Prabhat of the NERSC Analytics Team and Hank Childs of the Computational Research Division’s (CRD’s) Visualization Group each won “OASCR” awards at the SciDAC 2010 conference earlier this month. Prabhat’s entry, “Hurricane Season,” (pictured) created with the help of Michael Wehner of CRD, also won the “People’s Choice” award. Childs’s entry was titled “Type Ia Supernova: Turbulent Combustion at the Grandest Scale.”
Science can be a long, slow haul. The road to discovery is usually filled with endless experiments, much trial and error, reformulating of hypotheses, re-experimenting and, sometimes, a very lucky break. Contrast that with venture capitalism’s need to rush a product to market in order to beat competitors and turn a profit. Can the two work together? Since late last year, Jim Matheson, a partner at VC firm Flagship Ventures, has been Berkeley Lab’s “entrepreneur in residence.” From his firm’s headquarters in Massachusetts, he travels to Berkeley monthly to meet with scientists and “add some commercialization impulse to the Lab,” as he puts it. More>
Lab staff are invited to join the “Great Race for Clean Air,” a friendly competition between Bay Area employers to see which group can utilize the most commuting alternatives, such as mass transit, carpooling, walking, and bicycling to work. The competition seeks to reduce greenhouse gases and smog levels in the region. The contest runs from Sunday, Aug. 1 through Monday, Sept. 30. Lab employees can sign up here. Participants will automatically be entered into weekly random drawings for prizes. Learn more about the contest, plus specific commute alternatives offered to Lab employees on the sustainLBL website.
The Lab’s summer baseball league just completed its seventh week of competition and Ballpark Estimates is in the lead with a 6-1 record. The team is followed by Silver & Black (5-1) in second place, and SUDZ in third (4-2). Animals, which at 3-3 is in the middle of the nine-team pack, is hoping its new mascot, who looks a bit like Oski's little brother, will help them move up the ladder. Pictured are (from l-r) Noah Schwartz, Ken Wan, Sophia Hartung (in bear costume), Wolfgang Reindl and David Acevedo. The softball games are played every Wednesday evenings on Maxwell Field, adjacent to Cal’s Memorial Stadium.
Safety: State Law Bans Use of Hand Held Phones While Driving A California state law that went into affect in 2008 makes it an infraction to drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone, except for hands-free devices used for listening and talking. Highway Patrol data shows that the leading cause of distracted driver-related crashes in the state is cell phone use while driving. Telephone Services (x7997) offers a variety of hands-free accessories for those who use Laboratory cell phones as part of their business responsibilities. Go here for a summary of the law.
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