New Lab Director Chu
Will Meet Staff Tuesday

Chu

Berkeley Lab employees who have not yet had a chance to meet new Laboratory Director Steven Chu in person will get the opportunity next Tuesday. From 3 to 4:30 p.m., he will host a welcome "all hands" reception in the cafeteria main dining room. After brief remarks, Director Chu will be available to answer questions and greet attendees. Light refreshments will be provided.

Counterintelligence Expert To Speak Next Week

Fingleton

A training expert in counterintelligence for the Department of Energy in New Mexico will visit Berkeley Lab next Wednesday to talk with employees about "Conducting Research in a Threat Environment." Donald Fingleton, an instructor in the Counterintelligence Training Academy in Albuquerque, will speak at 1:30 p.m. in the Building 50 Auditorium. Before joining the DOE, Fingleton founded and directed the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center at New Mexico State University. He was also a senior scientist at Argonne National Lab. His appearance is sponsored by Berkeley Lab's Counterintelligence Office.

Funds Extended Past
FY2004 Close

The House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday afternoon to continue funding the federal government through November 20. Referred to as a continuing resolution, or CR, the legislation provides appropriations for federal operations beyond the end of the fiscal year today. Funding is held at FY2004 levels until the applicable FY2005 appropriations bills are passed or until the CR expires on November 20. The CR applies to 12 of the 13 appropriations bills, including Energy and Water Development, which funds much of the Lab's activities. The Senate was expected to pass the CR late last night or early today, ensuring Congress returns to D.C. after the general election for a lame duck session to pass the remaining funding bills. For more information, contact Don Medley, the Lab's Manager for Government and Community Relations.

Leemans

Berkeley Lab researchers have taken a giant step toward realizing the promise of laser wakefield acceleration, by guiding and controlling extremely intense laser beams over greater distances than ever before to produce high-quality, energetic electron beams. Led by Wim Leemans of the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, the team achieved high-quality beams by first shaping a channel through hydrogen gas with powerful, precisely timed laser pulses, then accelerating bunches of electrons through the plasma inside the channel. Full story.

Ecogenomics Highlights
GSAC Opening Day
By John Russell

Rubin

New chips, new terminology — "ecogenomics" — and the latest installment of J. Craig Venter's travelogue of discovery highlighted the opening day of the 16th International Genome Sequencing and Analysis Conference, being held in Washington, D.C., this week. Venter, just back from Australia, reported his progress on sampling the oceans of the world for microbes. Venter said he'd started to do some clustering analysis of genes by geography. This concept was echoed in a presentation by Berkeley Lab scientist Eddy Rubin, director of the Joint Genome Institute, who has been doing extensive sampling of soil microbes and sequencing their genomes. Full story.

Donahue, left, and Fairchild, in white lab coats.

Lab Techs Participate
In 'Dirty Bomb' Drill

Technicians from the Lab, including Chris Donahue and Bob Fairchild with the Environment, Health and Safety Division, participated in an emergency drill last month, in conjunction with Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center. They served as advisors and evaluators during an exercise that simulated exposure to a "dirty bomb." In the photo above, Donahue and Fairchild observe the set-up of an emergency triage area.