March/April 2001NEWSLETTER
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March/April 2001 THOMAS JEFFERSON NATIONAL ACCELERATOR FACILITY • A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FACILITY Nathan Isgur comments on being awarded the Sakurai Sakurai winner! Prize Nathan Isgur receives American Physical Society award for 2001 Introducing Warren Funk, athan Isgur, Jefferson Lab’s Senior heavier quarks have been difficult to JLab’s SNS Project Services Manager NTheorist and Chief Scientist, was determine experimentally because it is one of three physicists recognized in dramatically harder to create and study March by the American Physical pairs of them than is the case for pairs of Society as this year’s recipients of the lighter quarks. J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Scientists like to examine objects indi- Introducing Rusty Sprouse, Particle Physics. vidually but this is impossible with quarks Lab’s Plant Engineering Director The prize is shared by the team of in nature because they are always bound Isgur and Mark Wise of Caltech, and to other quarks in pairs or groups of independently by Mikhail Voloshin of threes. The six different quarks that have the University of Minnesota. been identified in nature (in order of Gwyn Williams named APS These three developed a theory that increasing mass) are: up, down, strange, Fellow; Anne Reilly takes National allows physicists to deduce the indi- charm, bottom and top. The heaviest Science Foundation award vidual quark behavior of the very quark (the top) is about 100,000 times the heavy bottom quark by showing how mass of the lightest quark (the up). Deriving its properties can be directly inferred useful conclusions about quarks can now from the measurements of the charm be better addressed due to the discovery Countdown to JLab quarks. The detailed properties of the made by Isgur and Wise, and Voloshin. Continued on page 2 Open House, April 21 Ready, Set, Go for annual Run-A-Round, May 10 Lab creates Electronic Media section Thad Seeberger becomes $1 million customer using Lab’s Intranet Commerce Package Nathan Isgur takes a break during the chiral dynamics workshop held at JLab last summer. Nathan Isgur’s comments on being awarded the Sakurai Prize a2 * K2 * * D2 2 b + 1 a B2 3 1 3 1 K D1 1 B1 ρ * K * B * D B D K π Nathan Isgur receives APS award. Continued from page 1 The citation for the prize recog- Accelerator Center in California and ments of Sakurai. The purpose of the nizes Isgur, Wise, and Voloshin “For KEK the High Energy Accelerator prize is to recognize and encourage the construction of the heavy quark Research Organization in Japan. These outstanding achievement in particle mass expansion and the discovery of studies may provide new information theory. This year’s winners were the heavy quark symmetry in quantum that can be used to solve the puzzle of announced during the March meeting chromodynamics, which led to a quan- the matter-antimatter asymmetry in of the American Physical Society in titative theory of the decays of c and b our universe. Seattle. flavored hadrons.” The family and friends of J. J. Isgur has also recently been recog- Measurements on the properties of Sakurai — an internationally known nized by ISI Thomson Scientific for mesons, or quark pairs, containing the particle physicist — endowed the being among the world’s most cited heavy bottom quark are currently annual prize in 1984 as a memorial to authors — comprising less than one- underway at the Stanford Linear and in recognition of the accomplish- half of one percent of all publishing researchers. 2 ON TARGET • March/April 2001 Introducing Warren Funk brings extensive experience, knowledge to Lab, SNS project by Judi Tull s a young boy growing up in a During this time, his family — wife national laboratories has never been Asmall town in Canada, Warren Dorothy and sons Christopher and tried before. Funk took to reading science fiction. Geoffrey — were still living in Texas Although he’s not directly involved “There wasn’t much to do there,” he since his younger son was still in in the technical work, Funk says he recalls with a laugh. school. As luck would have it, he trav- likes to keep in touch with the techni- By the time he got to high school eled frequently from South Carolina to cal staff as much as possible, not just in the province of Manitoba and start- New Mexico, and Dallas was just about because it promotes better working ed to think about a career path, he halfway between. relationships but also out of his per- realized it had to be science. “When I Funk and his wife Dorothy moved to sonal interest in the science. looked at what I really enjoyed, that Williamsburg and he started work here “It was easy getting used to work- had to be it,” he says. on May 23, 2000. His primary responsi- ing here,” Funk comments, “because As the Project Services Manager bilities are to provide cost analysis and everyone has been helpful and friend- for Jefferson Lab’s part in building the scheduling support to Claus Rode, ly. Meeting people has been easy, Department of Energy’s Spallation Director of the Accelerator Division’s since the Lab is a relatively small Neutron Source, Funk is living out his Projects Department, and Project organization, especially compared to youthful vision. Manager for Jefferson Lab’s contribu- Los Alamos.” tion to the $1.4 billion Spallation After graduating from the Funk and his wife are enjoying Neutron Source (SNS) being built at University of Manitoba, he went on to Williamsburg and visit historical sites Oak Ridge, Tenn. He also assumes the University of British Columbia at and other local attractions during their Rode’s project responsibilities when the Vancouver where he earned his doc- leisure hours. They are both licensed latter is away from the office. torate in plasma physics. His first job single-engine and glider pilots, and was at the Chalk River Nuclear He has recently been involved in ini- both have instructed in gliders, Laboratory in eastern Ontario, which tial discussions about the process for although they’ve gotten away from he refers to as the Canadian equivalent assuring a successful handover of JLab- their favorite hobby over the years and of Argonne. He spent 18 years there produced systems and components to would like to get back to it. “Gliding working in accelerator physics, begin- the SNS, a particular challenge since is the purest form of flying there is,” ning on small electron accelerators for this type of partnership among the he says. cancer therapy applications. His next project was on a radio frequency sys- tem as Canada’s contribution to a part- nership with the German HERA pro- ject. As a result of that work, he was offered a position to work on the Superconducting Supercollider project and moved to Texas in 1990. He worked there as the manager of the Linear Accelerator group until the pro- ject was cancelled, and then stayed on to work with a fledgling partnership between a teaching hospital and a small company. In his next position, with Westinghouse at DOE’s Savannah River Site from 1996 to 2000, Funk served as “the accelerator guy” on a project that was run out of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He pre- pared and managed a training program for several hundred people on the Accelerator Production of Tritium. Warren Funk takes a moment out of his busy day to pose for a photo. March/April 2001 • ON TARGET 3 New APS Fellow Gwyn Williams, FEL basic research program manager, earns peer recognition wyn Williams, Jefferson Lab’s Free GElectron Laser Basic Research APS Fellows at Program Manager, was named a Fellow Jefferson Lab of the American Physical Society during March. Southeastern Universities Williams’ citation recognizes him Research Association (SURA) “For the development of synchrotron Jerry Draayer radiation as a bright infrared source and for its application to studies of surface Director’s Office dynamics.” Williams was presented his certificate of Fellowship during the APS Christoph Leemann DCMP (Condensed Matter) annual Ron Sundelin meeting in Seattle. Accelerator Division He said he is honored to be elected Swapan Chattopadhyay an APS Fellow. “It’s something you aspire to,” Williams commented. “It is a Charlie Sinclair medal of honor given by your peers, Gwyn Williams recognizing your professional contribu- tions and accomplishments to physics Physics Division knowledge and understanding.” Larry Cardman Franz Gross The APS Fellowship Program was science and technology. Each year, no Nathan Isgur created to recognize members who have more than one-half of one percent of the made advances in knowledge through Anatoly Radyushkin then current membership of the Society Dennis Skopik original research and publication, or are recognized by their peers for election made significant and innovative contri- to the status of Fellow in the APS. This butions in the application of physics to year 194 new Fellows were named. Career winner Anne Reilly receives National Science Foundation award nne Reilly, College of William and work with graduate and AMary physics professor and Free senior undergraduate stu- Electron Laser user, received a presti- dents at JLab’s Free gious CAREER award from the Electron Laser and in her National Science Foundation during laser lab in the William March. Small Physical Laboratory The highly competitive Faculty on the W&M campus. At Career Development (CAREER) the same time she plans to Awards are designed to encourage create hands-on experimen- research and teaching among young tal modules for use in scientists in the early stages of their teaching optics and materi- academic careers. als science. Reilly’s award amounts to $450,000 Reilly uses ultrashort over a period of five years.