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November 11, 1998 -- Some of this week's stories
Software will help control agricultural
pests
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When you've got carpenter ants in your house, you call the exterminator. But when you've got corn borers in the south 40, someday, you might depend on a system developed by Argonne.
Argonne is breaking into the world of pest control with the development of a software program that will help the agricultural community develop new pest control methods that minimize economic, health and environmental risks.
The long-term goal of Integrated Pest Management is to eliminate wide-area toxicants that have harmful side effects such as killing helpful insects and spiders.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently using the Pest Management Information and Decision Support System (PMIDSS) developed at Argonne to help farmers find alternatives to harmful pesticides that are being banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to Terry Janssen, who developed the technology and software while at Argonne, policy makers and scientists need to collaborate to avoid a potential farming crisis. Farmers must have alternatives they can use to replace techniques they have relied on since long before the EPA began regulatory actions.
PMIDSS will help officials determine the best replacements for banned pesticides. It will also help identify areas where research needs to be funded to find new alternatives. The software incorporates Internet access to help provide decision-makers with information from many sources.
The USDA invested nearly $1 million to develop PMIDSS, much of it through a Work For Others contract with Argonne.
-- Ritu Upadhyay
For the eighth year in a row, Argonne-West employees will help less fortunate families in the Idaho Falls area through the "Christmas for Families" program through Dec. 11. The Idaho site also has several other ways for employees to brighten the holidays for area children.
The goal of the Christmas for Families program is to adopt as many families as the previous year -- or more. Last year Argonne-West adopted 13 families, with 47 children. Argonne-West groups adopt families, donate money and buy, wrap and deliver the gifts for the children.
In addition to the "Christmas for Families" program, a Christmas tree will be displayed in the Laboratory and Office Building Lobby around Dec. 1. The tree will be decorated with ornaments representing children who can be supported by Argonne-West donations. The ornaments will display information about each child's sizes and needs. Argonne-West employees can remove an ornament from the tree and purchase a gift for that child. The gift, with ornament attached, should be brought unwrapped to Shelley Wray's office, Building 710, no later than Friday, Dec. 11.
(Children adopted by groups will not have an ornament on the tree as these groups will be buying presents for these children.)
Each area representative has large, colorful Christmas cards designed to take the place of the expense of buying individual Christmas cards for co-workers. Employees can donate the money they would have spent on cards to the "Christmas for Families Program."
A decorative box will be located near the cafeteria cash register for donations.
Chemist Luis Nuñez (CMT) has won an outstanding technical achievement award from the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference.
The awards conference identifies and documents outstanding Hispanic men and women making significant contributions to engineering, science and technology.
The outstanding technical achievement award recognizes contributions in designing, managing or developing a product, service, system or intellectual property.
Nuñez is a pioneer in the development of thermodynamics-based models and new technologies for extracting transuranic elements (those heavier than uranium) from waste.
He leads a team of chemists and other scientists who are developing physical and chemical separation processes for nuclear and environmental activities. The team is also developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sensing techniques for determining the contents of waste shipments without opening the containers.
He has written more than 60 journal articles and other publications, is a patent holder and serves as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Northern Illinois University.
He also teaches chemistry part time at DePaul University for the Students, Teachers, Educators and Parents (STEP) program. The program helps high-school students prepare for college.
Tickets for the Dec. 18 performance by actor-comedian Sinbad at Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre will go on sale in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 16-18 from noon to 1 p.m.
Sinbad appeared in the TV shows "A Different World" and "The Sinbad Show." He made his big-screen debut in the 1991 football comedy "Necessary Roughness." His generally G-rated comedy act features high-intensity stories told in a broad, physical style rather than rapid-fire streams of jokes.
The Argonne Club has obtained a limited number of excellent main-floor seats for the show. Tickets are $36.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, call Carolyn Arthur at ext. 2-9023.
Argonne, a laboratory chartered to research the peaceful uses of the atom, gets its name from the French forest where one of the last - and bloodiest - battles of World War Iwas fought 80 years ago.
In the autumn of 1918, General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing led the new First American Army in the fierce, bloody battles at Saint-Mihiel and the Argonne sectors. Fighting alongside British and French units, it was here that George Patton was wounded and won the Verdun Medal, and Sgt. Alvin York won his Congressional Medal of Honor.
Also known as the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the battle was part of an Allied assault against the Hindenburg line, the entrenched German defense positions in Western Europe. The immediate objectives of the First Army were to weaken these positions in the Argonne region of France and seize the chief German supply line.
The First Army struck deep into enemy positions before the Hindenburg line, then crossed the Aire River and captured all major German defense positions in the Argonne region. The pursuit that followed lasted nine days, from Nov. 1-10.
With their resources exhausted, German morale collapsed, and they requested an armistice. It was granted on Nov. 11, 1918. Being forced to admit guilt for the war put the Germans in a weaker position at the bargaining table for the Treaty of Versailles.
The main Memorial to the Defenders of the Argonne stands in a French military cemetery on the Haute Chevauchee within the Argonne forest. It commemorates 150,000 French soldiers, 18 Italian regiments and 32 American divisions.
Twenty-three years later, In December, 1941, Italian-born physicist, Enrico Fermi, and his colleagues at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, created the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, referred to as Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1).
Upon completion of their experiments, the reactor was dismantled in February, 1943, then rebuilt near Palos Hills, a discreet distance from downtown Chicago, and renamed CP-2. Nearby stood the Cook County "Argonne Woods," named for the similarly hilly Argonne Forest in France.
This site, which became known as "Site A," was suggested by Nobel Prize winner, Arthur Holly Compton, chairman of the physics department and dean of physical sciences at the University of Chicago, who rode horseback through the Argonne Woods. He had always shown an intense interest in the project.
On July 1, 1946, Argonne was designated as the nation's first national laboratory. It was soon clear that Argonne was outgrowing its small, wooded site.
After looking at five locations in Wisconsin to which to move Argonne, Laboratory Director Walter Zinn found that he would lose scientists (some were already leaving for other jobs) if the laboratory were not situated in the Chicago area.
In 1948, Argonne moved from Palos Hills to its present site near Lemont, occupying 3,700 acres sold to the federal government by local residents, largely farmers. The laboratory brought its scientists, its equipment and the name "Argonne" from the Palos site.
Today, despite the roots of its name, Argonne continues to find peaceful uses for new technologies, through such initiatives as arms control and non-proliferation studies, assisting in the decommissioning of a U.S. Army chemical warfare production facility, and providing support for reducing potential dangers from the production of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials and from weapons storage and destruction.
-- Joan Waltz
Finding a fellow Argonne-East employee to form a car-pool just got easier, thanks to a new page on the laboratory's World Wide Web site.
The"Carpool Connection" page searches the Argonne phone database and displays all entries matching the entered ZIP code.
Employees interested in forming a car-pool can then print or write down the telephone numbers of employees who live nearby.
Employees whose home address and phone number are not shown in the Argonne telephone database are not listed.
A link to the Carpool Connection can be found on the left border of theArgonnet page.
Argonne's retirement vendors will have representatives at Argonne-East during the last two weeks of November to meet individually with employees to answer questions about retirement plans or retirement plan assets.
To schedule a half-hour appointment, call the number listed.
| Vendor | Day | For Appointments, call: |
|---|---|---|
| TIAA-CREF | Wednesday, Nov. 18
Thursday, Nov. 19, Monday, Nov. 23 |
(800)842-2005 |
| Fidelity | Thursday, Nov. 19,
Friday, Nov. 20 |
Appointment Desk
(800) 642-7131 |
| Prudential | Monday, Nov. 16,
Tuesday, Nov. 17, Wednesday, Nov. 18 |
(847) 619-3519
Appointment Desk - Cheryl |
Chef Chris Kaminski of the Argonne Guest House Restaurant will host a holiday cooking class Thursday, Dec. 10.
From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Guest House, Kaminski will prepare -- and participants can taste -- canapes, mushrooms and polenta, vegetable strudel, pan-roasted turkey tenderloin with sweet potato gravy, oven-roasted chicken with pomegranate sauce and berry fudge tart.
Class size is limited, so early registration is encouraged. Registration is $20 and can be made in person at the guest house. For more information, call ext. 5-2006.
The Thanksgiving holiday will change time-card schedules at both Argonne sites and the deadlines forArgonne News.
At Argonne-East, employees who complete their work weeks on Friday, Nov. 20, must hand-deliver their time cards to the Payroll Department by 6 p.m. on that day -- before leaving for the weekend.
Employees who work that weekend should hand-deliver their time cards to Payroll on Monday, Nov. 23.
Payroll processing time for the Nov. 22 time cards is extremely short. Time cards received after these deadlines are not guaranteed payment on Friday, Dec. 4.
At Argonne-West, time cards should be turned in by 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19.
Newsdeadline moves up
The deadline for news, seminar listings and classified ads for the Monday, Nov. 30, issue ofArgonne News will be 9 a.m., Monday, Nov. 23. There will be no Friday delivery that week.
Credit union closes
TheArgonne Credit Union will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 26-27.
Cable viewers in Bolingbrook and Naperville can watch a short news video of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's visit to Argonne several times in the coming weeks.
The MediaOne cable outlet's "Update" program uses the video in its opening segment. It shows Richardson at the Argonne Information Center learning about "telepresence microscopy" and "distance learning." The video will be on the public information channel (channel 3 in Bolingbrook and Naperville). Dates and times are:
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Monday, Nov. 23 -- 8 p.m.
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Baseball caps, lunch bags and pins will be on sale in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria on Fridays starting Nov. 20.
Items will be available from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 20, Dec. 4 and Dec. 11. The sale is sponsored by the Argonne Chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (formerly Professional Secretaries International).
Also for sale will be a round, clear glass ornament that features the IAAP logo.
Judy Robson (IPD) will sell these items in Bldg. 900; call ext. 2-7991. For more information, contact Mary Ann Hejny (CMT) in Building 205 or call her at ext. 2-4379.
The Argonne Pioneers are selling calculator-memo pad combination sets.
The large-button calculator runs on both batteries and a solar cell. Its black case, decorated with a silver Argonne deer logo, includes a memo pad and pen.
Cost is $10. For more information, or to order, contact Evie Fagan (OPA) at ext. 2-5578.
Early registration for Joliet Junior College spring classes will be offered Friday, Nov. 20, from noon to 4 p.m. in the Human Resources offices in Argonne-East's Building 201.
College representatives will be available to register students for the spring classes that begin in mid-January.
Employees must bring a completed and approved Educational Assistance Form (ANL-89) to the registration. Call Betty Iwan (HR) at ext. 2-3410 for more information.
NEW ARRIVALS
A girl, Amy Rachelle, born October 4 to Bonnie andTom Bakes (OD); a girl, Amanda Ruth, born September 19 to Jeff andCindy Chaffee (RA); a boy, Marcus Ambrose, born September 22 toMichelle Romenesko (DIS-SSG); a boy, Tyson David, born October 5 toKarla Narducci (DIS) and grandmotherPaula Narducci (DIS-SSG); a girl, Lauren Nicole, born October 7 to Patty andJerzy Gazda (ET); a boy, Connor McGuire, born October 6 to Ginger andScott Perkins (EAD); a girl, Allison Renee, born September 13 to Jean andBrandon Cole (CMT); a boy, Mitchell Martin, born June 19 toKathy Vanoskey (OCF-PRO) and Ken Schultz; a boy, Thomas Dillon, born October 5 to Stacie andEddie Wicklatz (PFS-WMO).
Proud grandparents: a granddaughter, Sydnie Arin, born October 17 forJean Missig(DIS); a granddaughter, Ashlyn, born for Judy andKen Cornelius (EAD-DC); a granddaughter, Shannon Rose McKay, born October 19 forRobert Gebhardt (OCF-PRO); a grandson, Benjamin Matthew, born September 21 for Jim andJudy Wozniak (RE); a granddaughter, Brenna Caroline, born October 14 forCarol McCabe (MCS); a granddaughter, Gabrielle Kathleen, born October 12 forMyrna Czajkowski (ASD);
ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations toLester Erwin (ASD-OPS) who completed the Chicago Marathon on October 10th in 4 hours, 12 minutes and 5 seconds (4:12:05).
WEDDINGS/ENGAGEMENTS
Congratulations toJohn Arnish (EAD) on his marriage to Charmagne Doherty on September 5.Deborah Blunt (EAD) on her marriage to Bassel Nabelssi on August 23.David Schikora (PFS) on his marriage to Michelle Erdman on October 24.David Ercoli (PFS-CU) on his marriage to Iris Dillner on September 4.
GET WELL
Get well wishes forJulie Jacobs (OD) who is recovering from surgery andMarge Zurek (EAD).
WELCOME
DIS-ACAG welcomesFred Farleigh. EAD-Denver welcomesAuda Marie andScott Perkins. EAD welcomesNathan Rinsema. OCF-PRO welcomesEdy Haus. PFS-CU welcomesJudy Frantini,Robert Lange, Nicole Cali andGershawn Smith. RPS welcomes Susan Behm.
WELCOME BACK
Welcome back toSandy Guendling (TD) who returned to work after a car accident. Welcome back toPam Richmond (EAD).C. Smithberg (PFS-CU) andD. Colister (PFS-CU) both returned back to work from an illness.
CONDOLENCES
Our condolences toClarence Hammond (OD) on the death of his mother;Robert andConnie Tessmer (both OD) on the death of Robert's mother;Yuki Phelps (OD) on the death of her mother;Judy Gerches (PFS-WMO) on the death of her nephew;Phil Pizzica (RA) on the death of his father;Loren Habegger (EAD) on the death of his father;Dolores Valles (OCF-PRO) on the death of her daughter-in-law;Paula Hassert (OCF-PRO) on the death of her mother-in-law;A. Fox (PFS-CU) on the death of his father;L.Hendrix (PFS-CU) on the death her grandmother;Jeff Dukes (PFS-WMO) on the death of his father;Ed Russell (ASD) on the death of his grandmother;RalphHinterman (ESH) on the death of his mother;Yvette Woell (IPD-TIS) on the death of her mother-in-law.
PROMOTIONS
Congratulations toKimberly Lalumendre (OCF-PRO) andSue Underwood (OCF-PRO) both promoted to position of Acquisition Specialist.Liz Hartig (ES) was promoted to Administrative Secretary.
TRANSITIONS
Good luck toSue Baumann who transferred from EMO to EAD;Mary Fritsch who transferred from OCF-PRO to MCS;Mark Dodge transferred from PFS-CU to PFS-US.
FAREWELL
Good luck toZhian Li (DIS-SSG),Bob Sullivan (EAD),Fred Kirchner (EAD),Kou-John Hong (EAD),Randy Biang (EAD),Jan Sollé (OCF-PRO) andSusanSchaus (IPD-TIS) who have all left the laboratory.
CONTRIBUTORS
Thanks to this issue's contributors:Judy Beumer (MCS);Barb Burke (ECT-EE);Loretta Cescato (CMT);Gaylene Flores (ANL-W);Pat Frankovich (ET);Bonnie Gianpetro (PFS-WMO);Diana Grygiel (ESH);Barb Hall(APS);Eileen Johnson (RA); Karen Kroczek (PFS);Cathy Nelson (IPD-TIS); Joann Parnell (ES);Sally Peters (OCF-PRO); Eleanor Robson (EAD);Jean Slater (DIS); and Kim Tomasko (RE).
