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$6.27 million awarded
for CARS project at
Advanced Photon Source

The funding is part of the Presidential Science Facilities Initiative and comes through DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Other agencies, including the National Science Foundation , and the universities involved are also contributing funds to the projects.

The three-year awards will pay for state-of-the-art experiments in the physical, chemical and biological sciences that DOE expects will result in new information that could provide better materials, new pharmaceuticals and improved energy technologies.

"This knowledge will be enormously helpful to the nation's energy security, economic competitiveness and environmental quality," said Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary. "These new instruments will also create educational opportunities for graduate students in areas important to the future of the nation's science and technology."

* Pappannan Thiyagarajan (IPNS) will receive $240,000 from DOE and $110,000 from other funding sources for the development of a high-resolution position-sensitive gas detector for small angle neutron scattering at the IPNS.

Grants to Argonne scientists for APS projects are:

* Lin Chen (CHM) -- $790,000 from DOE for research into molecular structural changes that occur in photochemical reactions. APS X-rays will be used to analyze short-lived "intermediate" molecules produced during photochemical reactions initiated by a laser pulse. Intermediate structures will provide clues to reaction mechanisms and guidance for theoretical modeling.

* Lynda C. Soderholm (CHM) -- $1.24 million from DOE and $1.2 million from other sources for a facility at the APS to study actinides, the heaviest, mostly man-made elements.

* R.E. Winans (CHM) -- $945,000 from DOE and $900,000 from other sources to construct an X-ray scattering instrument on the undulator beamline of the Basic Energy Sciences Synchrotron Radiation Center (BESSRC) at the APS. Undulator magnets vibrate the APS positron beam to produce beams in which nearly all the X-rays have the same, tunable energy.

About $25 million was awarded to researchers from a number of other organizations for APS projects, including:

* Alan Goldman, Ames Laboratory, to build an undulator beamline for the Midwestern Universities collaborative access team (CAT);

* Simon Mochrie, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for a beamline dedicated to physics and materials science;

* Michael Bedzyk, Northwestern University , to develop X-ray facilities;

* Peter Eisenberger, Princeton University, to complete the Complex Materials Consortium beamline;

* Steve Durbin, Purdue University, for X-ray physics of materials;

* Randy S. Duran, University of Florida, for the Materials Research CAT undulator beamline;

* E. Ward Plummer, University of Tennessee, for surface studies using X-ray scattering;

* Stuart Rice, University of Chicago, for the Chemistry Materials Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources beamline;

* Steven Sutton, University of Chicago, for the GeoCARS beamline;

* Wilfried Schildkamp, University of Chicago, for the BioCARS beamline.

The grants will enable the scientists to push the frontiers of knowledge, said David Schramm, University of Chicago vice-president for research.

Dedicated in May, the APS has the capability of revealing atomic and molecular structures in greater detail than ever before, opening new vistas of research in materials science, chemistry, physics, biotechnology, medicine and the geosciences. Research at the APS is expected to enhance the nation's high-technology competitiveness in such areas as semiconductors, polymers, pharmaceuticals and catalysts.

`Letters of intent' due for
Argonne/U of C grants

The grant program, now in its second year, encourages initiatives by university and Argonne researchers that will lead to the development of significant intellectual collaborations and interactions.

The first competition, held last year, resulted in 11 awards totaling about $400,000. Investigators seeking renewal of these awards for a second year do not need to submit a new proposal and will be notified of the renewal procedures.

New grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. Each proposal must have two or more principal investigators, at least one from each institution. Grants are open to all areas of mutual intellectual interest. Priority will be given to proposals that can lead to long-term enhancement of the university/laboratory intellectual relationship.

The grants themselves are intended to provide seed money for the development of further activity. Eligible proposals include, but are not limited to, proposals for joint research, workshops, or educational or training projects.

To make proposal preparation easier, the process for research awards this year will consist of two phases, starting with letters of intent. Letters should be one page or less and should include:

* names of the expected principal and co-investigators (including phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses;

* the nature of the proposed project;

* discussion of the potential contribution to the enhancement of the university/laboratory intellectual relationship;

* the source for eventual external funds.

A review committee will select the most promising letters of intent and request full proposals. The review committee will meet as quickly as possible after the Nov. 18 deadline. Proposals may request funding for periods up to 24 months.

Letters of Intent may be sent to David Schramm with a copy to James LaFevers by e-mail, fax, or mailed to the addresses below.

David N. Schramm Vice President for Research The University of Chicago 5801 South Ellis Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: dns@oddjob.uchicago.edu Fax: 773/702-8212

James R. LaFevers Office of the Vice President for Argonne The University of Chicago 9700 South Cass Avenue, Building 201 Argonne, Illinois 60439-4832 E-mail: jlafevers@anl.gov Fax: 630/252-5329

Details on proposals and types of collaborations eligible for grants are on the university's World Wide Web site, along with last years' grant winners.

Meetings to explain
new mutual funds ..

The meetings will be held in the Argonne-East's Building 402 Auditorium. Meeting times for both days are 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

... and CIGNA opens site
on World Wide Web

The site includes an overview of CIGNA HealthCare, descriptions of its products, information on health and wellness issues and details on special programs available to those who participate in a CIGNA health care plan.

Future enhancements of the site will include directories with detailed information on CIGNA HealthCare's Preferred Provider (PPO) and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) networks, including participating facilities, pharmacies and physicians for each CIGNA network.

Argonne at 50: Elusive neutrino
glimpsed at giant bubble chamber

A particle that barely exists, as humans measure existence, is so remarkably small that trillions pass through our bodies every second with no effect.

That particle is the neutrino, and it could pass through a chunk of lead thicker than the Earth as easily as a person walks through fog.

The history of the neutrino and the history of Argonne long have been intertwined. The legendary physicist Enrico Fermi, who was the first director of the organization that eventually became Argonne National Laboratory, "invented" the neutrino in the 1930s to account for an atomic energy imbalance. He never actually saw a neutrino, and he expected that no one ever would. That expectation marked one of the few times Fermi was wrong.

Fermi and other scientists studying a form of radioactivity in which a neutron decays into a proton and an electron calculated that the combined energy of the proton and electron was less than that of the original neutron. To balance the energy equation a third particle was needed, and so the neutrino was "born."

To explain why this mysterious particle had never been detected, the scientists theorized that it had no charge, no mass, and thus could pass through any object -- detectors included -- without interacting with anything.

Neutrinos, they said, were inherently undetectable.

But the neutrino's existence was proven in the 1950s and the little particle quickly became an element of what physicists call "the standard model," science's current dominant theory of matter and energy.

And in 1970, Argonne scientists saw evidence that Fermi had been wrong when they observed a neutrino in a hydrogen bubble chamber.

In fairness to Fermi, the device that permitted the neutrino observation -- Argonne's Zero Gradient Synchrotron (ZGS), a 12.5-billion-electron-volt particle accelerator featuring a 12-foot hydrogen bubble chamber surrounded by a 107-ton superconducting magnet -- was almost certainly beyond even his vision in the 1930s. Superconductors, materials that lose all resistance to electricity when cooled to near absolute zero, allow construction of efficient electromagnets that use far less energy and create more powerful magnetic fields than larger, heavier magnets that use conventional materials.

Today, neutrinos continue to occupy Argonne scientists.

An Argonne team is readying an experiment which could prove that neutrinos do have mass. If they do, and because there are so many neutrinos in the universe, it might turn out that the little particle no one thought could be detected actually accounts for much of the mass of the universe -- more than all the stars and planets combined.

That experiment currently is scheduled to get under way in 2001.

Curtiss is AAAS Fellow

AAAS Fellows "have been elevated to this rank because of their efforts toward advancing science or fostering applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished," said AAAS spokeswoman Ellen Cooper.

The awards will be presented at the 148-year-old society's 1997 meeting in Seattle.

Curtiss's research in materials chemistry centers on computational modeling of diamond films, electron transfer processes, and thermochemistry. At Argonne for 20 years, he received his doctorate in chemistry from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Craft Club plans
annual bazaar

For more information, call Fran Anderson (OCF) at ext. 2-6875 or Loretta Phillips (ECT) at ext. 2-6934.

Employees interested in crafts are invited to visit the club's meetings, held every Tuesday at noon in Building 201, Room 190. Dues are $5 a year.

Argonne musicians
offered chance to play
at cafeteria parties

The parties will give Argonne employees a chance to show off their musical talents. Bands can play a short set in any style, from rock to polka, as long as they contain at least one Argonne employee. The favorite group from each party will meet in a showdown in the spring.

Dates and the number of parties will be determined by the number of responses. Those interested should call Dennis Sullivan at ext. 2-5225.

Special cell phone deals
offered to lab employees

Employees need only to show their laboratory badge to be eligible to purchase cell phones at corporate rates.

Representatives will return Friday, Nov. 22, to deliver phones and to answer questions.

For more information and handouts on the special packages, call Tina Stanton (ECT) at ext. 2-2723.

Weight Watchers
host open house

There is no charge for the open house sessions, and all interested employees are invited to attend.

Class will teach basics
of home energy rating

Participants will learn how to use the Illinois Home Energy Rating System (HERS) software and how to conduct a blower door test.

The class is the first step to becoming a certified Home Energy Rater in the state of Illinois. Trainees also must conduct six supervised ratings and take a test for certification.

The class is sponsored by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. Class space is limited. To register, call John Marley at (217) 785-2007. For more information on the class, call Jim Cavallo (DIS) at ext. 2-8688.

Netscape 3.0
now available

Version 3.0 adds fully integrated video, audio, 3D and Internet telephone communications abilities.

Argonne's contract with Netscape allows employees to use one copy of Netscape at both work and home, as long as the copies are not used at the same time. Current registered users can download any major or minor versions of Netscape released through Dec. 31. The password for encrypting both the diskette versions and the single-file version of the Netscape files remain the same as for previous versions.

PC users can access Netscape through ECT's site licenses home page.

Macintosh versions are on the Mac Public Volume and Unix users can access the files via the Andrew File System (AFS).

Public volumes also contain versions of Netscape designed to be copied onto diskettes for use at home.

New Netscape users should register with ECT Account Services at ext. 2-5425.

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Deadline Information

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.

Seminar listings: Send by inter-office mail to Evie Fagan, Building 201, room 2U-09 (OPA-201). Fax to ext. 2-5274, or send by E-mail.

Classified ads: Please limit ads to 25 words. Send by inter-office mail to Evelyn Fagan, Building 201, room 2U-09 (OPA-201). A drop box is located at the Argonne News office.

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