Biggin
Banfield
Tainer

Three projects headed by Berkeley Lab scientists are among the recipients of $92 million the Department of Energy awarded yesterday to several initiatives designed to better understand microbes and microbial communities. High throughput identification and structural characterization of multi-protein complexes during stress response in Desulfovibrio vulgaris, led by Mark Biggin of the Genomics Division, received $25.8 million. Molecular assemblies, genes, and genomics integrated efficiently, led by John Tainer of the Life Sciences Division, received $12.9 million. And proteogenomic approaches for the molecular characterization of natural microbial communities, led by Jillian Banfield of the Earth Sciences Division, received $10.5 million. Full story.

Runaround Is Just
Around the Corner

Time to dust off those jogging shoes and start getting in shape for the Lab's 28th annual Runaround, which takes place at noon on Friday, Oct. 14. The 1.86-mile run begins at the firehouse and ends at the cafeteria, where refreshments and entertainment will be provided. Go here for more information. As a reminder for employees, a countdown of days will appear in the Today at Berkeley Lab calendar section through the day of the race.

Bioremediation, Breast
Cancer Work Awarded

Bissell
Hazen

Berkeley Lab's Mina Bissell and Terry Hazen have each won Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) "Distinguished Scientist Fellowship" awards. This is the first year of the awards, which recognizes a scientist in each of BER's four divisions. Bissell won in the Life Sciences Division for her work with breast cancer and the extracellular matrix. Hazen won in the Environmental Remediation Sciences Division for his studies on the bioremediation of solvents and metals. Bissell and Hazen will each receive $250,000 per year for up to five years, while employed at Berkeley Lab. Full story.

Comply With Radiation Protection Rules

A recent radioactive contamination incident at Los Alamos National Laboratory — which led to offsite contamination in several neighboring states and an unexpected personnel dose — highlights the importance of complying with Berkeley Lab's procedures for the control of radioactive material. These include processing through Environment, Health and Safety; use of only official vehicles; and radiation survey requirements. Go here for complete details.

Paid-Holiday Change In Shutdown Period

During this year's December holiday shutdown period, employees only have to use one vacation or leave-without-pay day instead of the usual two. Thursday, Dec. 29, has been designated as one of the New Year's holidays instead of Monday, Jan. 2, 2006. As a result, the only day during the shutdown period that is not a paid holiday is Wednesday, Dec. 28. Go here to view this revised holiday schedule and the entire holiday calendar for 2006.