Director's Farewell Talk
Begins at Noon Today

Shank

Each year since 1989, Laboratory Director Charles Shank has reported to the Lab community on the status of the enterprise. Today at noon in the Building 50 Auditorium, he will do so one last time, in his final State-of-the-Laboratory address prior to his retirement later this year. His talk will include a review of scientific highlights from the past year, an assessment of the budget, and a look at future laboratory initiatives. Employees can view the talk in person, on television monitors throughout the lab, or via web streaming (instructions for linking to the broadcast via RealPlayer software can be found here).

Lab Participating Today
In Emergency Exercise

Berkeley Lab will be a participant in today's multi-agency emergency simulation called "Berkeley Alert II." The scenario is based on a hypothetical "dirty bomb" explosion in downtown Berkeley. The Laboratory's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the fire house will be activated from 8 to 11:30 a.m., and a Joint Information Center at City Hall will be functional for the first time. Laboratory radiation control specialists will provide key information. Participating organizations with Berkeley Lab include the City of Berkeley, University of California at Berkeley, DOE Berkeley Site Office, Alta Bates Medical Center, and Bayer Corporation. Full story.

Berkeley High Ceremony
Will Affect Friday Traffic

Berkeley High School will be conducting graduation ceremonies tomorrow at the Greek Theater on campus, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Employees are encouraged to use public transportation that day, or enter and exit the laboratory in the late afternoon via either the Strawberry or Grizzly Peak gates. Downtown shuttle bus passengers are also alerted to potential delays.

JGI Helps Unravel
Sudden Oak Death

Researchers are closer now to thwarting two related plant pathogens, one causing "Sudden Oak Death" (SOD) and another responsible for a devastating soybean disease, thanks to the DNA sequence produced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute, in collaboration with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. The projects received nearly $4 million in support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the DOE in this multi-agency effort. “For both these pathogens, the genome sequence information will enable the identification of cellular processes that can be targeted for novel detection systems and for safe and effective means of chemical or biological control,” said DOE Office of Science Director Ray Orbach. Full story.

New Results Change
Higgs Mass Estimate

In a letter to Nature, published in the June 10 issue, an international collaboration of scientists working at Fermilab's Tevatron accelerator report the most precise measurements yet for the mass of the top quark, a subatomic particle that has been found, and this requires an upward revision for the long-postulated but still undetected Higgs boson. "Since the top quark mass we are reporting is a bit higher than previously measured, it means the most likely value of the Higgs mass is also higher," says Ron Madaras, a Berkeley Lab physicist who heads the local participation in the D-Zero experiment at the Tevatron. Full story.

UC Berkeley, Taiwan
In Nano Research Pact

Majumdar

A first-of-its-kind alliance between UC Berkeley and Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute will mean $500,000 a year to support nanotechnology research at the university and help in identifying markets for products that may emerge from the partnership. According to Berkeley Lab materials scientist Arun Majumdar, who is also director of the ITRI/UC Berkeley Research Center, the new program will benefit from Berkeley's superior facilities, both on campus and at nearby Berkeley Lab. Full story.