Fermilab 50th Anniversary

A regular stop on any tour is the CMS Remote Operations Center.

Low fly-by view of the Fermilab site model on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall

Officers of Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association FSPA in the Russell Senate Office Building. Left to right: Rui An, Jessica Esquivel, Wes Gohn, Mônica Nunes and Kanika Sachdev.

The people who represented us in Washington, DC, this week were: Front row: KellyStifter SLUO, Corrinne Mills USLUA, Samuel Meehan USLUA, Jane M. Nachtman USLUA, Zeynep Demiragli USLUA, Sowjanya Gollapinni UEC, Rachel Hyneman USLUA, Cindy Joe UEC, Louise Suter UEC, Chair of DC Trip, Kanika Sachdev FSPA, Georgia Karagiorgi UEC, Rui An FSPA, Sarah Lockwitz UEC, Jesus Orduna UEC. 2nd row: Verena Martinez Outschoorn USLUA, Yangyang Cheng USLUA, Ed Kearns UEC, Darin Acosta USLUA, Omar Moreno SLUO, Frank Chlebana UEC, Eli Rykoff SLUO, Joseph Zennamo UEC, Javier Duarte USLUA, Breese Quinn UEC, Justin Vasel UEC, Sarah Demers USLUA, Tammy Walton UEC, Mônica Nunes FSPA. 3rd row: Trey Holik USLUA, Emmanuele Ravaioli USLUA, Thomas Strauss UEC, Mark Kemp SLUO, Samuel Totorica SLUO, Sergei Gleyzer USLUA, Harvey Newman USLUA, Rob Fine UEC, Eric Prebys UEC, Mazin Khader USLUA, Ryan Linehan SLUO, Wes Gohn FSPA. Back row: Michael Baumer SLUO, Sebastian Aderhold FSPA, Brian Shuve USLUA, Andrea Albert SLUO, Jahred Adelman USLUA, William McCormack USLUA. Institutions: SLUO: SLAC Users Organization; USLUA: US LHC Users Association; UEC: Fermilab Users Executive Committee FSPA: Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association.

Today's colloquium featured Rocky Kolb, seated on stage on the left, and Michael Turner, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, with Joe Lykken, far right as emcee. The colloquium was titled, "How Fermilab Changed the Course of Cosmology."

50 years of science and art!

Al Johnson and Reidar Hahn prepare for a video shoot with Michael Turner and Rocky Kolb in the Creative Services studio.

Flower displays in Wilson Hall always brighten my day.

Fermilab's various experiments comprise thousands of collaborators from many countries. There is a set of flagpoles in front of Wilson Hall that flies the national flags of many collaborators. It is a steady reminder of how vital international relationships are in the age of modern particle physics as well as an expression of respect and gratitude to those countries.

David Huffman tests the Muon g-2 correction coil driver card.

Fermilab uses high-power radio-frequency (RF) accelerating cavities to accelerate particle beams. In much the same way as the body of an acoustic guitar allows a standing sound wave to resonate, RF cavities allow electromagnetic waves to resonate. The Marx modulator is part of this system. It turns on just prior to the arrival of the beam and powers an amplifier tube that amplifies a 201-MHz radio wave up to several megawatts of power. It turns off once the beam has gone past, and it does this 15 time per second! The Marx modulators are a replacement to the previous modulators, which have been in use since the earliest days of Fermilab.

This tree always makes me think it belongs in a Harry Potter movie.

Wilson Hall on a foggy wet spring day

Accelerator Division Main Control Room Crew Chief John Kuharik (not pictured) gave a shift briefing at the time of this photo, brought in several pies to weekend "owl" shift, and asked for input on which key lime recipe was better. White eventually won, but everyone agreed both were delicious.

Brian Nord answers a student's question in gravity in the #FermilabSMP #Cosmology lecture!

Reflections in the water on a gray, rainy Fermilab day. It must be spring!

Minerba Betancourt, left, carefully listens to Sowjanya Gollapinni of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during an impromptu meeting in the Wilson Hall atrium.

Two ducks say hi!

At 6:40 a.m., looking towards the east, the pre-sunrise brings us lovely pinks and purples to enjoy.

Muon g-2 experimenters work on the electromagnet in MC-1 building. The plan is to start beam commissioning on April 3.

Elliott and Marty McCrory at a Fermilab Photography Club meeting.

Many people contribute to the Art Gallery at Fermilab. Here Michael has repaired the wall and now is painting. The Art Gallery Committee installed all 45 pieces of employee artwork! It is a wonderful exhibit.

Jose and Reyna Cardona get ready for another exciting and challenging day at Fermilab.

A flock of sandhill cranes greet the sunrise at a flooded field in the northeast Eola grasslands. They were spotted there on Monday afternoon and presumably stayed overnight. By noon Tuesday, they were gone.

Will Alvarez of the Fermilab Roads and Grounds crew supervises a prescribed burn at the Main Injector.

Dirk Hurd takes the "One Lab" motto seriously, and here he is walking his talk.

Looks like this blue heron is planning on a little fishing in this stream.

This photo was taken on March 20 of two offices on the 13th floor, which is under construction. Shortly after this photo was taken, both chalkboards were removed.

Chris Kemp packs artwork from artist-in-residence Ellen Sandor and artn exhibit "Neutrinos in a New Light" in the Fermilab Art Gallery.

A goose swims through a reflection of Wilson Hall.

This snake was found in the Cross Gallery hallway on the first day of spring. At the same time, Ruth Becker was walking by with some flowers, so we decided to merge the snake and flowers in one shot.

Underground and outside the NuMI Target Hall. These oversized tools are used primarily during Target Hall maintenance and repair periods.

First day of spring, signs of new growth in some wooded areas.

What a great way to spend a Sunday: by sketching at Fermilab.

Randy Hultgren right, Congressman for the 14th district of Illinois in the US House of Representatives, addresses the high school students in the Hultgren STEM Scholars program at the Lederman Science Center. Also visible, along the back, 143 Janet Chaterji, Nigel Lockyer, Swapan Chattopadhyay and Hema Ramamoorthi.

It may be gloomy outside as well as inside, but discussions continue with Rich Schmitt and Russ Rucinski of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

This photo illustrates a newly upgraded Linac solid-state modulator, seen in perfect focus through a blurry hole cut in the shape of the Fermilab logo. There's symbolism about Fermilab offering a glimpse into the future somewhere in there, I just know it.

A young white-tail deer buck forages grass along Eola Road.

"Physics" license plate spotted near the NML building. The Proton Pagoda is visible in the background on the left, and SiDet is visible on the right.

A couple of fellas from Westmont, Illinois, came specifically to Fermilab in hopes of catching sight of a coyote to photograph, which they read about in the Fermilab News. They told me they were amateur photographers ... then they saw the ponds and decided to fish instead. They both caught a couple of bass. They were very excited.

You can see these inside the Central Utility Building.

Physics Professor Kryemadhi and students from Messiah College stand around the Mini Electromagnetic Calorimeter experiment. The calorimeter is made of LYSO crystals, and silicon photomultipliers are used as photodetectors. The purpose of the experiment is to assess the dynamic range of the photodetectors and our ability to build compact detectors for space-borne applications in particle physics. Front left: Professor Kryemadhi. Clockwise: Jacob Mohler, Alex Roth, Lindsey Barner, Andrew Groves.

Meson area, MW7, MW8

In celebration of National Pi Day, let's eat pie!

Mr. Robin puffs up his feathers trying to stay warm.

John Kuharik measures components for radio-frequency accelerating cavities.

Holly Lett of Workforce Development and Training teaches at the Training Center on Time Management and Organization Skills: Working Smart.

Ettore Zaffaroni, a visitor from CERN in the test beam area, works to understand how our pocket dosimeters work during "Rad Worker Practical Factors Training."

Abri Credit Union celebrates Pi Day by giving away pie on 3.14.

We got a little snow at Fermilab. Folks east of us got hit a lot harder.

Orchids beautify an office while the Bubble Chamber beautifies the courtyard of SiDet.

Chandra Bhat and Salah Chaurize at the end of the day in the Main Control Room. #mobilemonday

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Fermilab organized an Ask-a-Scientist outreach event, Pregúntale a un Científico, focusing on the Spanish-speaking community. From left, some of the helpers: José Becerra, Edgar Valencia, Gonzalo Díaz, Fernanda Psihas, Leonidas Aliaga, Erika Catano, José Sepúlveda and Diana Méndez.

A red-tailed hawk seems attentive as it suns its back on a 15th-floor ledge overlooking the Tevatron AZero parking lot. This was taken while giving a visitor tour.

Minerba Betancourt, scientist for the MINERvA collaboration, asked her son to hand out the neutrino balls to the audience during the "Pregúnte a un Científico" Ask-a-Scientist lecture.

Mehreen Sultana, a graduate student at Rochester University working on MINERvA, gives the Saturday Morning Physics lecture. She talks about the changes to physics around the turn of the 20th century with a talk titled "1905: A space-time odyssey."

The Fermilab dog walking area near the southeast corner of Batavia and Eola roads is a great place to bring your dog on the weekend.

Robert Barger has been at Fermilab since 1974. He's been in the Calibration Shop in the Proton Assembly Building at the lab since 2009. Here Bob is calibrating a transducer that will be used for the Mu2e compressor system.

Main Injector scientist Rob Ainsworth racks his brain to figure out measurement data from the Recycler Ring. #blackandwhite

Meeting for the Particle Physics Division Web Modernization project. Back right: Maura Barone, Luz Jaquez, Barb Kristen. Back left: Rodney Klein, Carolyn Johnson, Noel Wiedman.

This shows the transport of the prototype module for SLAC's LCLS-II. Pictured are Chris Exline, Ron Kellet, Kyle Kendziora, Elias Lopez and Jerry Leibfritz.

The Main Control Room is a notable stop on most tours of Fermilab. On any given day accelerator operators are observed by groups of school children, university students and members of the public with an interest in physics. Group sizes range from a couple to dozens, and if the machines are running well, operators will often stop outside to answer questions.

The Heavy Assembly Building is adjacent to the Illinois Accelerator Research Center.

Wednesday was a very windy day. Gusts reached 70 MPH around Chicagoland, and some trees at Fermilab did not survive the day. This tree went down along the road around the Main Injector. The Roads and Grounds crew were informed and later removed the tree.

The picture shows a very windy midday from the vantage of the Wilson Hall east parking lot looking to the ring.

The new tapestries in the ROC-East, CMS control room. This artwork represents five views of the science from CMS, by artist Xavier Cortada.

Focusing my camera through the screen of the Lynx Evo stereo microscope, which has a 360-degree rotating viewer. This image is of 1 pixel on a 270-pixel South Pole Telescope detector wafer.

Former director John Peoples entertained young and not-so-young alike with the history and lots of fun and interesting anecdotes from the early days of the laboratory, culminating in the successful completion of the Tevatron collider.

Members of the IARC Office and Accelerator Physics Center celebrate the International Women's Day - March 8. From left: Dawn Staszak, Tatiana Hamilton, Rosa Foote, Alexey Burov, Susan Winchester, Irina Novitski, Igor Tropin, Nikolai Mokhov, Igor Rakhno, Vladimir Shiltsev.

Looking across the Main Ring Pond towards the high-rise, seeing all the waves and white caps

As I drove around, I came across this marvelous view for a March morning.

Tom Kroc, Emergency Notification Drill

A coyote licks it lips as it prepares to eat a muskrat, not visible, that it caught near a cooling pond.

Chris Olsen fiddles with a finicky power supply that's holding off beam to one of the experiments. Nothing can stand between a determined operator and accelerating beam.

Engineer Trevor Butler contemplates the intricacies of replacing a klystron in the Fermilab Linac. Klystrons are used at Fermilab to provide high power radio waves to accelerate a beam of negative hydrogen ions in the Linear Accelerator. #mobilemonday

Tia Miceli gets in a little work before the 3:30 Director's Coffee Break.

Using my cell phone with a 15x macro lens to capture an extreme close up of tiny moss on Lab A's concrete building ... how fun!

Sunrise reflects in MC-1 window.

The Gallery Chamber Series takes place in the Fermilab Art Gallery on Sunday's at 2:30 p.m. during the winter months.

A warning sign stands on a completely dry floor at Fermilab.

Kurt Riesselmann and Kim Mazur discuss public outreach at the Wilson Hall reception desk.

Donna talks about the temperature measurements in the universe, and here she uses her cosmic microwave background (CMB) beach ball to explain it.

Wilson Hall on a cloudy day

This shot is taken in the FAST beam enclosure while looking downstream between the yellow cryostat and its radio-frequency power distribution frame of the famous record setting CM2 cryomodule. The cryostat is like a giant Thermos® bottle, insulating the eight 9-cell accelerating cavities that are sitting at near absolute zero. The superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) technology developed for CM2 also has applications for light source instruments such as LCLS-II at SLAC in the United States and DESY’s XFEL in Germany. SRF cavities appear to be the future of particle accelerators. This summer CM2 will accelerate beam for the first time.

Using what little snow fell overnight, someone created this miniature icon. It's sitting on the bridge railing of the Lederman Center footpath.

Just a tad of snow as we drive into work this morning.

Taken while riding up the 150ft elevator shaft at MI-65.

Site 29, parking lot

Proton Source personnel move linac power amplifiers down the linac gallery.

Gary, ever-vigilant in any weather, protecting the occupants of the Industrial Center from geese.

View from front entrance of Wilson Hall during a rainy morning.

Soil experts now think earthworms surface during rain storms for migration purposes. "It gives them an opportunity to move greater distances across the soil surface than they could do through soil," said Dr. Chris Lowe, Lecturer in Waste and Environmental Management, University of Central Lancashire in Preston, UK, "They cannot do this when it is dry because of their moisture requirements."