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Groundbreaking research in the use of X-ray beams to analyze diesel fuel injector sprays has earned a U.S. Department of Energy award for a team of Argonne scientists. Their work may lead to higher efficiency in diesel engines that use fuel injection systems.
The team, which includes Jin Wang (XFD), Steve Ciatti (ES), Christopher Powell (ES) and Yong Yue (ES), won the 2002 National Laboratory Combustion and Emissions Control R&D Award.
"This research has been full of excitement since the idea of using `X-ray vision' to study high-pressure fuel sprays was first conceived three years ago," said Wang, who is the driving force behind the experiment.
The team was also named as a finalist in Discover magazine's 2001 Innovation Awards, and they were most recently highlighted in Science.
"It's nice to be recognized for research that is doing its part in pollution reduction," said Powell, who was with XFD when the work was carried out. "We're working very hard at it, and it's something no one else has been able to do."
The team uses X-rays from the Advanced Photon Source (APS) -- a facility dedicated to producing synchrotron X-ray beams for research -- to study the fuel injection system of an engine and to see how combustion works.
"It gives us the ability to track the fuel mass of a spray," said Ciatti. "It's unique. The standard is to use optically based techniques like lasers, but with those techniques you can only see the external functions."
Using the APS, the team can more completely define the structure of the mass of fuel and track where it is at any given time.
Ciatti said the research they are doing at the APS is critical because cleaning up diesel engines is necessary to reduce air pollution from semi-trucks, trains and potentially diesel-hybrid automobiles. In order to understand diesel emissions, it is necessary to understand diesel combustion, which is directly affected by the composition of the fuel sprays.
Other information the team has found includes the presence of shock waves in modern injection systems and air/fuel vapor in the core of diesel spray.
The research is still in the early stages of development, but Powell said they plan to continue their research, increasing the temperature and pressure surrounding the fuel injector to create a more diesel-like atmosphere. They will be able to observe fuel injectors and combustion under more realistic conditions.
The X-ray technique may be used in the future for similar studies of dense plasma and other optically dense structures.
"This technique we have developed here is not only used for fuel spray, it can be used for other highly transient phenomena like looking at plasma discharge or spray coding," Wang said. "Most of these materials are optically opaque. The X-ray makes them a perfect candidate for this type of application."
-- Katie Williams
Sylvester James Gates Jr., will present "A Real Y2K Challenge: Einstein's Biggest Blunder vs. Superstring/M-Theory" at a Director's Special Colloquium Thursday, Aug. 1, at 3 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 402 Conference Center.
The cosmological constant -- a fudge factor that Albert Einstein called his "biggest blunder" -- appears to have been observed in nature, posing a severe challenge to current theories of the basic construction of the universe. Gates' talk will be an accessible discussion of how these recent observations affect the physics of the new millennium.
Gates is John S. Toll Professor of Physics and director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland. His research centers on the mathematical properties and realizations of supersym-metry in quantum and classical theories of particles, fields and superstrings.
He is co-author of one book, 12 book chapters and more than 100 research papers.
Gates is a member, charter fellow and past president of the National Society of Black Physicists. He is also a member of Sigma Xi and an American Physical Society fellow.
He has extensive advisory experience with the National Science Foundation and as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's High Energy Physics Advisory Panel.
Argonne's Performance Evaluation Process Committee will recommend comprehensive changes to the laboratory's current performance evaluation process.
Their recommendations range from a simpler evaluation form -- which would reduce the number of assessment grades from 15 to three -- to a lab-wide change in attitude toward the entire performance evaluation process.
"What we'd like to see is a culture change, where the performance review becomes an ongoing communication," said committee member Ray Teller. "The process should focus on what's best for the employee and what's best for the lab."
"Openness" was another recurring theme in the committee's discussion. Currently, there is a "wide variation" in evaluation standards from division to division, said committee Chair Murray Gibson -- and even from group to group within divisions. Standardization and better communication will improve employees' confidence in their evaluations.
"The end result will be a simpler, more straightforward process," said PFS Director Gwendolyn Morrison.
The committee also recommended encouraging managers to improve their supervisory abilities through on-site training. "All these skills don't come overnight when you get promoted," said HR Director Carol Quinn.
The committee studied Argonne's performance evaluation process for non-union Argonne employees, both exempt and non-exempt. They sought out experts in the field and reviewed best practices at other R&D organizations, including British Petroleum (BP), SRI International, Inc., Brookhaven National Laboratory and others.
Employee comments and suggestions played a major part of the panel's recommendations -- and are still welcome (see story below).
"We earnestly request your input," Morrison told employees when the panel presented its preliminary findings July 11 in the APS Conference Center Auditorium.
Their recommendations will be submitted to the laboratory directorate by the end of July. If the directorate approves, many of the recommendations may be set in place for the upcoming review cycle.
Information on the Performance Evaluation Process committee, including the draft recommendations and other documents, is online.
Employees can still submit comments and ideas for improving Argonne's performance evaluation process.
The Performance Evaluation Process Committee will welcome employee input through Tuesday, July 23. Comments and suggestions can be submitted directly to committee members or to Charlyne Robinson, who can keep submissions anonymous by request. Contact Robinson at crobinson@ anl.gov or ext. 2-8786.
Committee members include Associate Laboratory Director Murray Gibson, Kathy Harkay (ASD), Barry Lesht (ER), Mike Lineberry (ERA, Argonne-West), Gwendolyn Morrison (PFS), Liz Stefanski (OTD) and Ray Teller (IPNS).
Michael Friedlander of Stanford University has been named the 2002 Wilkinson Fellow in Scientific Computing. He will join Argonne's Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) Division in September.
Friedlander was cited by the selection committee for his understanding of both mathematical theory and software design. For his thesis, he devised a novel approach that stabilizes traditional linearly constrained Lagrangian methods (such as MINOS) for solving large-scale optimization problems with nonlinear constraints. Such an approach had eluded researchers for nearly 30 years, and his solution has generated considerable attention.
Friedlander's background in operations research, engineering economics, physics and computer science is unusual. Recently, Friedlander applied this expertise to help develop efficient methods for reducing noise in gamma-ray spectrometry data, to address supply-chain optimization problems and to investigate maximum entropy classification in speech.
The Wilkinson Fellowship was created by MCS in memory of James Hardy Wilkinson, who for many years acted as a consultant and guiding spirit for such efforts as the EISPACK and LINPACK projects. The fellowship is intended to assist a young scientist engaged in state-of-the-art research in scientific computing.
Argonne's new official slogan is "Pioneering Science and Technology."
It was chosen by the directorate based on the best ideas in nearly 600 suggestions from Argonne employees.
The slogan is available for use, as appropriate, in Argonne publications, presentations and Web sites.
Five employee slogans were chosen as the best suggestions. The winners will have lunch with Argonne Director Hermann Grunder and receive a ceramic Argonne coffee mug. Winners and their suggestions are:
Advancing the Frontier of Science and
Technology - Stephen Choi (ET)
Evolving Science, Emerging Technology
- Amy Myers (APS)
Pioneers in the Search for a Better
Tomorrow - Joe Braun (RAE)
Quality People Doing Quality Research
- Brian Wulf (RPS-SS)
Serving America through Science and
Technology - Ira Charak (RAE)
Registration information and questionnaires for the upcoming workshop series "Survival Skills for Successful Women Scientists and Engineers" are now available on the Argonne Women in Science and Technology Web site. The monthly workshops are designed to assist women scientists and engineers in developing skills for career advancement.
The kickoff event for the series will feature Argonne Deputy Laboratory Director Beverly Hartline. The first workshop will be held Monday, July 22, from 2-4 p.m. in Argonne-East's Building 401, Conference Room A1100. Registration is not required for the first workshop and all interested employees are encouraged to attend.
The series is jointly sponsored by the WIST program, HR and DEP. For more information, contact the organizers for the event: Dongqi Li (MSD), dongqi@anl.gov; Kirsten Laurin-Kovitz (TD), kirsten@anl.gov; Eve Gohoure (HR), egohoure@anl.gov; and Linda Washington (DEP), washington@dep.anl.gov.
A battery recycling program has been introduced to Buildings 201 and 900 at Argonne-East. If the pilot program is successful, it will be expanded to the rest of the site. Individual building managers will be notified at the appropriate time.
Alkaline, lead, lithium, nickel, nickel cadmium, silver oxide and zinc carbon batteries are being accepted. Up to two pounds of batteries can be placed in special envelopes supplied by PFS-WMO. Battery terminals should be taped to prevent shorting.
Employees with a large volume or oversized batteries should contact the Pollution Prevention Hotline at ext. 2-6778.
The special battery recycling envelope will be distributed to building managers or, if additional envelopes are needed, call the Pollution Prevention Hotline, ext. 2-6778.
Argonne Park was rocking June 29 as RIAfest III hit a high note.
The festival, which was the third of its kind, had a larger audience and more divisions were represented than in previous festivals.
Eight bands were featured: Travel-Sized, Monsters, Rhythmfish, Za-band, Lenin's Back, Multivitamins, Volta Do Mar and the Big Eddy Springs Blues Band.
"I was pleasantly surprised by some of the bands," said Eric Lindert, co-coordinator of the festival. "The quality of the bands has increased, and again for the third straight festival, the weather was perfect."
The coordinators of the event are already planning RIAfest IV, which Lindert subtitled "Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the park." It will be held Saturday, Sept. 21; details will appear in a future issue of Argonne News.
For more information about RIAfest, visit www.tibodeau.com.
The Running Club is selling white sleeveless T-shirts with the club logo on the front, made of Coolmax synthetic fabric that wicks away perspiration. The singlets cost $18 and are available in M, L and XL. To purchase one, or for more information about the Running Club, contact Karl Grimm (RAE) at ext. 2-6721 or kgrimm@ anl.gov.
More information and photos are available on the Argonne Running Club home page.
Monthly runs
Monthly morning runs, which begin at the Waterfall Glen parking lot at 7:15 a.m., are scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 13, and Tuesday, Sept. 10. Club events are open to runners of all ability levels.
Karl Grimm (RAE) said the Running Club provides a social outlet for Argonne employees who enjoy running or walking.
"We don't even time these things," Grimm said. "I just like to run and I like to hang around people who like to run. We do it rain or shine, hot or cold."
To join the Running Club, fill out a membership form available online.
The membership fee covers the Argonne Running Club Newsletter, raffle prize drawings held at fun runs and a subsidy of the entry fee at selected road races.
Software classes offered by Electronics and Computing Technologies are now held in Argonne-East's Building 201, Room 167. Classes are usually limited to eight and cost $215.
Class descriptions, schedules and enrollment forms are available online. For information about enrollment, contact Diane Cavazos (ECT) at ext. 2-7153 or dkcavazos @anl.gov.
August classes include:
Intermediate Word 2000 (ECT374) --
Thursday, Aug. 1, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Intermediate Excel 2000 (ECT375) --
Friday, Aug. 2, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Intermediate Access 2000 (ECT376) --
Monday, Aug. 5, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Introduction to PowerPoint 2000
(ECT372) -- Tuesday, Aug. 6, 8:30 a.m. - noon. Cost: $140.
Intermediate PowerPoint 2000 (ECT373)
-- Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1 - 4:30 p.m. Cost: $140.
Advanced PowerPoint 2000 (ECT382) --
Wednesday, Aug. 7, 8:30 a.m. - noon. Cost: $140.
Excel Organizational Tools (ECT384) --
Wednesday, Aug. 7, 1 - 4:30 p.m. Cost: $140.
Representatives from Argonne's retirement vendors will visit Argonne-East during August to meet one-on-one with employees to discuss retirement plans and retirement plan assets.
To schedule an appointment with these representatives, call the number listed below. Appointments are for one-half hour each, except for Prudential, which offers half-day sessions.
Vendor Day For Appointments, call:
Fidelity Tuesday, Aug. 6 and 20 (800)
642-7131
TIAA-CREF Monday Aug. 19, and Tuesday,
Aug. 20 (800) 842-2005
Prudential Wednesday, Aug. 7 and 21
(847) 619-3519
John A. Buzzell (ENT), retired May 31 with 29 years of service.
Donald D. Grube (BIO), retired June 28 with 37 years of service.
Donald L. Harmann (PFS), retired June 28 with 33 years of service.
Bernard Kestel (MSD), retired June 28 with 40 years of service.
Donald Jankowski (HEP), retired June 28 with 40 years of service.
Ross T. Jensen (NT), retired June 10 with 11 years of service.
Ralph A. Leonard (CMT), retired June 28 with 25 years of service.
Glenda Ramsey (DIS), retired June 18 with 19 years of service.
Carlton Roberson (DIS), retired June 14 with 10 years of service.
Donald F. Voss (ASD), retired June 14 with 39 years of service.