Learning about safety need not be a boring affair. That’s what prompted Sandra McFarland with Materials Sciences to use her division’s annual BBQ as the place to showcase safety lessons in an entertaining way. She decided to use comedy, and with the help of Alice Muller-Egan, a playwright and theater veteran, they produced a stand-up routine, mock music program, and a version of American Idol to get the attention of staff. More>
Green Corridor: Partnership Sets Goals for Jobs, Research, SchoolsThe East Bay Green Corridor Partnership, of which Berkeley Lab is a founding member, held its second annual summit last Friday at the Oakland Museum. The group welcomed seven new members — Alameda, San Leandro, Albany, El Cerrito, Peralta Community College District, Contra Costa Community College District and California State University, East Bay — in its push to become the Silicon Valley of the green economy. It recently received its first direct funding, $147,386 in a 2009 federal budget earmark, and hired its first staff person, whose salary will be paid by a $10,000 contribution from each of the 13 members. More>
[Wall St. Journal] Eight years after the Homestake gold mine here was shut down, this town is fashioning an unlikely economic-stimulus plan from the warren of tunnels the miners left behind. This past week, the mine was rechristened the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake. The event celebrated the first steps toward transforming the mine into a place for scientists to hunt for fundamental particles difficult to find on the earth's surface. After working in underground labs in Canada and Japan, Berkeley Lab physicist Kevin Lesko saw Homestake as a way to make the U.S. the center of the underground physics world. More>
[San Francisco Chronicle] Biotech firms need a new burst of innovation in fields like biofuels production to adapt to a changing marketplace, a veteran biotech financier told about 200 industry leaders in Santa Clara Thursday. One panel at the summit explored the potential for developing new biofuel processes that would be more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable than the current practice of turning corn kernels into ethanol. Berkeley Lab physical bioscientist Chris Somerville said it is already technically feasible to convert the entire cellulose content of perennial grasses into biofuels. More>
Lab researchers, PIs and staff are welcome to attend any of four different vendor demonstrations for the electronic Sponsored Research Administration (eSRA) system. The demos take place July 13, 14, 21 and 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The eSRA provides electronic cradle-to-grave proposal development and award administration with automated routings to improve the quality of non-DOE proposal development and award management. It will also integrate the Human Subjects, Animal Use and Conflict of Interest compliance offices to eliminate redundancies, save time, and increase compliance. To register, e-mail your job title, division name and preferred demo dates by COB on July 9.
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