Lab Physicist Shapiro
Named Campus Chair

Shapiro

Berkeley Lab particle physicist Marjorie Shapiro, who is also a joint appointee as professor on the Physics Department faculty at UC Berkeley, has been named by campus Dean Mark Richards as the next Chair of the department, effective this July. Shapiro, a collaborator through the Lab in two major experiments -- the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and the Atlas collider experiment at CERN -- will initially be appointed for a term of two years, and will consider serving a third year after she has been on the job for a year, according to announcement made yesterday by Richards, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences.

‘OneSC’ Restructuring
To Be Announced April 1

Orbach

Office of Science (SC) Director Ray Orbach announced in a message yesterday that he will roll out his Office of Science Restructuring (“OneSC”) Plan on April 1 in a town hall meeting via videoconference for all SC employees. The plan, he said, will “reduce layers of management, streamline decision-making processes, clarify lines of authority, and make better use of resources.” Included will be the creation of an SC Integrated Support Center, a partnership of the Chicago and Oak Ridge offices, to provide business, administrative, and technical support to Berkeley Lab and other SC sites. Links about the plan, including a white paper and Q-and-A, can be found here.

Bacteria, Designer Bugs,
Solar Cells in Latest ‘Beat’

The March issue of Berkeley Lab’s Webzine, Science Beat, has been posted, including stories on the first nationwide census of airborne bacteria, synthetic biology and "bugs" that could make an effective but scarce malaria drug, and newly discovered material to improve solar cells. Go here to read these and other stories featuring Lab research.

Lab Employees Invited
To ‘Rebuild Together’

The Albany-Berkeley-Emeryville (ABE) and San Francisco chapters of Rebuilding Together, a national volunteer organization that provides free improvements for the homes of low-income seniors and people with disabilities, as well as community facilities, are recruiting volunteers for their April 24 project. Berkeley Lab employees are invited to participate on Energy Teams that will go from house to house installing simple energy and water efficiency measures. The Energy Teams were begun by a Berkeley Lab postdoctoral fellow several years ago. Contact Allan Chen at x4210 for more information.

Weekend Crane Work
Will Shut Down B90

Building 90 will be shut down for crane activity this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday between about 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., access to the building will be unavailable. For information, contact Matt Hilburn at x7270 or Guy Kelley at x4703.