MIT Ex-President Vest
To Visit Lab Today

Vest

Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu will host Professor-emeritus Charles Vest of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a tour and briefings today. The Lab is also co-sponsoring the last of three Clark Kerr Lectures on campus tomorrow. Vest will speak at 3:30 p.m. in the Lipman Room of Barrows Hall on the topic, "Industry, Philanthropy and Universities: The Roles and Influences of the Private Sector in Higher Education." Lab employees are invited to the free lecture. Vest served as MIT President from 1990 to 2004. A prominent mechanical engineer, among his many accomplishments he has worked to strengthen national policy on science, engineering, and education. Vest was provost of the University of Michigan before becoming president at MIT.

DOE Web Site Tracks
Katrina Relief Efforts

The Department of Energy has established two web sites, updated daily, that track recovery efforts and impacts on U.S. energy from Hurricane Katrina. Situation reports and updates are posted, as well as a gas price hotline. The Energy Information Administration also posts daily reports, in particular the impacts on U.S. oil and natural gas markets. Go here to visit the DOE home page, with links to updates and news, and here to access the EIA's on-line reports.

Evaluate Bus Service
With Online Survey

The Facilities Division is conducting a study of the Lab's shuttle bus service on the on-site and the Hearst Street routes. Employees, visitors and students can offer their feedback in a brief online survey. With recent changes to the routes, regular shuttle system users and occasional riders are encouraged to complete the survey. The survey can be accessed until Sept. 30. Go here to access the survey. For more information, contact Bill Llewellyn.

JGI researchers Warnecke (left) and Hugenholtz

Article Explores Nature's
Promise for New Energy

Kara Platoni, a writer for the East Bay Express, explores in this week's cover story the future of hydrogen and other alternative fuels in the world's energy production challenge. Drawing upon the expertise of Berkeley Lab scientists that include Phil Hugenholtz and Falk Warnecke of the Joint Genome Institute and Lab Director Steve Chu, Platoni looks at the roles that insects and microbes might play if research can figure out ways to emulate the elegant efficiency of nature. Read the full story here.

Facilities Can Help
With Year-End Deliveries

With the end of the fiscal year only a few days away, divisions are closely checking the status of pending orders. Staff in the Facilities Division can provide order and receipt status, and check when and if packages will be processed through Central Receiving. To check package status, call Denise Washington or Tim Montoya at x4935 from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 19-30. Lab Central Receiving will only accept signed and printed packing lists for purchase orders exceeding $5,000, or sensitive items that did not originally come through Receiving. E-mail receivables will be accepted again beginning Oct. 3.

Road Closure on Tuesday

The alley road from Building 58 to the Building 46 complex will be closed to all traffic on Tuesday, Sept 13, so that air conditioning units can be lifted to the roof of Building 46.