Some of this week's stories

Argonne, U of C establish
new computer resource center

Seed funding of $40,000 for the center was provided from the Argonne Collaborative Grants Program, but an additional $190,000 is being provided in equal parts by the university and Argonne. The one-year grants were created to encourage joint initiatives by Argonne and University of Chicago researchers and to increase the interaction between the university and Argonne. The program provides funding for imaginative proposals which might not fall within the current framework of the standard granting agencies.

Computational science, a relatively new field, is a "third way" of approaching difficult scientific problems, said Rick Stevens, Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) Division. "Computational science is a way of applying large-scale, high-performance computing to problems you can't attack using traditional non-computational theory or pure experiment," he said. Stevens and Robert Rosner, professor and chairman of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, will head the center.

The center will take advantage of the computer resources at the university and the laboratory, including the the IBM SP2 supercomputer and CAVE virtual environment at Argonne, the high-speed network linking the two institutions and a 30-terabyte (30 trillion bytes) mass storage system funded by the National Science Foundation .

Three research consultants will be employed by the center, Stevens said, providing expertise in supercomputer software, client-server computing and networking, and computer graphics. The consultants will provide assistance to researchers on each of the center's six initial projects, which range from computer-aided interpretation of mammograms to extending and refining digital methods for analyzing and visualizing astronomical X-ray sources.

Parallel Computing
tutorials held May 14

The tutorials, to be held in Argonne-East's Building 402 (Advanced Photon Source Conference Center) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, are open to all interested Argonne employees.

The tutorials are hosted by the Center for Research on Parallel Computation (CRPC), a National Science Foundation -funded science and technology center. The center was established in 1989 to make massively parallel computing systems as usable as conventional supercomputing systems are today. Argonne is a member of CRPC.

Many Argonne researchers are, or will soon be, involved in parallel computing, which applies many microprocessors to a single computing task. The advantage over traditional, single-processor computing is that parallel computers can tackle problems faster and with greater power.

The tutorials are designed for researchers and practitioners interested in applying data-parallel computation to scientific programs.

In the morning tutorial, Chuck Koelbel will introduce programmers to the most important features of High-Performance FORTRAN and illustrate how it can be used in practice on algorithms for scientific computation.

In the early afternoon session "Emerging Web Technologies," Geoffrey Fox will summarize features of key Web enabling languages -- Java, JavaScript and VRML.

Mark Baker will discuss metacomputing -- combining heterogeneous computers over a high-speed, wide-area network -- and its effects on the high performance computing and communications community.

For registration information, or to find out more about the CRPC and the tutorials, see the World Wide Web page at http://www.crpc.rice.edu/CRPC. Registration information can be found at the link to "Public Invited to Attend CRPC Tutorial." Registration deadline is Monday, May 6.

These tutorials are open to the public for a fee of $50.

Rockhurst College Dedicates
Monahan Laboratory

Dedication ceremonies for the James Emmett and Elizabeth Ann Monahan Student-Faculty Research Laboratory took place Thursday, May 2, during dedication and blessing ceremonies for the college's new Aubrey Richardson Science Center.

James Monahan was an internationally published theoretical physicist who spent his professional career in the Physics Division's theory group, beginning in 1951. He was an expert in the statistical theory of the nucleus and experimentation to test and clarify the theory. He died in 1993. The Monahan Laboratory at Rockhurst will provide students with research opportunities with a focus on physics.

Elizabeth Monahan, a Burr Ridge resident, talked with her husband before his death, and later with Rockhurst faculty, to find the best way to honor Monahan while helping Rockhurst educate scientists. The Monahans' $100,000 gift made possible the Monahan Laboratory and an endowment to support research efforts.

Rockhurst is a Masters I level Jesuit college in Kansas City, Mo., founded in 1910. The college offers a full range of undergraduate programs in arts and sciences plus management and health care graduate degrees.

Maine South High School
wins `Rube Goldberg Contest'

Second-place winner was Marist High School and Victor J. Andrew High School took third. Twelve Chicago-area high school teams took part in the contest, and built elaborate and bizarre machines to plant a seed in soil. The contest was sponsored by Argonne and held at the Chicago Children's Museum, Navy Pier.

Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by the late Reuben Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into complex devices to perform trivial tasks.

Argonne volunteers sought for
local environmental activities

Argonne's Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention (WM&PP) Advisory Committee and the DuPage County Forest Preserve are sponsoring the cleanup walk, which will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

A minumum of 20 volunteers is needed to spend an afternoon cleaning and beautifying Argonne and forest preserve grounds.

Another 20 Argonne volunteers are needed to represent the laboratory at the river sweep, a county-wide stream clean-up. Groups volunteer to remove debris in and along the county waterways. Since 1991, more than 1,000 volunteers have removed 50 tons of garbage from DuPage County streams.

Supplies and technical support are provided by the DuPage River Project, a volunteer project of the Conservation Foundation of DuPage County. The DuPage River Sweep is part of the Illinois Rivers Rescue Weekend.

For more information on these events, or to sign up, call Lorraine Morris (EMO) at ext. 2-9483, Keith Trychta (EMO) at ext. 2-1476, or the WM&PP Hotline at ext. 2-6778.

Session to discuss benefits
of surplus chemical storage

Randy Ogle of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Metals and Ceramics Division will give a presentation on the success of that laboratory's between-use storage area and the benefits of sharing surplus chemicals.

For more information, or to suggest topics for future sessions, call Lorraine Morris (EMO) at ext. 2-9483, Keith Trychta (EMO) at ext. 2-1476, or the Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention hotline at ext. 2-6778.

Visualization Workshop information

Held March 27 at the Idaho site, the workshop was organized by the Engineering Division and conducted through the combined efforts of the Technology Development Divison and Reactor Program Services Division. The workshop was designed to inform the Argonne-West technical staff about the variety of tools available that take advantage of visualization technology.

The workshop featured short technical presentations on areas such as visualization in drafting technology, parametric design, analysis and rapid prototyping, photo-based virtual environments, visualization for instrumentation, stereoscopic and 3-D visualization, and research in virtual environments. Presenters included Linda Hansen (ED), Gene Sherman (ED), Dale Wahlquist (TD), Fred Yapuncich (TD), Bob Seidel (ED), Greg Peters (ED), and Alenka Brown-VanHoozer (ED).

Following the presentations, workstation demonstrations were given on research and development applications at Argonne-West.

Plans are underway for a similar workshop next year.

For more information, contact Linda Hansen (AW-ED) at ext. 6-7640.

Computer users to meet

The meeting agenda includes:

* CUG officer transition process

* Update on microfiche service and 3900 printer

* Unbundling of telephone rates

* Integrated services digital network (ISDN) user experience

* ECT to provide computer support to plant facilities and services division

n Why is some electronic mail so slow?

The CUG usually meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 3 p.m. in Conference Room A216 of Building 221. Meetings are open to all interested ANL and DOE employees.

To subscribe to the CUG mailing list, send "subscribe cuglist e_address" in the body of an e-mail message to Majordomo@ra.anl.gov. (Replace "e_address" with a valid e-mail address.) Additional CUG information is available in newsgroup anl.committees.cug and on the World Wide Web.

Send topic suggestions to Pat Garner (PLGarner@anl.gov, 2-4872). Send mailing list questions to Ken Miles (KJMiles@anl.gov, 2-3095).

Earth Day Forum draws 1,500

Earth Day exhibitors included the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Johnson Products, Nature's Corner, and USA Waste Services. Information sessions included talks on environmental issues within corporate America, attracting wildlife to backyards and commercial and residential recycling programs.

Employees who spun an "environmental wheel" received water bottles and wildflower seed packages from the IEPA.

Literature from Argonne's Waste Management and Pollution Prevention program was distributed to interested employees and a survey was conducted in the cafeteria lobby to analyze employee's response to on-site recycling and waste minimization efforts.

The Earth Day forum was sponsored by the Waste Management and Pollution Prevention Advisory Committee. For more information, call the committee's hotline at ext. 2-6778.

Joliet Junior College
to offer assistance

Argonne employees will be able to register for classes in the Joliet Junior College's summer and fall terms.

The service will be offered from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Building 201, Conference Room 141N.

Visitors' spouses invited
for coffee, conversation

The coffee will be held from 9:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. at the home of Natasha Mirzabekov, 1005 Village Cout, Darien.

For directions, or to arrange a ride, call Susan Berger at (708) 963-3735 or the Newcomers Assistance Office at ext. 2-8647.

PLC Course to be Repeated

The course will begin on Wednesday, June 5, and continue for ten Wednesdays from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Paul Slomkowski will be the instructor for this 3 credit-hour lecture/lab course.

To enroll, contact Karen Kroczek at 2-8764.

HR gauging interest
in several new courses

Interested employees should call Betty Iwan (HR) at 2-3410.

Classes under consideration are:

* "The Internet"" -- A half-day introduction to the Internet.

* "Microsoft Windows 95 Fundamentals" -- Learn the most powerful new features of Windows 95, including taskbar.

* "Microsoft Word for Windows 95 Advanced" -- Learn to customize menus and toolbars to build more effective documents.

* "Microsoft Word 6.0: Working with Tables, Columns and Imported Data" -- Create a table, format and sort the data and import spreadsheet data.

* "Integrating Microsoft Office Applications" -- Learn to create complex documents in Word and import Excel and PowerPoint data.

* "Excel 5.0 Advanced Excel Functions" -- Learn use of logical functions and a data table to more powerfully utilize Excel.

* "PowerPoint for Windows 4.0" -- Learn how to enhance the look of a presentation, create speaker notes and audience handouts.

Monday, May 6

Mathematics and Computer Science Division Seminar: "Improving Data Locality With Loop Transformations" by Steve Carr, Michigan Technological University, Department of Computer Science, Houghton. 10:30 a.m., Bldg. 221, Conference Room A216.

Chemistry Division Monday Morning Seminar Series: "From the Hydrated Electron to Chemistry of Radioactive Waste: The Radiation Chemistry Program of Yesteryear and Today [50th Anniversary]" by Max S. Matheson, Charles Jonah & Dan Meisel, (CHM). 11 a.m., Bldg. 200 Auditorium.

Wednesday, May 8

Materials Science Division Seminar: "X-Ray Holography with Atomic Resolution" by Thomas Gog, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn. 11 a.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A157.

High Energy Physics Division Seminar: "The Search Beyond the Standard Model at D0" by Lee Lueking, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Ill. 11 a.m., Bldg. 362, Conference Room F108.

Energy Systems Division Seminar: "Superadiabatic Combustion and Its Applications" by Sergei Zhdanok, Director, Chemical Physics Laboratory, Heat & Mass Transfer Institute, Belarus Academy of Sciences, Minsk, Belarus and currently a visiting Professor in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago. 1 p.m., Bldg. 200, Conference Room J183.

Physics Division Seminar: "Fragmentation of the Gamow-Teller Strength Observed in (³He,t) and (³He,tp) Reactions at 150 MeV/N" by Kenji Katori, Osaka University, Japan. 3:30 p.m., Bldg. 203, Conference Room R150.

Thursday, May 9

Experimental Facilities Division Seminar: "Surface Structure of Dilute Bismuth-Gallium Alloy: An X-Ray Scattering Study" by Ning Lei, University of Chicago, Ill. 10 a.m., Bldg. 401, Conference Room A1100.

Mathematics and Computer Science Division Seminar: "Extensible Automatic Differentiation Tool For C" by Lucas Roh, (MCS). 10:30 a.m., Bldg. 221, Conference Room A216.

Friday, May 10

Materials Science Division Seminar: "Magnetic Hysteresis Loops and Vortex Relaxations in High Temperature Superconductors" by Ladislav Pust, Department of Magnetism, Division of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. 11 a.m., Bldg. 223, Conference Room S105.

Physics Colloquium: "Multiphoton Induced X-ray Emission" by Charles Rhodes, University of Illinois, Chicago. 11 a.m., Bldg. 203 Auditorium.

First Friday Forum: Discussion of the 1996 Second Technical Women's Symposium that took place April 29-30 and the 1996 Science Careers for Women conference that took place May 3. Noon, Bldg. 201, Conference Room 190.

Materials Sciences Division and Experimental Facilities Division Seminar: "The Stretching Ridge: A New Structural Element in Crumpled Elastic Sheets" by Tom Witten, University of Chicago, Ill. 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A230.

Monday, May 13

Chemistry Division Monday Morning Seminar Series: "Forever Amber: The Chemistry of Fossil Resins in Sedimentary Environments" by Ken B. Anderson, (CHM). 11 a.m., Bldg. 200 Auditorium.

Tuesday, May 14

Materials Science Division Seminar: "Non-Linear Effects in Heavy-Ion Sputtering" by Hans Henrik Anderson, Neils Bohr Institute, Denmark. 11 a.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room B201.

Wednesday, May 15

Energy Systems Seminar: "High-Temperature Superconductors" by Bob Giese, (ES). Noon, Bldg. 360, Conference Room L119.

Physics Division Theoretical Physics Seminar: "Quantum Analog Computers" by Seth Lloyd, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. 3 p.m., Bldg. 203, Conference Room B221.

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Story ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome. The Argonne News office is in Building 201, room 2Q-02 (OPA-201). The fax number is ext. 2-5274. Send E-mail to Argonne News editor Dave Jacque.

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