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Representatives from the FBI and 15 other state and federal law enforcement agencies recently came to Argonne-East to learn how the laboratory can contribute to homeland security.
"They were interested in Argonne's capabilities as they might relate to various sorts of terrorist activities in northern Illinois," said Associate Laboratory Director Harvey Drucker, Argonne's national security research coordinator.
While on site, the visitors attended an exhibit of virtual reality technology that simulates terrorist attacks and a presentation about the Department of Energy's Radiological Assistance Program (RAP). RAP assists federal, state and local agencies with the detection, identification, analysis and response to events involving radiological or nuclear material.
The law enforcement representatives also toured Argonne facilities and attended a poster session highlighting laboratory research with applications to national security. One topic addressed in the poster session was the protection of interior infrastructure during a chemical or biological attack using the PROTECT system developed by the Decision and Information Sciences Division with Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. Other topics included the development of microsensors to detect chemical agents and biochip systems that detect and identify anthrax.
"The event was a great success," Drucker said, "with agency participants impressed with our staff, capabilities and the quality of presentations."
Participating agencies included U.S. Customs, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Marshals Service, Office of Emergency Communications, the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Fire Department.
— Jennifer Ann Hutt
Argonne is challenging high school students to design interactive exhibits that demonstrate the scientific principles of synchrotron X-ray science. The best designs will be used for displays at the lab's Advanced Photon Source (APS).
The APS and Argonne's Division of Educational Programs are sponsoring the competition for student teams from high schools in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. The students' assignment is to design and build a prototype educational exhibit related to the science behind the APS.
In the first round of the contest, teams will submit ideas and preliminary designs for exhibits. Up to 10 teams will advance to the second round. The second round teams will receive a $250 grant for parts to build a working prototype of their exhibit. In the final round, prizes will be awarded to up to three teams that have produced the best designs and prototypes. The winning exhibits will be constructed by Argonne and displayed in the APS atrium.
Winners will be announced April 18, 2003. An awards reception and a demonstration of the winning prototypes will be held May 16, 2003.
"We needed new exhibits, and we thought, why not have the people they are aimed at design them for us? The experience will be valuable for the students, exposing them to science, engineering and design, and we'll end up with a much better product," said Murray Gibson, associate laboratory director for the APS.
"This contest will be an exciting way to engage future scientists and science teachers in a project which will improve their understanding of science and the way scientists work," said Fred Hartline (DEP).
More information about the contest is online.
A new "alerts" link on Argonne's Counterintelligence Web site can help employees stay current with public travel announcements, worldwide cautions and the national terrorism alert status.
"The Counterintelligence Web site was initially designed for employees planning foreign travel and those hosting visitors," said Argonne Senior Counterintelligence Officer Larry Collins. "We are now providing relevant caution and terrorism threat information that may be of interest to all employees. The site will be as current as we can possibly make it."
In addition to the new alert button, the Web site has information on espionage, a list of sensitive countries and subjects, computer threats, guidelines on hosting foreign visitors and links to other counterintelligence agencies.
The British Computer Society will present the 2002 Lovelace Medal to Ian Foster, associate director of Argonne's Mathematics and Computer Science Division and professor in computer science at the University of Chicago, next May in London.
Foster will receive the medal along with Carl Kesselman of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute for their work with the Globus Project and grid computing.
The Globus Project is a research and software development project led by Foster and Kesselman. The project's goal is to deliver the research advances and open source software required to make grid computing successful in science, engineering, business and other collaborative situations.
Grid computing is the high-speed networking equivalent to the electric power grid, providing computer power on demand, much the way a power grid provides electricity.
R&D magazine recently named the Globus Toolkit, developed by the Globus Project, the "Most Promising New Technology" developed this year. This software system provides essential components used in hundreds of scientific and commercial grid computing projects worldwide.
Foster's Distributed Systems Laboratory, which he operates at both Argonne and the University of Chicago, employs 40 staff members and students. Among these projects are the Grid Physics Network and the international Virtual Data Grid Laboratory, both funded by the National Science Foundation, and the Earth System Grid and Particle Physics Data Grid projects, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Lovelace Medal is presented to individuals who have made contributions of major significance in the advancement of information systems, or that add significantly to the understanding of the development of information systems.
Previous recipients of the medal include Doug Engelbart, developer of the computer mouse and computer windows, among other innovations; and Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux operating system.
The 6th Annual Veteran's Recognition Day at Argonne-East will feature a talk on "Protecting Our Nation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," by Capt. James Ragain, Jr. of the U.S. Navy, and music by the Navy Band Great Lakes.
The program will be held Thursday, Nov. 7, in the Building 402 Auditorium. The musical presentation will start at 11:40 a.m., and the program will begin at noon.
Ragain is a researcher and naval officer, well versed in the role of the Navy and the Great Lakes Naval Base in biological warfare defense, biomedical research and a dental mercury abatement project. He is commander of the Naval Institute for Dental and Biomedical Research, the specialty leader for dental research for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and special assistant for dental research in the Medical Research and Development Division of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
The Navy Band Great Lakes is a military band formed in 1917 by John Philip Sousa.
Visitors to the laboratory must pre-register; contact Paul Neeson (DOE) at ext. 2-2258, Creig Zook (DOE) at ext. 2-2250 or Jill Morgenthaler (OTD) at ext. 2-2725.
By Mike Derbidge,
Chief Operations Officer
The culture and vitality of scientific research requires collaboration and open exchange of ideas and information with both foreign and domestic colleagues.
Still, it is important to recognize that open science has risks. Adversaries, who may operate from postal and e-mail addresses within or outside the United States, often try to exploit the culture of openness within the DOE and other scientific communities to obtain information they can use to injure the United States or to gain advantage over U.S. competitors. Requests for potentially "sensitive" information can be funneled through various foreign and domestic educational institutions and/or legitimate businesses.
While the decision to respond to an unsolicited e-mail or other type of correspondence lies with you, as the recipient, the choices you make can have positive or adverse affects on both you and the laboratory, including personal legal liability for violation of federal law. You can certainly ignore any unsolicited correspondence you receive, or you can return a cordial response noting that the request was received, but that an answer will not be coming.
You should only return a response containing scientific and technical information if it makes good business sense to do so. Even if you decide to respond, you should have the information reviewed beforehand by the appropriate technical program personnel and divisional subject matter experts, as well as export control and classification personnel to ensure that you do not violate any laws or restrictions relating to sensitive, proprietary, protected, controlled or classified information.
As defined by Chapter 6.4 of the Argonne Policy Manual, information intended for publication or other external release must first be submitted for clearance, along with a completed ANL-330 form, to the Information and Publishing Division (IPD), Publications and Record Services. Such information includes, but is not limited to, manuscripts submitted to journals and other periodicals, technical reports, books and book chapters, theses, software, conference papers and abstracts, news releases, and internet Web site content.
All computer users should be guarded about responding to unsolicited e-mail requests for information, especially if you do not know or cannot identify the sender. Often, the intent of these unsolicited e-mails is to have someone respond. This validates the e-mail address and almost guarantees placing it on a mailing list for sale. Any unsolicited e-mail received by employees at their work computers should be forwarded to spam@anl.gov.
The Counterintelligence Office, the Office of Safeguards and Security and the Cyber Security Office can provide assistance in reviewing and determining the legitimacy of unsolicited correspondence or e-mail requests for information. For more information, call Steve Fuller, Counterintelligence, at ext. 2-6766, Howard Filler, Office of Safeguards and Security, at ext. 2-7890, or Stacy Williams, Office of Cyber Security, at ext. 2-3456.
Argonne-East employees are invited to participate in a "Festtag" Monday, Nov. 11, celebrating the 70th birthday of researcher Yanglai Cho (APS).
The "festtag," or "festival day," is being held in recognition of Cho's scientific accomplishments as well as his pioneering efforts and leadership contributions to the development of several important accelerator facilities, including the Zero-Gradient Synchrotron and Advanced Photon Source at Argonne and the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Festivities will include a symposium with experts from fields influenced by Cho's research, a reception and dinner.
Registration is at 1 p.m. in the Building 401 Lobby. The symposium will start at 1:30 p.m. in Building 401 Room A1100. A reception and dinner at the Argonne Guest House will follow at 6 p.m.
Symposium speakers and their topics will include
Won Namkung, Phohang University,
"Pohang Light Source and Large-scale Scientific Facilities in Korea."
Carlo Pagani, INFN Milan,
"Superconducting Linear Accelerators."
David Moncton (OTD), "Optimizing the
Design of a Fourth Generation Light Source: Lessons Learned from the APS and SNS."
Malcolm Derrick (HEP), "Physics
Interplay between Hadron Colliders and Electron Colliders."
Thom Mason, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, "Neutrons as a Probe of the Structure of Dynamics of Materials."
Adrian Cho, Science magazine,
"I Say Potato, And You Say Solanum tuberosum: What's News to Journalists and Scientists."
Event cost is $43 per person. Registration forms are available online. Those who cannot attend may send their best wishes to Cho via a special e-mail address coordinators set up for the occasion: yangfest@aps.anl.gov.
Open enrollment for Argonne's medical plans and flexible spending accounts will be held Monday, Nov. 4, through Friday, Nov. 22. Representatives from CIGNA, HMO Illinois and Human Resources will be in the Building 213 Cafeteria Nov. 5, 6 and 7 from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. to answer questions about the plans. HMO packets and PPO directories will be available from the representatives.
A substantial change to the CIGNA PPO Plan takes effect in 2003: Coordination of benefits (COB) will no longer be calculated up to 100 percent of the amount payable. CIGNA will coordinate benefits and pay up to 85 percent for an in-network provider and up to 80 percent of reasonable and customary for an out-of-network provider.
This change affects participants with more than one payer of their medical costs. Employees should carefully consider how the coordination works for their spouses and dependent children as it may not be advantageous to have a secondary medical plan. Keep in mind that when an individual has incurred $1,500 of covered expenses in a calendar year for which no payment is provided because of the coinsurance factor, benefits for that individual for covered expenses incurred during the rest of that year will become payable at the rate of 100 percent. See the open enrollment cover letter for COB examples. Prescription drug and dental plans are not affected by this coordination of benefits change.
Also, HMO Illinois is having difficulties in contract negotiations with Advocate Health Care Medical Group. If an agreement is not reached, Advocate may terminate its contract with HMO Illinois. These hospitals include Bethany, Christ, Good Shepherd, Good Samaritan, Hope Children's, Illinois Masonic, Lutheran General, Lutheran General Children's, South Suburban and Trinity.
In addition, 30 HMO Illinois Medical Group contracts are affected. Keep this in mind when choosing a primary IPA or physician within HMO Illinois because if the contract is terminated, employees having Advocate Health Care affiliations will have to change their medical group within the HMO Illinois medical plan or change to the PPO medical plan during the additional open enrollment period. The additional open enrollment period will only take place if the contract is not signed by Dec.13. It will take place Dec. 16-20.
All HMO Illinois participants will receive a separate mailing with additional paper enrollment forms that will allow them to change to the CIGNA PPO medical plan and enroll in the Health Care Flexible Spending account. These forms must be returned to Employee Benefits, Building 201, by Friday, Dec. 20.
Employees who have an e-mail account were sent an e-mail message regarding open enrollment materials on the Web. Employees who do not have an e-mail account were sent an open enrollment package to their laboratory address. Contact Human Resources at ext. 2-2992 or ext. 2-2985 for more information.
Argonne-East students are invited to an informal lunch at Giordano's Friday, Nov. 8, to discuss the formation of an Argonne student club.
For details, e-mail Jason Shergur at shergur@phy.anl.gov.
John Sackett, associate laboratory director for engineering research, will speak on "The Future of the Nuclear Research Program at Argonne Laboratory" at the Tuesday, Nov. 5, meeting of the American Nuclear Society's Chicago Section.
The meeting is open to all and will be held at the Argonne Guest House. There is no charge to attend Sackett's talk at 7 p.m.
Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m., dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. The cost for dinner is $27 per person, which includes tax and tip. Dinner selections are pork tenderloin, chicken and seafood pasta.
To make a reservation for the talk, dinner or both, call Melissa Guide (TD) at ext. 2-5242, or send an e-mail to mguide@anl.gov by Monday, Nov. 4. Visitors to Argonne will need to provide citizenship information when making reservations.
The winner of the final week's Argonne Combined Appeal (ACA) raffle was Deborah Waters (OCF-ACT).
She received $25, and her division coordinator was given $10.
The winning numbers of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's raffle during the agency visits were:
124891 — A baseball signed by
all-star third baseman Chris Sabo.
124874 — Chris Sabo signed
hat.
124884 and 124861 — A copy of
"Incidental Heroes: Disabling Myths about MS" and a classic rock CD.
Employees holding the winning tickets need to contact Corrie Patterson Kamiya (TD) at 2-9246 or cgpatterson@anl.gov by Friday, Nov. 8.
Details about the amount of money raised will be available in late 2002 or early 2003.
Pictures from the 2002 Agency Visit Week and more information about the campaign can be found on the ACA Web site.
Argonne's Preventive Health and Wellness Program will host several seminars and health screenings at Argonne-East in November and December.
Step Aerobics classes in conjunction
with the Argonne Exercise Club will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in November and December at
noon in Building 200, Conference Room K131.
"Trim and Tone" classes in conjunction
with the Argonne Exercise Club will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays in November and December at noon
in Building 200, Conference Room K131.
"A New Lifestyle — Cardiovascular
Disease Management Programs" sessions will be held Nov. 5, 12, 19, 26, and Dec. 3 and 10, at 11:30
a.m. in Building 200, Conference Room L135.
As a part of Women's Wellness
Wednesdays, screenings for osteoporosis, thyroid disorder, clinical breast exams and cholesterol
will be held at noon Wednesday, Nov. 6, in the Medical Department in Building 201.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, prostate
screenings will be held at 8:30 a.m. in Building 201 in the Medical Department.
"Holiday Survival Kit: Sanity,
Sobriety and
Satiety" will be presented Wednesday, Dec. 4, at noon in the Building 200 Auditorium.