RHESSI Celebrates
Its Second Year

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite has completed its second successful year of on-orbit operations as one of NASA's Sun-Earth Connection missions. Since its launch on Feb. 5, 2002, RHESSI has observed over 8,000 solar activity events. The RHESSI scientific payload is a collaborative effort among UC Berkeley; Goddard; the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland; and Berkeley Lab. Full story.

Judging Science
Is Elementary

VanBrocklin

Henry VanBrocklin (left), with the Lab’s Life Sciences Division, along with Nancy Hammon and David Gilbert from the Joint Genome Institute, were among the judges for a recent science fair at Valle Verde Elementary School in Walnut Creek. The judges looked at posters created by the students, which included kindergarteners through fifth graders. There were 200 posters in all, and each judge was asked to evaluate 10 of them. Gilbert said he and his Lab colleagues enjoyed the chance to do Lab outreach in this way.

Changes that will drastically affect security for Red Hat Linux users are
in the making. Greg Kurtzer will give a Computer Protection Brown-Bag talk on these changes at noon on Feb. 25 in Perseverance Hall. Attendees should bring their lunch and questions.

Black History Month
Talk on Minority Outreach

Bagayoko

Diola Bagayoko, of Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, will present a talk on “A Systemic Approach to Mentoring and Outreach: The Models of the Timbuktu Academy and of PIPELINES.” The event is sponsored by the General Sciences Workplace Committee and was scheduled to honor Black History Month. Bagayoko is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math, and Engineering Mentoring. The talk begins at noon in the Building 50 Auditorium on Monday, Feb. 23.

Gundersen

USC’s Martin Gundersen
Explores Pulsed Power

In a lecture sponsored by the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, Martin Gundersen, professor of electrical engineering and physics at USC, will discuss “Pulsed Power: Switches, Physics, and Two Diverse Applications.” The event begins at 10:30 a.m. today in the Building 47 conference room. This talk will describe academic research into pulsed power switching, which is a key to compact pulsed power, and two new applications, to ignition, and to biology.

The Right Chair Makes
All The Difference

As part of the Lab’s ongoing effort to improve safety and prevent injuries among employees, “Today at Berkeley Lab” is occasionally running photos of unsafe conditions — taken by EH&S’s Accident Photography Program — and offering suggestions for avoiding accidents. For example, in this photo, an employee is using an inappropriate chair. The person should have a computer chair and a workstation designed to accommodate a computer.