of the "slider" -- a fastball that breaks away from a right-handed batter. Lieber may not realize that part of the ball's deviation from a straight line is governed by the equation:
[delta]P=PR-PL=1/2 Þair [vL2 - vR2 ]
… which describes the magnitude of the pressure differential between the left and right sides of a rotating, thrown baseball. If Lieber has his stuff that day, his pitches may deflect up to 10 centimeters from a straight line -- more than enough to cause a humiliating strikeout.
Describing the intricate interaction between cowhide, hand-sewn stitches, fast-moving air and the occasional dab of spit is the hobby of physics professor Porter W. Johnson, who recently spoke at Argonne-East on "The Physics of Baseball." The seminar was sponsored by the High Energy Physics Division.
Johnson teaches high-energy theoretical physics and conducts research in quantum field theories at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. As summer approaches, he finds himself speaking frequently to students and high school teachers about baseball. He's also appeared on radio and television programs and has provided background information for newspaper reporters.
It's a pitcher's job to make a baseball spin in just the right way to take advantage of turbulent airflow around the ball, but the batter's job is even more exacting, Johnson said.
"The batter has point-five seconds to gauge the path of the ball, which is moving at around 40 meters per second," Johnson said. "A curve of 10 centimeters may seem small, but the batter must estimate the position of the baseball within one centimeter and the time of arrival within one one-hundredth of a second to hit it well."
Most major league pitchers have several kinds of pitches at their disposal. They range from a fastball, with a blindingly fast but relatively straight flight, to a knuckleball -- a pitch thrown in such a way that the ball rotates just one time during its journey to the plate, causing erratic changes in direction.
Assuming the batter manages to make contact, physics again determines the path of the ball, which leaves the bat at roughly twice the speed with which it arrived. It isn't just bulging biceps that send a Sammy Sosa bomb onto Waveland Avenue. There is a center of oscillation -- a "sweet spot" -- where resonances within the vibrating wood add extra energy to the bat-ball interaction.
"Baseball as practiced in the major leagues is a scientific sport," said Johnson, who admits to being a Yankee fan. "I hope I can give people some extra appreciation for the game."
More information on baseball physics -- and history -- can be found on Johnson's Web site.
-- Dave Jacqué
Baseball season is underway, and the Argonne Club is selling tickets for a Kane County Cougars game the week of April 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria. The cost is $7 per ticket.
Tickets are for the game Friday, May 31, at 6:30 p.m., when the Cougars play the Ft. Wayne Wizards. A fireworks show will follow the game.
The Cougars went undefeated in the 2001 playoffs to win their first-ever Midwest League Championship.
For more information, contact Loretta Phillips (ECT) at lmphillips@anl.gov.
Since the March 31 deadline for submitting requests for reimbursements under the medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts for calendar year 2001 falls on a Sunday, the postmark deadline is Monday, April 1, 2002.
For more information, call Human Resources at ext. 2-2991 (Argonne-East) or ext. 3-7361 (Argonne-West).
Tickets for a concert by the Mozart Piano Quartet will be sold in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria the week of April 1 from noon to 1 p.m. Admission is $20.
The concert will be held in the Advanced Photon Source Conference Center, Building 402, Saturday, April 6, at 8 p.m. The program includes selections by Mozart, Mahler, Schnittke and Brahms.
The performance is make-up for the concert originally scheduled for Oct. 6, 2001. Oct. 6 tickets will be accepted at the door. Subscribers who have lost or thrown away the original Oct. 6 tickets can get replacement tickets at the Auditorium Box Office, which opens at 7:30 p.m. the evening of the performance.
The Mozart Piano Quartet, founded in 1997, comprises international soloists from Germany and Austria and has recorded for major radio stations in Germany and for ABC Classic FM in Australia.
The concert is open to the public, but strict security requirements are in place for this event. More information on the concert and details on security procedures is posted on the Arts at Argonne Web site.
Special dinner
A special dinner prepared by Chef Chris Kaminsky will be served in the Argonne Guest House the night of the concert from 5-7:30 p.m. Price is $22.95 per person. Reservations are requested; call (630) 739-6000.
An overview of the site visit by the American Physical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Physics will be presented by Sue Morss (PBC) and Susan Strasser (APS) at the First Friday Forum meeting Friday, April 5.
The seminar will begin at noon in Building 203, Conference Room R150.
A team from the committee visited eight divisions at Argonne-East Jan 3-4 to assess the climate for women physicists. Team members met with management and employees, both male and female. Their report has been posted on Argonne's Intranet.
The First Friday Forum is an informal gathering of Argonne women usually held on the first Friday of each month.
Electronics and Computing Technologies (ECT) is offering Intranet and Internet Web-hosting services for divisions, groups and projects.
Clients may administer their own Web sites without the demands of server hardware maintenance, security administration and hardware and software upgrades.
ECT will help move existing Web sites or establish new ones with user accounts and profiles. Web pages can be maintained with familiar software tools like Microsoft Front Page. ECT can register the Web sites at the laboratory, assist with firewall conduit requests and maintain the site's SSL certificate, which enables Web and e-mail servers to make use of encryption to protect passwords and data. ECT will respond to Web site problems within two hours.
ECT's server-rated hardware is maintained on redundant 100 Mbps Ethernet connections, soon to be upgraded to 1 Gigabit per second.
ECT is responsible for all Web-server hardware maintenance and administration, upgrades, backups and restores, patching, anti-virus protection and overall security.
This new Web-hosting service features proactive monitoring of network traffic and server logs for suspicious activity and monthly Web-site access statistics for each client site. ECT has made preparations to integrate Web server presence into the new laboratory-wide firewall architecture, which represents another value-added benefit to clients.
For a nominal monthly fee, ECT can provide standard and customized packages to meet individual user needs. For more information, contact ECT's Help Desk at ext. 2-6969.
Argonne Safeguards and Security reminds employees and visitors to keep these safety tips in mind as warmer weather approaches:
Wildlife like deer and geese are
present in large numbers. Drivers should use caution and comply with all traffic laws.
Joggers and walkers should use
sidewalks or paths when available. On roadways, face oncoming traffic and stay in a single file.
Light-colored or reflective clothing should be worn, especially at night.
Bicyclists should ride as close to the
right of the roadway as possible. They are subject to the same traffic laws as cars, and must obey
stop signs, traffic signals and passing laws. Helmets, mirrors, lights and reflective clothing are
recommended.
A first-of-its-kind training course on "agent-based modeling and simulation" (ABMS), held at Argonne-East March 8-12, drew representatives from major corporations and government.
A specialized modeling and simulation discipline, ABMS focuses on the use of software "agents" to represent decision-making units embedded in complex adaptive systems. Agents are "self-directed objects" with limited local information and bounded computational capabilities. ABMS allows the construction of computer models that address vital national concerns such as economic competitiveness, environmental protection and terrorism.
"Capturing Business Complexity with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation: Useful, Usable, and Used Techniques," was co-hosted by Argonne's Decision and Information Sciences Division, the University of Chicago, and the Santa Fe Institute.
Registration for Joliet Junior College Fall 2002 classes will be offered at Argonne-East Thursday, April 11.
College representatives will be available in the Human Resources offices in Building 201 from noon to 4 p.m. to register students for Fall 2002 classes. Employees must bring completed and approved Educational Assistance forms (ANL-89) to the registration.
Call Betty Iwan (HR) at ext. 2-3410 for information on the college or educational assistance.
Nominations are being sought for the 2002 Outstanding Service Awards of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne.
The awards recognize employees in support positions whose exemplary service over an extended period has significantly contributed toward helping the laboratory fulfill its various missions and attain its overall goals.
A full-time employee may be nominated for a consistent history of innovative ideas, suggestions or inventions; for sustained leadership, reliability and dependability; or for other particularly valuable on-going contributions to the work of the laboratory.
Awardees will be selected by a committee named by the university. Awards consist of a plaque and $3,000.
The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 5. Nominations take the form of a one-page statement -- about 250 words -- describing the nominee's achievements and specific reasons for nomination.
The nominating form, ANL-620, is available in the laboratory's forms locator system. Copies also may be obtained by calling Human Resources at ext. 2-2960. Send hard copies in an envelope marked "Confidential" to OSA Committee, Cynthia Sullivan, HR-201.
Human Resources has scheduled the following classes in April at Argonne-East:
"Leadership and Motivation" (HR641) is
designed to help participants develop an understanding of leadership as a process of influencing
the behavior of others. Thursday, April 18, from 1-5 p.m. in Building 201, Room 190.
"Myers-Briggs: Style and Strengths in
the Workplace," (HR258) will reveal individual styles and strengths in the workplace through the
most widely used instrument of its type in organizations, Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. All results
are kept confidential. Tuesday, April 23, from 1-5 p.m. in Building 201, Room 190. Register by
Monday, April 15.
"Russian Language" (HR164) offers both
beginning and intermediate coverage of reading, writing, and speaking the Russian language. Class
is held Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning April 2 in Building 208, Room A262 (conference room B).
The intermediate class begins at 10 a.m. and the beginning class starts at 11 a.m.
To enroll, contact a Training Management System representative. For more information, call Betty Iwan (HR) at ext. 2-3410 or see the HR Web site.