|January 14, 2000|
By Paul Preuss
For over half of the twentieth century, theorists tried and failed to provide a complete solution to scattering in a quantum system of three charged particles -- one of the most fundamental phenomena in atomic physics. Such interactions are everywhere. Ionization by electron impact, for example, is responsible for the glow of fluorescent lights and for the ion beams that engrave silicon chips.
Now, Berkeley Lab's Bill McCurdy, the associate laboratory director for Computing Sciences, and his longtime collaborator Thomas Rescigno, a staff physicist at Livermore Lab, have used supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and at Livermore to obtain a complete solution of the ionization of a hydrogen atom by collision with an electron, an example of the last unsolved component of the three-charged-particle problem.
Rescigno and McCurdy worked with Ph.D. candidate Mark Baertschy of UC Davis and William Isaacs, a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley Lab. Their historic result, which holds great promise for advances in computational chemistry, was featured on the cover of the Dec. 24, 1999 issue of Science magazine.
"Using this transformation we compute accurate solutions of the quantum-mechanical wave function of the outgoing particles, and from these solutions we extract all the dynamical information of the interaction," says McCurdy, noting that whereas the classical approach to scattering starts with the incoming particle, the new approach models the results and from them reconstructs preceding states.
A longstanding problem
"An exact first-principles solution of the wave function for the hydrogen atom was vital to establishing the new quantum theory in the 1920s," says Rescigno. "But even today, for systems with three or more charged particles, no analytic solutions exist." That is, there are no explicit solutions to the Schrödinger equation for such systems.
Rescigno points out that "it wasn't until the late 1950s, using early computers, that accurate solutions were obtained even for the bound states of helium," an atom with two electrons closely orbiting the nucleus. "Scattering problems are a lot more difficult."
Cross sections of quantum-mechanical processes are derived from the system's wave function, solutions of the Schrödinger equation which yield probabilities of finding the entities involved in a certain state. In scattering problems, wave functions are not localized but extend over all space.
Moreover, says McCurdy referring to the electromagnetic forces between charged particles, "Coulomb interactions are forever." These infinities make it impossible to define the final state of scattering exactly. "The form of the wave function where all three particles are widely separated is so intractable that no computer-aided numerical approach has been able to incorporate it explicitly."
But, Rescigno notes, "this obviously hasn't stopped people from working with plasmas and other ionization phenomena. Mathematically, they've come up with incredibly artful dodges, and some of them even seem to work."
All such approximations perform inconsistently, however; and as a recent article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society found, those few cases which appear to yield good agreement with experiment "are largely fortuitous."
By contrast, the method developed by McCurdy and Rescigno and their co-authors allows the calculation of a highly accurate wave function for the outgoing state that can be interrogated for details of the incoming state and the interaction, in the same way an experimenter would interrogate a physical system.
How they did it
They began with a transformation of the Schrödinger equation invented in 1970 for formal analysis, which leaves the solution unchanged in regions corresponding to physical reality; this so-called "exterior complex scaling" produces the correct outgoing waveform, based upon the angular separation and distances of two electrons far from the nucleus.
Once the wave function has been calculated it must be analyzed by computing the "quantum mechanical flux" -- a computationally intensive process, known in principle since the 1920s, that can yield the probability of producing electrons at specific energies and directions from the ionized atom. McCurdy and his co-authors used both the SGI/Cray T3E at NERSC and the IBM Blue Pacific computer at Livermore Lab in their work.
The researchers acknowledge the importance to their work of advances previously made by others, although even the best earlier methods could not give specifics such as the directions or energies of outgoing electrons. By contrast, says Rescigno, "Our work produces absolute answers at the ultimate level of detail."
Comparison with real scattering experiments, such as those recently published by J. Röder et al, who scattered incoming 17.6 electron-volt electrons from hydrogen atoms and measured the angles and energies of the outgoing electrons, prove the accuracy of the new method.
The experimental data points match the graph of the cross sections calculated by Rescigno, Baertschy, Isaacs, and McCurdy with astonishing exactitude.
"Even if the specific methods have changed, quantum chemistry was founded when the helium atom with two bound electrons was solved -- it showed that these problems were in principle solvable," McCurdy says.
"What we have done is analogous. The details of our method probably won't survive, but we've taken a big step toward treating ionizing collisions of electrons with more complicated atoms and molecules."
By Jon Bashor
"Twas the night before New Year's and all through the Lab, not a creature was stirring, not even a Y2K bug," noted Stu Loken, director of the Information and Computing Sciences Division, who spent New Year's Eve on site monitoring the rollover. "We didn't even see a significant hacking incident."
So Jan. 1, 2000 came and went without causing any serious problems at the Lab, thanks to advance planning and monitoring over the dawn of the new year.
Prior to the calendar rollover there had been predictions of widespread problems, ranging from power outages and food shortages to cyber-terrorism and computer meltdowns. Lab officials, however, predicted an incident-free dawning of the new year during a Y2K brown-bag session last June. Their forecast, based on extensive testing and planning, proved correct.
"We were fortunate in being so far west in the diurnal cycle, so that we could watch the inexorable creep of the problem-free dawn," said Dave Stevens, who coordinated Y2K planning for the Lab and also spent the evening of Dec. 31 on the Hill.
One hacker was detected by Brent Draney of NERSC's Computational Systems Group early in the evening trying to penetrate NERSC's computers, but was shut down quickly. Also helping to monitor and provide computer security were Vern Paxson, Partha Banerjee and Craig Lant of the Information and Computing Sciences Division.
The most serious incident of the night occurred offsite when the Lab Fire Department, under the mutual aid agreement with the city of Berkeley, responded to a neighborhood call to assist a resident who had fallen. Otherwise, the biggest excitement for the handful of people on duty was watching San Francisco's fireworks from the Hill.
Don Bell, the Lab's Security and Emergency Manager concurred: "We have nothing to report. It was uneventful."
On New Year's weekend, more than a dozen Information Systems and Services employees checked out the Lab's administrative systems and found things had made the transition smoothly. Rose Bolton checked all of the Oracle databases on the ISS servers and reported no problems.
Rich Nosek, Steve Kessler, Steve Bakaley, Sally Lafferty, Pat Copeland, Anne Chen and Ajay Gantawar came to the office to test and monitor various online and batch financial systems. With two minor exceptions, all tests ran successfully. Steve Abraham tested all the EH&S servers and found them working properly, and Daisy Guerrero of ISS reported the important news:
"Payroll and LETS testing completed without problems. Happy New Year!"
Also working over the holiday shutdown to make sure systems and servers were running properly were staffers in the Computing Infrastructure Support Department. This group included Andy Kutner, Chris Moll, Vladimir Eberman, Chris Manders and Young Song of the UNIX Support Group; Russ Montello, Zach Radding and Martin Gelbaum of the Computing Infrastructure Technology Group; and Josie Galvan of the Help Desk, who regularly checked for calls and responded to a couple of queries.
Jim Leighton, project manager for the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), which is managed by Berkeley Lab and serves more than 30 DOE research sites across four time zones, said the network breezed into the new year.
"We were very sure that the network would not have any problems directly from the date rollover," Leighton said. "We were a bit concerned about possible external events like power failure, however. It was as uneventful as we could have hoped -- in this case boring was good."
By Paul Preuss
Steve Holland, an electrical engineer in the Physics Division's Microsystems Laboratory, has pioneered a new class of photodetectors with origins in high-energy physics. These ingenious detectors have already found novel applications in medical diagnosis and are now poised to look into the far reaches of the cosmos.
Michael Levi, who heads the Physics Division's program to develop CCDs (charge-coupled devices) based on the new technology, says the potential applications include an astronomical CCD with unprecedented efficiency in the infrared region of the spectrum; an x-ray imager responsive at photon energies with greater dynamic range than those on the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite -- and potentially useful in mammography as well; and even a new generation of particle detectors.
Indeed, at a recent Physics Division review, noted astronomer Joel Primack of UC Santa Cruz voiced the opinion that "these CCDs will transform astronomy."
CCDs are semiconductor devices that convert patterns of light into patterns of electric charge, which can be recorded and computer-processed to form images. The new CCD's spectacular advantages for astronomy are a direct result of its particle-detector ancestry.
"The new CCD is truly a spinoff of high-energy physics detector work," says Steve Holland, "and had its origin in the R&D effort for the Superconducting Supercollider."
A typical particle detector is a slab of polycrystalline silicon 300 micrometers thick, about the thickness of a postcard. By comparison, to register dim blue light most astronomical CCDs have to be thinned to less than the width of a human hair. Not only is a thin chip fragile, it sacrifices sensitivity to red and infrared light.
The designers of the Berkeley Lab CCD, however, found a way to use thickness to their advantage, retaining blue sensitivity while vastly improving response in longer wavelengths.
Commercial CCDs, such as those used in consumer cameras and video recorders, are front-illuminated; incoming photons must pass through or around circuitry on the front to reach a thin layer underneath where electrons are produced. These charges are collected in "potential wells" which are read and emptied periodically.
For astronomical CCDs the circuitry blocks too much blue light, so they must be back-illuminated. Nearly the entire substrate must be mechanically and chemically removed so that photon-generated charges can reach the potential wells, leaving only a 20-micron thin layer beneath the circuitry. So many of these chips are damaged during fabrication that the survivors are worth tens of thousands of dollars apiece.
"Steve wanted to make a CCD that could go straight off the wafer and into the telescope," says Donald Groom of the Physics Division, who is helping to develop the astronomical CCD. "The first step was to make a back-illuminated chip that was sensitive to blue light without thinning."
The method Holland devised depends on using very pure, negatively doped (n-type) silicon. Electrically active dopants in this kind of silicon amount to only about one part in a hundred billion; special care is required during fabrication to maintain this level of purity.
"By layering a thin, transparent window onto the back of the n-type silicon substrate (a window that also acts as an electrode), we can apply a bias voltage between the window and the positively doped channel layer under the front circuitry," Holland explains.
The voltage clears the silicon of charge carriers. As a result, when a photon of blue light produces an electron near the back surface of the chip, the electron can travel all the way through to the front layer without being lost to recombination. Spatial resolution is good, because the electrons accurately reflect the position of the photons that produced them. In blue light, the 300-micrometer-thick chip electronically mimics a thin chip.
In red light, the thick chip does much better than a thin one. A thick chip has much more material in which the long-wavelength photon can interact. Unlike a thin chip, in which red light is reflected back and forth between the front and back surfaces, producing interference fringes -- a particular problem for astronomers who study very distant, highly redshifted objects -- in a thick chip under voltage the charge carriers travel nearly straight to the potential wells; no fringes are produced by reflection.
Tests of a CCD with four million pixels have shown remarkable response to red and infrared light; indeed, in the near-infrared the new CCD has shown better quantum efficiency -- the ratio of photons converted to electric charge -- than any astronomical CCD now in use.
Because the CCDs are used "backside-up," the circuitry is hidden, and their light-sensitive surfaces can fit side by side to form very large arrays. An eight-million-pixel CCD is being fabricated for spectroscopy at the giant Keck telescope; another proposal by the international Supernova Cosmology Project based at Berkeley Lab would put a CCD camera with more than 200 such chips in a satellite dubbed SNAP, for SuperNova/Acceleration Probe.
"SNAP's optical imager will have nearly a billion pixels, the largest and most sensitive astronomical imager ever fabricated," says Michael Levi, who with Saul Perlmutter is the SNAP satellite's co-principal investigator, noting that "the high redshift of distant supernovae makes the new CCD essential to the undertaking."
Says Holland, "Fabricating an astronomical CCD turns out to be enormously more complex than fabricating high-energy particle detectors. High-energy silicon detectors require only three masks for ion implantation, wiring, and electrical contact to the implanted regions. The astronomical CCD requires 10 masks, very accurate registration between layers, and three layers of polycrystalline silicon for the electrodes. The masks are about eight times as expensive, too."
Most of the CCD fabrication is done at Lab's Microsystems Laboratory, a facility originally developed to support the Superconducting Supercollider. "Thanks to the careful planning that went into the development of the Microsystems Laboratory, which is managed by Nick Palaio of the Engineering Department, we were able to take on this difficult task."
Holland, Groom and their colleagues were greatly helped in obtaining finished mask designs and other design aspects by consultation with Richard Stover, Mingzhi Wei, Kirk Gilmore, and Bill Brown of the Lick Observatory's Detector Development Laboratory, and with James Janesick, formerly of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
With help from UC Berkeley, Nick Palaio secured a donation of lithography equipment from Intel Corporation, necessary for fabricating the CCD tested at the Lick Observatory. New equipment to facilitate CCD production was made possible by a recent grant from the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), a partnership of the University of California and the California Institute of Technology.
Complete technical details on Berkeley Lab's high-resistivity astronomical CCD are available on the web at http://ccd.lbl.gov/.
"We can't declare an unmitigated conclusive victory because some problems may not have come to light yet," Richardson said at a press conference in Washington. But he said there were no major problems during the rollover from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 or in the following few days.
"Our goal was for a simple, uneventful, uncomplicated change-over, and we achieved that," Rich-ardson said. "Despite doomsday predictions by some, the lights stayed on and energy supplies kept flowing."
About the only prominent Y2K glitch reported in the media was at the U.S. Naval Observatory - our nation's official time source - which briefly reported the new year as 19100.
A key step will be to select someone to lead NNSA, Richardson said. He has named a search committee chaired by former Deputy Secretary of Energy Charles Curtis and which includes former Secretary of Energy Admiral James D. Watkins, Admiral Henry G. Chiles, and Andrew Athy, Chairman of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.
NNSA will officially come into existence on March 1.
For information on carbon sequestration research grants, check http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html. The deadline for applications is March 2.
Information on the Bioenergy Initiative is available at http://www.eren.doe.gov/bioenergy_initiative.
Responses are due March 7. -- Lynn Yarris
The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), which is managed by Berkeley Lab for the Department of Energy, has awarded a $50 million contract to Qwest Communications International, Inc., to support ESnet for up to seven years.
Under the contract, Qwest will provide performance levels up to a terabit (one million megabits/second) by the year 2005 -- 500 times the highest speed available in the industry today.
ESnet is funded by DOE's Office of Science to provide advanced networking and communications support to scientific research programs. ESnet operates a backbone network connecting more than 30 major research sites. Qwest is extending its fiber optic network to four of them. This enhanced local access ensures that Qwest will be able to meet DOE's increasing requirements and provide scalable levels of service.
DOE's demand for bandwidth is doubling every year as scientific simulations get larger and more essential to research, and as researchers in multiple locations need to share computational resources in real-time and to use the capability for remote, high-resolution visualization of simulations and experiments.
"This new partnership between the Department of Energy's ESnet and Qwest will dramatically increase our nation's capabilities for collaborative research by linking the nation's top scientists with DOE's unparalleled research facilities," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "For 25 years, Department of Energy facilities have pioneered telecommunications technologies to help advance scientific research at national laboratories, universities and industrial partners, and this agreement will continue both our scientific and technological leadership."
According to Jim Leighton, the Lab's ESnet project manager, Qwest's request for proposal was the lowest in evaluated cost and was rated highest overall by the nine-member selection committee.
"We were looking for a vendor that would work with us in a mutually beneficial partnership style, rather than a more normal seller-client relationship," Leighton said. The Selection Committee felt that the Qwest proposal showed the best understanding of that style, while being aggressive with both pricing and technology deployment. We expect to continue to incorporate leading-edge emerging communications technology as it becomes available during the term of the contract, some of which may not even be conceived of today."
Qwest will develop testbed networks to explore new technologies that will allow wide area distributive computing and extra-high resolution, high-fidelity visualizations of computations and experiments.
Qwest plans an aggressive rollout that will have some initial ESnet services up and running this month and all ESnet transitioned by the fourth quarter of 2000. -- Jon Bashor
EDITOR: Monica Friedlander, (510) 495-2248, firstname.lastname@example.org
STAFF WRITERS: Paul Preuss, 486-6249; Lynn Yarris, 486-5375
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jon Bashor, X5849; Allan Chen, X4210, Jeffery Kahn, X4019
FLEA MARKET / CALENDAR: 486-5771
email@example.com / firstname.lastname@example.org
Public Information Department, Berkeley Lab, MS 65A
One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720
Tel: 510/486-5771 Fax: 510/486-6641
Berkeley Lab is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Carl Eben, head of the Lab's Information Systems and Services Department, is the recipient of DOE's Information Technology Executive Leadership Award for FY1999. Eben is being recognized for his leadership of a labwide effort to upgrade, standardize and make universally accessible a wide range of administrative information applications.
The initiative led by Eben over five years replaced hundreds of information processing systems with a system of cost-effective, easily accessible and fully supported applications for employee timekeeping, purchasing, human resources and payroll, inventory, financial management, property management, and others. He also led the effort to ensure these systems are Y2K compliant.
"I am delighted that Carl is being recognized for his significant efforts," said Deputy Director for Operations Klaus Berkner. "The Lab has come a long way in modernizing its management information systems in the past few years. This is a monumental task; thanks to Carl's leadership, we did it with minimal disruptions."
The effort addressed concerns about timeliness, accuracy, duplication, standardization, documentation, and the overall effort required to support the Laboratory's vast array of processing systems, platforms and programming languages.
"While this award recognizes Carl's leadership, the labwide effort was really just that, and was successful because of the widespread support and participation by nearly every segment of the Laboratory, including Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, Facilities and the scientific divisions," said Information and Computing Sciences Division Director Stu Loken.
Under Eben's leadership, a strategy was developed to migrate applications to less-expensive servers, to use Oracle software for database applications, and to acquire commercially available applications for administrative information systems, such as human resources. Each organization's requirements had to be reviewed to ensure the solutions would meet their needs.
Eben joined the Lab in 1992, bringing more than 20 years of experience in the application of computer technology.
The award will be presented at the DOE's annual Information Management Conference in Las Vegas on Jan. 25.
Carolyn Larabell of the Life Sciences Division has been appointed a fellow to the prestigious Keith R. Porter Endowment for Cell Biology, along with Jan H. Hoh from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.The fellowships recognize outstanding achievement by emerging leaders in cell biology and supports their activities.
Larabell is an expert in the use of confocal microscopy in studying the role of the cytoskeleton in early development. She is developing methods for biological x-ray microscopy that reveal novel features of cell organization. Since 1997 she has been group leader of Innovative Microscopies in Life Sciences.
Porter fellows are funded for three years to organize lectures and conferences, including a Porter lecture at an undergraduate institution of their choice.
Deb Agarwal of ICSD's Computer Science Research Department has been named one of the top 25 "women on the web" by San Francisco Women on the Web for her work to provide reliable multicast communication in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The group honors women who have made significant contributions to the Internet and new media industries.
Agarwal spent three months in Austria last year working on the Test Ban Treaty after conducting extensive research at various sites around the United States (see Currents, Oct. 22, 1999).
"This is a well-deserved honor that places Deb in a pretty amazing group," said Bill Johnston, head of the National Collaboratories and ACTS Toolkit Group.
Said Agarwal, "Most of my accomplishments would not have been possible without the help and support of many people here at the Lab. Several of the projects I am involved in, including the CTBT multicasting project, have leveraged off the expertise available here at the Lab within Computing Sciences. I think that this recognition is an affirmation of the impressive talent we have here."
By Ron Kolb
When Director Charles Shank started up the new white Ford Ranger service truck and took it for a spin around the Lab last month, onlookers were struck by what they heard. Nothing.
That's the nature of the electric vehicle -- it runs on batteries, and thus there's no ignition and no revving engine; just a slight hum as it scurries on its rounds. And now Berkeley Lab will have 20 of these quiet couriers handling a variety of workloads while saving the environment from the pollution that normally flows from internal combustion engines.
Several of the new AFV's (alternative fuel vehicles) were showcased on Dec. 16 outside the cafeteria. The fleet is among the largest for electric vehicles in the state, and representatives from Ford and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District were present to celebrate the acquistion.
|Left: Dick Nolan, site manager for DOE Berkeley, addresses a crowd gathered in front of the Lab cafeteria to take a look at the new electric Ford Ranger fleet acquired by the Laboratory. Right: Lab Director Charles Shank takes one of the trucks for a spin on the Hill. Photos by Don Fike|
The Ford Rangers are leased from Lithia Ford in Walnut Creek through a $120,000 grant from the Air Quality Management District and its Transportation Fund for Clean Air. The General Services Administration arranged the leases, and the U.S. Department of Energy also provided funding.
Among those singing the praises of the electric fleet were Director Shank, who cited the Laboratory's "long-standing commitment, in both research and service, to improving environmental quality;" and DOE Berkeley Site Office Manager Dick Nolan, who noted the Department's national effort to develop energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies "that result in cost-savings, reduced emissions and enhanced industrial competitiveness."
Also on hand with remarks were David Burch of the Air Quality Management District, Ken Stwertnik of Ford Motor Company, and Gary Billingsley of Lithia Ford.
The smog-free automobiles run on nickel metal hydride batteries and can cover 60 to 70 miles between charges. Wall-mounted charging stations have been installed throughout the site. It takes about eight hours to administer a full charge, according to Don Prestella of the Facilities Department.
Bill Llewellyn, supervisor of the fleet, said the trucks will be used primarily for hauling maintenance and construction materials and for transporting engineering and environmental equipment both inside and outside the Laboratory.
The zippy new trucks can go from 0 to 50 miles per hour in 12.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 75 miles per hour, according to Ford. And all of that is emission-free.
Employees who wish to test drive the new Rangers may call X5475 for an appointment.
By Jon Bashor
After more than 11 years leading the Information and Computing Sciences Division, Stewart Loken has expressed a desire to focus on addressing the advanced computing issues related to the General Sciences. As a result he will step down as director of ICSD effective Feb. 1, 2000.
Loken's new position marks a return to his original area of interest -- high-energy physics. While conducting physics experiments at Fermilab and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, he became interested in computational aspects of these experiments, and has helped develop networking and videoconferencing technologies to enhance collaborative experimentation.
In announcing the change, Lab Director Charles Shank praised Loken's efforts, crediting his leadership with making computing a centerpiece of Berkeley Lab.
"Over the past decade, Stu has made a remarkably broad set of contributions," Director Shank said. "His efforts laid the foundation for the establishment of NERSC and ESnet here at Berkeley Lab, and he has been similarly successful with the computing infrastructure departments, creating the Technical and Electronic Information Department; ensuring the progress of Information Systems and Services under his oversight; and forming the relatively recent Computing Infrastructure Support Department.
"Nationally, he has worked tirelessly with the Department of Energy in its efforts to establish the Next Generation Internet and the Strategic Simulation Initiative," Shank concluded.
Loken will work closely with the division directors for AFRD, Physics, and Nuclear Science on computing strategies for the experimental high energy and nuclear physics programs, accelerator physics programs, and for new initiatives in astrophysics.
"I want to acknowledge our debt to Stu Loken for his dedication and success in developing the computing sciences programs at this institution," said Bill McCurdy, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing Sciences. "Stu has also been instrumental in developing and maintaining close ties with our program managers in DOE and with researchers across the nation and around the world."
Plans for the future direction of the Information and Computing Sciences Division are expected to be announced in the coming months.
A fellow of the American Physical Society, Loken was a founding member of the ESnet Steering Committee and a member of the Federal Network Council Advisory Committee.
Berkeley Lab is seeking to increase the number of undergraduate students who will receive fellowship to work on the Hill this summer thanks to increased support from the Department of Energy. As a result, more mentors will be needed to meet the demand.
"The DOE Office of Energy has committed to fully fund a significant increase in the number of students who will participate in laboratory summer undergaduate research programs," says Rollie Otto, head of the Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE ) at Berkeley Lab.
The fellowships offer students from colleges and universities from around the country the opportunity to spend 10 weeks at Berkeley Lab. Students selected through the Energy Research Undergraduate Fellowship program receive a stipend, travel and housing allowance through CSEE and are placed with individual mentors and groups. CSEE also handles all administrative and guest processing issues.
"We are anticipating more than 250 students to select Berkeley Lab as their first choice," says Laurel Egenberger, who manages the program. "Last summer we had 50 undergraduates in CSEE summer programs, so we will need a significant number of new mentors and research positions to reach our goal of 100 students."
Berkeley Lab will have two weeks in February to select from among applicants who have listed Berkeley as their first choice. Other DOE laboratories will make their selection after that.
Anyone interested in mentoring is encouraged to monitor the CSEE mentor website for details on the dates for the first round of selections (csee.lbl.gov/mentors.html).
Mentors typically work in science, engineering or technical groups, help develop student position descriptions, and participate in the student selection process. CSEE assists with developing a workplan for students and helps with the selection as well. Sample summer research assignments and tips on selecting and mentoring students can be found on the mentoring website.
An overwhelming majority of the mentors (more than 90 percent) have indicated in their evaluations in previous years that the students they mentored have made a contribution to their research and would recommend the program to their colleagues. Summer research experiences can shape students' future career choices and form lifelong bonds between mentors and students.
For more information see http://csee.lbl.gov/mentors.html.
Daily Planet Now at Berkeley Lab
The Berkeley Daily Planet, a free community newspaper, is now available through a distribution box at Berkeley Lab starting this week. In conjunction with the Daily Planet's arrival, newspaper boxes previously located outside the main doors of the cafeteria will be moved next to the automatic teller machine and postal box just north of the cafeteria entrance.
The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley's campus newspaper, has also been invited to place a distribution box at the Laboratory.
Computer Class Schedule Online
The AIM computer class schedule for the first three months of the year is available on the web at http://remedy. lbl.gov/cgi-bin/hd/ classessched.cgi. AIM is a Walnut Creek-based computer software training company which provides onsite PC computer courses to Lab employees.
For more information contact Heather Pinto at X4181.
The full text and color photographs of each edition of Currents are published online at http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Currents/.
The site also allows users to do searches of past articles going back to 1994.
Three-month-at-a-glance LBNL wall calendars will be available for purchase from the Central Storeroom (Stores) starting on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Orders may be placed by phone at X5087, by fax at X4221, or through the Facilities or ISS websites. Employees may also pick up the calendars directly from Stores in Bldg. 78 from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Questions may be directed to Rick Briseno at X4630.
Shuttle Bus Update
The bus stop at Bancroft and Dana Streets has been permanently removed. Riders may use either the Bancroft and Telegraph stop or the Bancroft and Ellsworth stop. For more information contact Tammy Brown of Bus Services at X4165.
Lend a Hand to Open House 2000
Berkeley Lab's Open House 2000 will need volunteers to serve as "diplomats" to greet visitors and guide them to appropriate destinations. The May 6 Science Festival will also feature a job fair and will focus on science education and careers. Employees interested in acting as hosts or assisting the Open House staff for a portion of the day will need to attend an orientation session on Monday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. in Bldg. 2, Room 100. Plans for Open House will be discussed, as will the various functions for potential participants.
Salsa Time Again
A new four-week series of dance lessons started on Jan. 10 and is being offered for four consecutive Mondays during lunchtime (noon to 1:00) on the lower level of Bldg. 51. The featured dances in this series will be the salsa and merengue. No previous dance experience is required. Free practice sessions are held every Wednesday at noon.
The lessons are taught by Charlene Van Ness, a professional dance instructor who teaches at the Berkeley YWCA.
The cost is $20 for the four-week session or $6 per lesson on a drop-in basis. To register contact Joy Kono at JNKono@.lbl.gov or Sharon Fujimura at SPFujimura@lbl.gov.
Dance Club on Jan. 22
Berkeley Lab has also formed a dance club, with a four-hour workshop scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22 from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. at the Berkeley Methodist United Church (1710 Carleton Street). The session will consist of two hours of instructions and two hours of dancing.
The cost is $10 per person to cover the the DJ and refreshments. For moreinformation or to sign up contact Joy Kono (email@example.com) or Sharon Fujimura (firstname.lastname@example.org).
Blood Drive: Give the Gift of Life
The first Berkeley Lab blood drive for this year is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 26 and Jan. 27.
Prospective donors may find register online at http://www.beadonor.com/, or call Helane Carpenter at X4009 for more information.
Postdoc Society Workshop on Science Writing
The LBNL Postodoctoral Society and the UCB Postdoc Association are holding a two-day workshop on "The Science of Scientific Writing." The first part, "Making Sense of the Science: Cause and Effect in Scientific Langu-age," will be held Friday, Jan. 21, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Bldg. 66 auditorium. The second half, on Jan. 22 from 10:00 to 2:00, will explore "Making Clear What's Important: Structure, Cohesion, and Emphasis."
Topics will include writing strategies, stylistic issues, practical concerns, and different types of documents.
The workshop will discuss a reader-based perspective based on recent developments in linguistics and cognitive psychology. Presenter Judith A. Swan of the University of Pennsylvania has been conducting workshops in effective communication for major national institutions.
The workshop is open to all Lab employees. Food and refreshments will be provided. A special shuttle will run to and from the Hearst Mining Circle on campus after the workshop on both days. To register send e-mail to email@example.com.
Dinosaurs 2000 at Hall of Science
A special exhibit on dinosaurs will open at the Lawrence Hall of Science on Feb. 5 and run through June 4. The exhibit will feature giant, lifelike robots (including a 23-foot-long T-Rex) and will provide information on the latest findings in paleontology. Special events are planned for opening day, to be followed by daily live demonstrations for the duration of the exhibit.
Dinosaur games activity stations will allow participants to compare their own stride, height, weight, and strength with that of dinosaurs and demonstrate tools used by paleontologists. A stripped-down T-rex robot will let visitors see and operate the giant machines.
For activities schedules and more information contact the Hall of Science at 642-5132 or visit the LHS website at http://lhs.berkeley.edu/.
Georgia O'Keeffe Exhibit Tour
The Employees' Art Council has arranged a docent-led tour of the "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things" exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor on Saturday, March 18, at 9:00 a.m.
The exhibit runs Feb. 19 through May 14 in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, and features more than 69 works.
For reservations for the museum tour contact Mary Clary at MClary@ lbl.gov. Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (65 or older), $11 for teens (ages 13 to 18), and $4 for children (12 and under) and museum members. The deadline for payment is Feb. 26.
January 14 - 28, 2000
Items for the calendars may be e-mailed to currents_calendar@ lbl.gov, faxed to X6641 or mailed to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Jan. 28 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24.
PHYSICS DIVISION RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETING
"Challenges and Opportunities at an Asymmetric B Factory" will be presented by David Kirkby of Stanford University.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132. Refreshments at 3:40 p.m.
PHYSICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIA
"Nucleation: Bubbles, Crystals and Superfluids" will be presented by Sebastien Balibar of ENS Paris/Harvard.
4:30 p.m., 1 Le Conte Hall UC Berkeley
LIFE SCIENCES SEMINAR
"The Mutator Hypothesis and Colon Cancer" will be presented by Mark Meuth of the University of Sheffield.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 84-318.
For more information or to enroll, contact Susan Aberg at Saberg@lbl.gov or enroll via the web at http://www-ehs.lbl.gov/ehstraining/registration/. Preregistration is required for all courses except EHS 10 (Introduction to EH&S). Times and locations are subject to change. For a full, updated schedule of EH&S training sessions see http://www-ehs.lbl.gov/schedule/.
Classes are held in Bldg. 51L from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
For more information on AIM training or registration procedure, look up the class website at http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/EDT/computers/PC_Classes.html or contact Heather Pinto at X4181.
`94 FORD, Taurus, 56K, 4 door sedan, alarm, ac, abs, cruise, $6,300, Peter, X5983, Patricia, (925) 687-1827
'91 VOLK Passat Wagon, 121K, new tires, auto trans, am/fm, ac, al/alloy wheels, abs, power locks/mirrors/windows, cruise, no accidents, $4,300, Hokyung Kim, X4579, 649-1514
`87 SAAB 900, 2 dr hb, 98K, at, runs well, very good body, interior fair, needs minor work, no radio, recent tune-up & smog, $1,800/bo, Peter, X4157
`79 MERCEDES 450 SEL 4 dr sedan, long wheelbase, V8, 190 HP, 145 mph, gray, repainted, garaged in Moraga, books & records, 140K mi, well maint by retired engineer, Dick, (925) 284-5236
'79 VOLVO 245 DL Wagon, 162K, at, ac, good cond, $1,250/ bo, Stu, 525-2367 (eve)
`68 CHEVY Nova, straight-6 engine, at, runs, exc body, all original, $1,800/bo, Tim, (925) 687-0405
`65 MUSTANG GT, beautifully restored, at/ps/pb/, new 302 engine w/ chrome valve covers + accents, new 5K paint job, new stereo, 10-disc trunk CD changer, white w/ red int, over 18K invested, must sell, $12,000 firm, Mark, 236-1315
NORTH BERKELEY, exc neighborhood, conv location, furn rm, pleasant non-smok household, $550/mo incl util, 528-8155
NORTH BERKELEY, well-furn 1 bdrm condo in quiet craftsman 4-plex, $1,400, 1326 Shattuck & Rose, avail late Jan to July 1, 1 bath + sep 1/2 bath, dining/living/study rms, wood floors, rugs, kitchen, separate back entrance, landlord pays garbage, water, single level, 7 steps to front door, no pets, negotiable garage, non-smoker, walk to campus, shopping, BART, buses, first month's rent $1,400, dep $600, Rita Maran, 540-9017
EL CERRITO, well furn rm in house, avail 2/00 for single visiting scholar, grad student, exc quiet area, 4K from school, bus, BART, near shopping ctr, TV, phone, kitchen, laundry, street parking, non-smoker no pets, no live-in guests, $485/month+util, $600 deposit, Keller, 524-3780
OAKLAND, share sunny, older upper flat in Piedmont area w/1 female LBNL researcher, close to 51 bus, BART, 3 bdrms, living/dining rms, front/back porch, balconies, laundry, dishwasher, piano, 2 cats, short/long term, avail 1/16, $500/month, Judy, X5154
OAKLAND, 2 bdrm, furn duplex in lovely, sunny, quiet neighborhood in Glenview, living/dining rm combo, full kitchen, laundry rm, deck, garden, off-street park, complete with linens/dishes/silverware, TV, VCR, housekeeper, piano, pool, park, tennis courts nearby, $1,500 /month + util (garbage pd), 6 month lease, 2 months' rent, sec deposit, references, $35 for credit check, Connie, 531-1541
BABY ITEMS, crib, $30; backpack, $20; walker, $5, Francesca, X7193
BACK ISSUES of Popular Electronics (1990-94), Nuts and Volts Magazine (last few years), great for electronics hobbyist, Jon, X5974
BALDWIN ACROSONIC, original seat, good cond, 20-30 years old, $1,000, Bob, X5692, 845-0806 (eve)
BIKE TRAILER, Huffy infant/ toddler trailer (for 2), attaches to seat post, converts to 3-wheel stroller, $100/bo, Marc, X5076
COMPUTER MEMORY, 16 MB Techworks, 168 pin DIMM, factory sealed, lifetime warranty, can be used in PowerMacs/other computers, $35, H. Matis, X5031, 540-6718
FUTON, queen, used 1 mo, pad & pine frame, $90; glass side table, metallic gold legs (3'x2'), $15; coffee table, hardwood with 2 glass inserts (4'x2-1/2'), $80; large rectangular mirror, unframed, $25; square table with shelf (2'x2'), simulated wood, $15; 2 speakers, old, good for rec room or garage, $10; Skis, Rossignol 4S 207cm, need new bindings, $80; Scott, X4874
GILLETTE ATRA+ razor cartidges, new 24 pack, $15/bo, used pair of cross country racing skis, $50/bo, Nathan, X5137
GLASS table + four blue velour chairs, $40; hamster habitrail & accessories, $15; Aprica double stroller, $125; Century infant car seat, $15; Graco battery infant swing, $20, Peter or Patricia (925) 687-1827
LASER PRINTER, $75; Quicken 2000 basic for PC, $10; Ken, X7739
MOUNTAIN BIKE, women's, Trek 800, Shimano Altus C20, racing green, very good cond, (new $600), $250, Jan, X6676
PERFORMANCE Stair Stepper w/ computer and heart monitor, 3 years old, like new, $50/bo, Loretta, X5200
SANYO STEREO SYSTEM, one unit turntable, tuner, speakers, dual tape deck (#2 working fine, #1 not working), 10 yrs old, gd cond, $20/bo, Melissa 665-5572, leave msg
SNOW SKIS, exc cond, Olin's, Rossignal, Head, Dynamic, Atomic, sizes from 185 cm to 205 cm, $50 to $200, X6598, (925) 689-7213
SOFA, beige, very good cond, $95; chairs (#2) with wooden arms, $30 each; office desk $30; book shelves (#2), $10 each; single chair with metal arms, $20, (925) 631-0510
STEAMER TRUNK, upright, antique, $75, Stu, 525-2367 (eve)
FUTON, wool cotton blend(Cal), king size, approx 1 yr old, barely used, $250/bo, Ravi, 486-6020
TAHOE KEYS at So Lake Tahoe, 3 bdrm house, 2-1/2 bath, fenced yard, quiet, sunny, close to attractions, skiing, great views of water/mntns, $150/night (2 night min), Bob, (925) 376-2211
DRUMMER and bass player for blues/rock project, LBNL employee music club, now auditioning, noon practices, hill performances this year, Wes, X7893, Larry, X5406
PIANO for beginner, console or upright, Peter, X5983, Patricia (925) 687-1827
STUDENT, grad or undergrad, to assist retired physics professor; need someone to drive him to Monday physics department seminars on weekly basis and to take him swimming, Elizabeth, 204-9123
THIRD HOUSEMATE to share 3 bdrm house in Albany near Berkeley border, easy access to N. Berkeley BART (5 min bike ride), lge kitchen, dining/living rm, front garden, back deck/ yard, share bthrm w/ 1 person, wash/dryer on 1st floor; seeking friendly, fairly neat person, pref 25-35, vegetarians pref, no pets/ loud music/drugs, $575/mo+util, move in anytime betw 1/22 and 2/11, Jessica, 559-6964
Ads are accepted only from LBNL employees, retirees, and onsite DOE personnel. Only items of your own personal property may be offered for sale. Submissions must include name, affiliation, extension, and home phone number.
Ads must be submitted in writing -- via e-mail (firstname.lastname@example.org), fax (X6641), or delivered/ mailed to Bldg. 65B. No ads are taken over the phone.
Ads will run one week only unless resubmitted in writing. They will be repeated only as space permits.
The deadline for the Jan. 28 issue of Currents is Thursday, Jan 20.
NEW DEADLINE: The deadline for submitting ads to the Flea Market has been changed from Friday to Thursday of the week prior to publication in order to meet production deadlines. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.