NEW GOVERNORS -- Six new members have been named to the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne. Clockwise from upper left are Daphne Preuss, Victor Reis, John Wooley, Milan Mrksich, Sidney Nagel and Jay Davis.

Board of Governors has six new members

Six new members have been named to the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne: Jay Davis, strategic and scientific consultant; Milan Mrksich, professor at the University of Chicago; Daphne Preuss, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and University of Chicago professor; Sidney Nagel, Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor at the James Franck Institute; Victor Reis, senior vice president of Hicks Associates; and John Wooley, associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California at San Diego.

The University of Chicago, as a contractor to the Department of Energy, maintains a board of governors for Argonne through which it provides guidance, oversight, direction and advice to laboratory management. The board consists of a broad-based group of eminent individuals, including University of Chicago trustees, officials and faculty, representatives from other universities and industry leaders.

Davis is currently on advisory bodies for the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Nuclear Security Administration as a strategic and scientific consultant. Prior to his retirement in 2002 from Livermore, he served as the first national security fellow at the Center for Global Security Research. He holds patents in spectrometer technologies, and he is an author of more than 80 research articles. Davis will speak at Argonne-East Wednesday, Dec. 10; See story on page 3.

Mrksich is a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago. His research interests include biomaterials, drug discovery and cell-based technologies. Mrksich was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University prior to his tenure at the University of Chicago. In 2000, he was awarded the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Sloan Research Fellow award and the TR100 Young Innovator Award. Also, Mrksich serves on the scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology ventures and on the Defense Department’s Denfense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Research Council.

Preuss is currently a professor in the Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology Department at the University of Chicago. She chairs the advisory board of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the National Institues of Health entity that maintains the international DNA and protein databases. Her research focuses on reproduction and chromosome inheritance in plants. She chaired the oversight committee for the first plant genome project, and is the lead inventor of crop artificial chromosomes, a technology licensed to a Chicago-based company she founded.

Nagel is the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor in the physics department at the James Franck Institute and the College at the University of Chicago. Nagel has received many honors, awards and fellowships during his career, including an American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellowship in 1997. Nagel holds two patents and has written more than 170 research articles and a book.

Reis is senior vice president of Hicks Associates, a wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corp. He leads the Nuclear Strategies Project, a multi-organization venture that helps develop strategies for the international nuclear enterprise. Prior to his tenure at Hicks Associates, Reis was the assistant secretary for defense programs in the U.S. Department of Energy. He was also director of defense research and engineering, and later director, of DARPA.

Wooley is the associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California at San Diego. He is leading the campus in implementing new initiatives and training programs, including the creation of new interdisciplinary graduate and research programs, outreach to the greater San Diego scientific community and obtaining funding for these efforts. Wooley also has served as associate director of the Office of Energy Research at the Department of Energy.

Long to help run X-ray Operations, Research

Gabrielle Long has been appointed associate division director for X-ray Operations and Research (XOR). She will play a major administrative role in overseeing the activities of XOR -- a division whose responsibilities include the management of all beamlines and beamline research associated with the Advanced Photon Source (APS).

“That Gabrielle will be joining the APS is very exciting,” said Murray Gibson, associate laboratory director of the APS. “Her outstanding scientific leadership will expand the horizons of beamline research.”

Long is currently with the Ceramics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Since 1991, she has led the Materials Microstructural Characterization Group, which designed and now operates several NIST/Materials Science Engineering Laboratory X-ray beam stations at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The group is also a partner in the APS-based UNICAT Synchrotron Radiation Program -- a collaboration between several major laboratories that supports cutting-edge research in materials science and condensed material physics.

Long is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Materials Research Society, as well as Sigma Xi. Her leadership and scientific achievement have garnered much recognition, including a Department of Commerce bronze medal for her work in materials science.

She was Argonne’s Maria Goeppert Mayer Distinguished Scholar in 2001. The award, named for the Argonne physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, enables the scholar to conduct innovative research using Argonne’s resources.

“Gabrielle is a distinguished scientist and is widely recognized in the materials science and synchrotron radiation communities,” said Experimental Facilities Division Director Efim Gluskin. “We are gratified that our international search for a leader in XOR has led to such success.”

Long received her Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic University) in 1972. She conducted research and taught at Columbia University, Vassar College and the State University of New York at Stony Brook before joining NIST in 1980.

Researchers to discuss LDRD work

A mini-symposium on the results of Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects will be held from 2 - 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 11, in Argonne-East’s Building 201, Conference Room 190A and B

Topics will include:

“Nanoscale Multiferroics for Coupled Magnetic and Ferroelectric Functionality” by Mark Zurbuchen (MSD)

“Petascale Experimental Research” by Remy Evard (MCS)

“Surface Functionalization of Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Thin Films” by Millicent Firestone (MSD)

“Preparation and Crystallization of Membrane Proteins, MerC and MerT, Involved in Bacterial Mercuric Ion Detoxification” by Raj Pokkuluri (BIO)

“The Control of Shape, Size and Reactivity of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles” by Peter Zapol (MSD)

“Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Combining Lasers and X-Rays” by Bernard Adams (XFD)

Argonne’s invention reports rise 10% in 2003

The creativity and hard work of Argonne’s inventors, with the assistance of the Legal Department patent staff and Office of Technology Transfer, has resulted in a 10 percent increase in the number of inventions reported to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and a 10 percent increase in the number of patent applications filed in fiscal year 2003.

To report inventions, visit the Office of Technology Transfer Web page at www.anl.gov/invent/.

Inventors reporting to DOE in the second half of fiscal year 2003 were: 

Khalil Amine, Igor Aronson, Michelle Arora, Orlando Auciello, Robert Baker, Uthamalingam Balachandran, John Basco, Ruxandra Baurceanu, Ilias Belharouak, James Beitz, James Birrell, Walter Bullock, Amrit Boparai, John Carlisle, David Chaiko, Liaohai Chen, Boris Chernov, Lorac Chow, Curtis Clark, James Cunnane, Mark Donnelly, Stephen Dorris, Jeffery Elam, Robert Erck.

George Fenske, Randall Fielding, Julia Golova, Donald Graczyk, Dieter Gruen, Sreenath Gupta, Ahmed Hassanein, Gregory Hillman, John Hryn, Bernd Kabius, Arthur Kahaian, Brian Kay, David Kaufman, Isak Konkashbaev, Dong-Joo Kim, Jaekook Kim, Mark Knickelbein, Gaven Knighton, Alexander Kukhtin, Wai-Kwong Kwok, Tae Lee, Yuelin Li, Jie Li. YuPo Lin, Jun Liu.

Beihai Ma, Lee Makowski, Victor Maroni, Steven McConnell, Mitchell Meyer, William Miller, John Molburg, Jerry Moore, James Norem, Valentyn Novosad, Bookeun Oh, Michael Pellin, Tijana Rajh, Michael Richmann, Charles Roehm.

Sanjib Saha, Ramanujam Sekar, Seth Snyder, Shigemi Sasaki, Deming Shu, Fred Stevens, Edward St. Martin, Stephen Streiffer, Marion Thurnauer, Emil Trakhtenberg, Michael Vogt, Arun Wagh, Qinzheng Wang, Shuangyan Wang, Thomas Wiencek, Donald Vissers, James Willit, John Woodford, and Xingcheng Xiao.

Lab’s Toastmasters win trophies, recognition

The Argonne Toastmasters Club has been recognized by Toastmasters International for achieving the status of “President’s Distinguished.”

To achieve distinguished status, a club’s members must be active and successful in competitions, and encourage speech education among its members.

Three of the Argonne Club’s members, Carolyn Arthur (HR-DPO), Karen Ley (ER) and Eugene Williams (CIS) received special recognition. Ley and Williams recently competed in area and division evaluation and humorous speech contests. Ley placed second in the humorous speech competition and Williams took first-place honors in two evaluation speech contests. He went on to compete at the district level where he took second-place honors.

The final evaluation speech competition was held Nov. 8; Williams competed against five other contestants and placed second.

Arthur received the highest education designation that Toastmasters International awards its members: distinguished toastmaster. Arthur is the first woman to receive this designation since the Argonne chapter was chartered in 1968. She received a plaque and medallion.

CIGNA offers new vision-care program

CIGNA HealthCare’s Healthy Rewards program will offer a new vision-care feature starting Jan. 1, 2004. CIGNA medical plan participants can use the Optical Shop and receive coupons and rebates on popular vision-care products and services from well-known manufacturers and suppliers. To access the Optical Shop go to www.mycigna.com or contact CIGNA HealthCare Healthy Rewards at 1-800-870-3470.

‘Introduce a girl to engineering’ meeting set

A meeting of engineers interested in participating in the 2004 “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” will be held Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004, in Argonne-East’s Building 362, Room B324, from noon-12:30 p.m.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED) will be held Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004. The event was conceived to reach out to grade school girls with positive messages about math and science education and engineering careers. This nationwide event is part of the National Engineering Week 2004 activities, Feb 22-28.

In support of IGED, Argonne will hold its third annual job-shadowing event for junior high school girls. The idea is to allow students to “shadow” a woman engineer during the day to give the students insight into a career in engineering.

Employees interested in participating, or who would like to recommend students, should contact organizer Laura Skubal (ES) at l@anl.gov or ext. 2-0931 by Jan. 15, 2004.

National security topic of Dec. 10 colloquium

Jay C. Davis, a strategic and scientific consultant and member of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne, will speak on “The Role of Science and Technology in National Security” at a Director’s Special Colloquium Wednesday, Dec. 10, at Argonne-East.

Davis’s talk will begin at 3 p.m. in the Building 402 Conference Center.

Until his retirement in 2002, Davis served as the first National Security Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Center for Global Security Research. Previously, he spent three years as the founding director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Davis had major operational and scientific responsibilities in two United Nations inspections of Iraq in 1991.

He was selected as the only non-U.N. member of the team that briefed the U.N. Security Council on evidence of Iraqi evasion of the inspection process and violation of the non-proliferation treaty.

Pioneers to sell votives

The Argonne Pioneers will sell Orrefors “Firefly” votives, in individual gift boxes, in Argonne-East’s Building 213 Cafeteria Thursday, Dec. 18, and Friday, Dec. 19, from 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. The frosted-glass candleholders will be sold for $10.

CIS CLASSES

Classes offered by Computing and Instrumentation Solutions are held in Argonne-East’s Building 201, Room 167C. Unless otherwise specified, class sizes are limited to eight participants and cost $215. Complete computer class descriptions, schedules and enrollment forms are available online. For information about enrollment, contact Diane Cavazos (CIS) at ext. 2-7153 or dkcavazos@anl.gov.

January classes include:

“Introduction to Word 2000” (CIS100) -- Monday, Jan. 12, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

“Introduction to Excel 2000” (CIS101) -- Tuesday, Jan. 13, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

“Introduction to Access 2000” (CIS102) -- Wednesday, Jan. 14, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

“Introduction to PowerPoint 2000” (CIS106) -- Thursday, Jan. 15, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

“Advanced PowerPoint 2000” (CIS107) -- Friday, Jan. 16, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Leukemia research topic of talk

A lecture on “Focus on Acute Myeloid Leukemia” will be presented by Elizabeth Eklund Friday, Dec. 12, at 1:30 p.m. in Argonne-East’s Building 362 Auditorium.

Eklund is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Northwestern University’s Medical School and the Robert H. Luire Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her leukemia research is partly funded by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an Argonne Combined Appeal agency.

The lecture is sponsored by the Argonne Combined Appeal, the Energy Systems Division and the Biosciences Division.

For more information, call Sandra Biedron (ES) at ext. 2-1162.

Arts, crafts, fashion featured at bazaar

Holiday gifts will be available Monday, Dec. 8, at the Argonne Craft Club Holiday Craft Bazaar, Part 2.

The craft bazaar will be held in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria Lobby and Dining Room A from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“This is a great opportunity to not only see the creativity of lab employees, but to also find one-of-a-kind presents for the people on your holiday shopping list,” said co-organizer Valerie Gaines (IPD).

Items for sale will include wreaths, tree ornaments and decorations like Afghans, artwork and accessories. Jewelry and stationery will also be sold. There will be gifts geared toward babies, cats and scientists.

A mini-fashion show will be held in Dining Room A, and there will be door prizes.

MANAGEMENT CORNER

By Sgt. Jim Johnson, Security Consultants Group

Old Man Winter is back, bringing along a slew of hazardous roadway conditions that can turn commuting into a dangerous activity.

These conditions, which include everything from winter weather to the early arrival of nighttime, will require motorists to be much more cautious when taking to the roads.

In addition, with deer mating season in full swing, motorists should also watch out for an increase in deer activity especially at dusk and during pre-dawn hours.

Just last month there were a number of accidents that could have been avoided. If you are involved in a traffic accident, call 911 to receive help immediately.

Please remember to drive carefully, use turn signals, and obey the speed limit. Following these simple rules of the road will make Old Man Winter’s stay a lot more tolerable for everyone on site.

For tips on winter driving, see www.icepack.org.

HR CLASSES

To enroll, contact a Training Management System Representative. For more information, call Betty Iwan at ext. 2-3410.

Complete course descriptions are online.

December Classes:

“Brown Bag Lunch: Developing Positive Assertiveness” (HR278) -- Tuesday, Dec. 9, Noon - 1 p.m., Building 201, Conference Room 238.

“Brown Bag Lunch: Intellectual Property” (HR334) -- Thursday, Dec. 11, Noon - 1 p.m., Building 362, Conference Room F108.

MetLife rep offers home, auto quotes

A representative from MetLife Auto & Home will visit Argonne-East Tuesday, Dec. 9, to meet with individual employees for insurance comparisons and quotes for the “METPAY” group automobile and homeowners insurance program.

To schedule an appointment, call Craig Riddick at (630) 810-0346, ext. 143. Employees can also receive a quote by phone by calling 1-800-438-6388.

Next issue is last for 2003

The last issue of Argonne News in 2003 will be published Monday, Dec. 15. Publication will resume with the issue of Monday, Jan. 12, 2004; news, seminars and classified ads for the first issue of the new year must be received by 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 5. Late-breaking news and updates will be posted to the Argonne News Web site: www.anl.gov/news.html.

Argonne Today will continue publication through Tuesday, Dec. 23, and will resume Monday, Jan. 5

Guest House to close for special event

The Argonne Guest House will not serve lunch Friday, Dec. 12, or Friday, Dec. 19, due to special events. Breakfast and dinner will be available both days.

Questions about Social Security to be answered

A representative of the Social Security Administration’s Joliet office will visit Argonne-East’s Human Resources office Wednesday, Dec. 17, from 8 a.m. to noon.

To schedule a meeting, call ext. 2-2991.