Below the Fold

Strong Start for Young Researchers

Two young investigators claimed the 2007 Jefferson Science Associates Thesis Prize. Michael Williams (center, left), Carnegie Mellon University and Ian Cloet, University of Adelaide, presented their respective works at the Users Group Workshop and Annual Meeting at Jefferson Lab on June 18. They received their $2,000 awards from Jerry Draayer (far left), president and CEO of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, and JLab Director Christoph Leemann.

Jerry Draayer (far left), president and CEO of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, and JLab Director Christoph Leemann presented cash awards to the winners of the Jefferson Science Associates Poster Contest held during the JLab Users Group Workshop and Annual Meeting. The poster session was held June 16. Placing first and earning $1,000 was the poster by Jixie Zhang (left), Old Dominion University: Exclusive Electro-production of Negative Pions from the Neutron in the Resonance Region. Second place and $500 went to Sharon Careccia, Old Dominion University, with her poster: Double Spin Asymmetry for Exclusive Negative Pion Production from Deuterium. Third place and a $250 prize went to Pieter Vancraeyveld, Ghent University, Belgium: Electromagnetic Production of Kaons from the Proton in the Regge-plus-resonance Model.

The theory of the strong force lies at the heart of research carried out by two young investigators that together claimed the 2007 Jefferson Science Associates Thesis Prize. Prize winners Michael Williams of Carnegie Mellon University and Ian Cloet of the University of Adelaide presented their work at the Users Group Workshop and Annual Meeting at Jefferson Lab on June 18.

Michael Williams
Thesis: Measurement of Differential Cross Sections and Spin Density Matrix Elements along with a Partial Wave Analysis for gamma-p to p-omega using CLAS at Jefferson Lab.

Williams earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University with a partial wave analysis of experimental data he and his colleagues collected in the g11a run period in Hall B.

His research was aimed at revealing signatures of never-before-seen excited states of protons and neutrons, or nucleons. An excited state is one in which ordinary nucleons vibrate with extra energy, essentially becoming a new particle.

Williams' analysis of the g11a data revealed several signatures and possible signatures of these excited states, called nucleon resonances.

"I did a partial wave analysis, where you try to decompose what you measure and figure out what was actually happening – what the physics was that produced what you see," Williams said. "We found evidence for nucleon resonance contributions."

He says these resonances can provide insight into the strong force that binds quarks and gluons into protons and neutrons, and eventually, nuclei. The strong force is described by the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD.

"QCD predicts the resonance spectrum, and by measuring it, you can provide a test for that theory," he noted.

Following his Ph.D., Williams accepted a postdoctoral position at Carnegie Mellon, where he is continuing work begun with his thesis and is also contributing to Jefferson Lab's 12 GeV Upgrade GlueX work.

Ian Cloet
Cloet earned his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide with theory calculations of the nucleon's structure inside the nucleus. His goal was to compare a nucleon outside the nucleus with one inside to determine how the strong force modifies nucleons inside the nucleus.

"We calculated the polarized EMC effect and found it to be twice as large as the unpolarized EMC effect. And this polarized EMC effect is telling us about how the spin of the nucleon changes when it's in the nucleus," he said. The EMC effect – named for the European Muon Collaboration – was first reported in 1983.

Cloet said his work also addresses QCD by revealing a new detail of the theory of how the strong force builds the heart of most visible matter in the universe.

"In a lot of ways, the ultimate goal of quantum chromodynamics is to start with the quarks and the gluons and to use those to eventually be able to calculate the properties of nuclei," he said.

More on Cloet's work can be found in an article posted after the publication of the Physical Review Letters paper on this result.

Following his Ph.D., Cloet took a postdoctoral position at Argonne National Lab and will soon continue his work with a second postdoc at the University of Washington.

Established in 1999, the Thesis Prize is awarded to a graduate student who has carried out research related to Jefferson Lab science. It is awarded to the graduate student with the best thesis and includes a stipend of $2,000 and a commemorative plaque. Four areas are considered in rating the submitted theses: the quality of the written dissertation, the student's contribution to the research, the work's impact on the field of physics and service (how the work benefits Jefferson Lab or other experiments).

By Kandice Carter
JLab science writer

Dick Owen Joins Industrial Hygiene and Safety Team

Richard Owen is the newest member of JLab's Industrial Hygiene and Safety team.

You might say that Dick Owen is a man who almost never was. His dad was aboard the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which was immediately astern of the USS Arizona and took a barrage of torpedoes during the surprise attack.

"This isn't good," his dad thought as the Arizona exploded and he jumped over the side of the West Virginia as it sank to the bottom of the harbor. In the ensuing chaos, Dick's grandparents were told that their son had been killed. When his father turned up safe and very much alive, the Navy sent him home for a few weeks of rest and recuperation. He subsequently met and married Dick's mother and they had four children.

Dick, their second child, is Jefferson Lab's newest addition to the industrial hygiene and safety team, joining Jennifer Williams, Brett Lewis and Mary Boggs.

Raised in southwestern Ohio, Dick Owen describes himself as a student who was always drawn to science. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1972 and then landed a job as a safety engineer with Aetna Life & Casualty in Shreveport, La. While there, he met his wife, Joan, who also worked for the company.

Not long after their marriage, a former professor who remembered Owen as an excellent student offered him a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health grant to complete a master's degree at Texas A&M. He completed all the course work and his thesis, which usually takes two years, in just 11 months.

"I didn't understand that I could renew my grant for another year," he recalled with a laugh. "I thought I had one year and that was all I had."

After completing his master's in Industrial Hygiene, he took a position with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, Conn., where he served for 14 years as a resident expert in identifying, evaluating and recommending controls of occupational health and safety situations for the company’s 40,000 employees. During this period, he traveled extensively, including stops in Italy, Singapore, England and Canada.

He followed that with 16 years at Solutia, Inc., in Springfield, Mass., a specialty chemical manufacturer for whom he was the lead industrial hygienist.  Solutia facilities worldwide sought out Owen for advice on improving their respective work environments.

Since Pratt & Whitney and Solutia were equi-distant from his Connecticut home, albeit in opposite directions, his family, which by then included three sons, didn’t move.

During those years in Connecticut, while working full time and raising a family, Owen also taught industrial hygiene courses in the Industrial Technology Department at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. In addition, he served as a Boy Scout leader for more than 16 years. He received numerous scouting awards such as the Silver Beaver and was voted into the prestigious Order of the Arrow and ultimately received the group's Vigil Honor.

Owen arrived at Jefferson Lab in early May and says he has been working hard to acclimate himself to this new environment. "It's been hectic," he said. "There are procedures specific to the lab to learn, all the different divisions and how things are done here, not to mention Department of Energy and site protocols."

Many people, he said, don’t understand the difference between safety issues, which have to do with events at a specific time and place, and industrial hygiene, which often takes a longer view and is concerned with health effects that develop over many years or even decades and tries to predict what current exposures could become health issues in the years to come.

The formal definition of industrial hygiene states that it's the art and science of recognizing, evaluating and controlling occupational health hazards from biological, chemical, physical and ergonomic sources.

Owen explained, "This field requires a working knowledge of chemistry, physics, engineering, physiology, biology, kinesiology/ergonomics, medicine, pharmacology, toxicology and legal issues."

He's excited about the opportunity to bring his expertise in industrial hygiene safety to the lab's staff and users. "It's not in everyone's fields to recognize subtle hazards and safety issues," he said. "That's why we're here. The Jefferson Lab community can rely on the industrial hygienists' expertise."

By Judi Tull
JLab feature writer

JLab Group Goes to the Dogs – Therapy Dogs – That Is

The JLab Activities Group dog training club is open to all employees, users, family members and their dogs. Members and their dogs recently posed for a group photo after they were evaluated for the Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International certification. For the last several weeks, the dogs and owners followed a training program that permits them to take the first step in becoming therapy dog/handler certified.

The Jefferson Lab Activities Group Dog Training Club passed its first milestone July 16. The dogs and their owners were evaluated for the Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International certification. "And passed!" according to Joyce Miller, dog training club captain and Physics Division staff member.

The Canine Good Citizen, CGC, is a certification program of the American Kennel Club that is designed to reward dogs who have good manners at home and in the community. The dogs and handlers must complete a 10-step test that includes sit and down on command; staying in place and coming when called. The primary objective of the Therapy Dog International, TDI, dog and handler is to provide comfort and companionship by sharing the dog with patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions. This is done in a way that increases emotional well being, promotes healing, and improves the quality of life for the people being visited and the staff that cares for these people.

One of the TDI evaluators, Helen Noles, said this about the JAG Dog Training Club group: "The dogs were well prepared and a very nice group of handlers and dogs. It is such a pleasure to test dogs and handlers who are prepared!"

The JAG Dog Training Club is open to all employees, users, family members and their dogs. The club meets on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. at Dixie RV Rentals, across the street from the lab. Current members of the club are: Joyce Miller, captain; Brian Kross, co-captain; Cindy Saban, Jen Monaghan, Bert Manzlak, Ingrid Kross, Nancy Kinzinger, Marge Parker, Sasha Stolin, Jan Tyler, Tom Grummell and Drew Weisenberger.

U.S. Completes Contribution to Large Hadron Collider

WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. contribution to the Large Hadron Collider has been completed on budget and ahead of schedule, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation reported June 30. The LHC, located near Geneva, Switzerland at the CERN laboratory, is the largest international scientific facility ever built. The U.S. contribution, a $531 million investment, consists of several key components of the particle accelerator and the ATLAS and CMS particle detectors.

"The success of the U.S. LHC project is based on the quality of the U.S. teams, and national and international collaboration," DOE Under Secretary for Science, Dr. Raymond L. Orbach said. "The U.S. groups, from universities and national laboratories, worked extraordinarily well together. We celebrate their accomplishments and, together with them, look forward to extremely exciting science coming from the LHC."

Scientists predict that the LHC's very-high-energy proton collisions will yield extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe. The LHC is currently undergoing final assembly and first particle collisions are expected later this year. When the LHC experiments begin scientific operations, U.S. physicists will make up the largest group of scientists from any single nation.

CMS (the Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS are two LHC experiments designed to explore the physics of the Terascale, the energy region where physicists believe they will find answers to some of the central questions at the heart of 21st-century particle physics: Are there undiscovered principles of nature? How can we solve the mystery of dark energy? Are there extra dimensions of space? What is dark matter? How did the universe come to be?

Many universities and laboratories contributed to the decade-long project – which was completed ahead of the planned Sept. 30, 2008 milestone – to design, fabricate, install, integrate and commission the U.S. components. The U.S. LHC project efforts were overseen by DOE's Office of High Energy Physics and the NSF Elementary Particle Physics program, with significant assistance from DOE's Office of Project Assessment. For more information on the project, visit http://www.uslhc.us/ . (DOE news release)

Milestones for mid-June through mid-July 2008

Hello
Michael Gelhaar, Facilities, Shipping Specialist, Chief Operating Officer Division
Stephen Smith, Lead Quality and Safety Engineer; Environment, Safety, Health & Quality Division

Move
Stephanie Schatzel, from Public Affairs to Staff Services, Staff Services Administrator, Chief Operating Officer Division

Goodbye
Joshua Ballard, Student Intern, Engineering Division
Deborah Dalrymple, Sr. CNC Machinist, Engineering Division
Zachary Edwards, Radiological Health Group Leader; Environment, Safety, Health & Quality Division
Margie Jones, 12 GeV Upgrade Project Administrative Assistant, 12 GeV Project Team
Stephen Mano, Mechanical Designer, Engineering Division
Lukas Osborne, Free-Electron Laser Optics Student Intern, FEL Division
Andrew Stevens, Free-Electron Laser Optics Student Intern, FEL Division
Noel Vermeire, Staff Services Administrator, Chief Operating Officer Division