EBI Grant Proposals
Now Being Accepted

ALS Employee Gary
Krebs Passes Away

Krebs

Gary Krebs, leader of the Users Services group and deputy science advisor for the Advanced Light Source, has died.He passed away Tuesday night while attending a national light source users meeting at Brookhaven. He was 63. Krebs was a native of Vancouver, Canada, who became a permanent U.S. resident. He joined Berkeley Lab in 1983, shortly after obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. During his career here, Krebs coordinated several major accelerator improvement projects at the Bevatron and the ALS. He also played prominent roles in safety, education and workforce diversity efforts. A more detailed obituary will appear in Friday's Today at Berkeley Lab.

DOE Funding Granted
For 'Organic' Lighting

Liu
Minor

Berkeley Lab researchers Gao Liu and post-doc Ting Zhang (both with the Environmental Energy Technologies Division), and Andrew Minor (Materials Sciences Division), have received funding from the Department of Energy to study novel fabrication methods for increasing the lifespan of organic light-emitting diodes. This is a promising technology for next-generation energy-efficient lighting, screens, and other applications. DOE’s R&D program aims to produce energy-efficient commercial lighting devices with a system efficiency of 50 percent, and lighting that accurately reproduces sunlight spectrum. Go here for more information.

Keasling Presents Next
Helios Talk Downtown

Jay Keasling, director of Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division, will give the final talk of the Helios lecture series presented at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The talk takes place June 4 at 5:30 p.m. at 2025 Addison St. Keasling will discuss "Renewable Energy from Synthetic Biology." The event is free and open to the public. Go here for more information.

'Women in Science' Talk
On Academic Careers

The East Bay Association for Women in Science is sponsoring a talk on "Is Academia the Alternative Career for Ph.Ds (and How to Get Published in Nature)." The lecture by Mirella Bucci, associate editor for the Nature Publishing Group, is tonight at 6:30 p.m. at 4560 Horton St. in Emeryville. Go here for more information.

Berkeley Students Gain
Some Access in BP Deal
By Rick DelVecchio

The main mystery about UC Berkeley's $500 million biofuels deal with BP has always been how two groups of researchers, one devoted to corporate profit and the other to teaching and public knowledge, will join forces for mutual benefit while maintaining their separate interests. It's an issue that has prompted some students to press for access to behind-the-scenes information on how such questions will be resolved when BP and UC officials enter into a contract formalizing the deal later this summer. Campus officials have responded by agreeing to meet with student representatives to discuss their concerns over what will be the world's biggest research effort on alternatives to liquid fossil fuels. Full story.

Perils, Pitfalls of HPC
Spotlighted at Meeting
By Gary Montry

Miller
Simon

The Linux Cluster Institute Conference focus this year was on big clusters. Not necessarily on raw performance per se, but on every other factor required to acquire, host, provision, maintain and achieve scalable performance for systems as a whole. The first two keynotes — one of which was presented by Horst Simon, director of Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division — set the tone by describing the perils and pitfalls of installing huge systems and getting them to perform. Lab earth scientist Norm Miller also gave a talk on the use of cluster-enabled climate modeling software to predict the impact of global warming on California's Sierra mountains snowpack. Full story.

Changes to Bus Stop,
Roadway are Made

To address concerns identified by the Berkeley Lab Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee, the eastbound bus stop currently located 140 feet east of Building 48 has been relocated to the crosswalk near that building. Also, starting June 15, the section of Road M from Building 2 past Buildings 58 and 47 will switch from a two-way road to one-way, allowing traffic only in the westbound direction. Go here to see a diagram of the new bus stop, and here for the changes to Road M. 

Excess Processing Center Moved to Building 79

As part of the offsite warehouse space and cost reduction program, the Facilities Division recently moved the Excess Processing Center to Building 79. The center, where excess computer processing, reuse, and scrap metal sorting functions are conducted, is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Moving these functions onsite, combined with a reduction of long-term storage items and the elimination of the Stores function, allowed Facilities to move from a 120,000-square-foot warehouse to a 55,000-square-foot space in Richmond. The lease cost reduction is saving the Lab over $600,000 per year. Go here for more information on the services offered at the new Excess Processing Center.