It’s Official: Robinson
To Direct Engineering

Robinson

Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank took the “acting” off of Kem Robinson’s title yesterday and announced his full-time appointment as Division Director for Engineering. At an all-hands meeting in the morning, Shank told the Engineering staff that Robinson, in the acting role since September, has successfully “implemented many of the recommendations made by the Laboratory’s Engineering Task Force, including refocusing the strategic direction toward strong partnerships with the scientific divisions.” The Director’s full appointment memo can be read here.

VENUS Ion Source
Achieves 28 Gigahertz

Superconducting VENUS — "the highest-field operating ion source in the world," according to 88-inch Cyclotron Director Claude Lyneis – has created a plasma at the 28 gigahertz range. Facility employees and lab managers celebrated the achievement last week, which Lyneis said placed the instrument "years ahead of the competition." The culmination of more than a decade of ion-source development under Lyneis' direction, VENUS will serve as a prototype injector for the Department of Energy’s Rare Isotope Accelerator. See the June 11 issue of The View for more on the celebration.

Where No Computer
Has Gone Before

Tetsuya Sato calls it "holistic simulation." And "ultrascale computing" is the term frequently repeated by Raymond L. Orbach, director of the Energy Dept.'s Office of Science, one of the U.S. government's main sponsors of academic research. Basically, they're talking about the same thing: Using supercomputers to discover new scientific knowledge. Starting in October, the notion of discovering new science through simulations will get a series of acid tests. Three research teams will get exclusive access to Berkeley Lab NERSC's super for a week or even a whole month. "That has never happened before," notes Orbach. Full story.

The weather should be warm again today, so why not cool off with an ice cream sundae, courtesy of the Administrative Services Division (ASD) Staff Appreciation Day Team. From noon to 1 p.m. today, ASD will be holding the fund-raiser on the cafeteria lawn to help cover costs associated with the first-ever ASD Staff Appreciation Day on June 16. For $1.50, you can get two scoops of ice cream plus toppings.

New Web Address
For Job Opening Site

Berkeley Lab’s Current Job Opportunities website — located at http://cjo.lbl.gov — has moved to a new URL: http://jobs.lbl.gov. The change is intended to increase the visibility of the site for prospective employees and link more easily to the major Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AltaVista, etc.). Job seekers can more easily find the website using the search string "Jobs" in any of the major search engines. Traffic will be re-directed from the original to the new URL.

New YCAL Contract May
Have More Airlines, Cities

The current YCAL contract for low-cost unrestricted coach fares with the University of California ends June 30, and the State of California is in the process of negotiating with various airlines for the new period. Although contracts have not yet been signed, additional airlines may be joining the domestic program and additional cities may be added for foreign travel. Employees who need to make reservations for July or later should reserve space in the unrestricted coach (Y) category and ask that Carlson Travel delay ticketing until the new rates are in. If making the reservation in Travel Power, add a note to hold ticketing for the new YCAL fare.

Great America Tickets
On Sale This Week

Saturday, July 17 will be Berkeley Lab Day at Paramount's Great America amusement park. Sponsored by the Employee Activities Association, the event includes discount tickets for all Lab employees. A regular $47.99 ticket will be available for $18, on sale all this week in the cafeteria between noon and 1 p.m.(checks only). For more information, e-mail here or call Arabella Schmidt at ext. 2902.