by James Schultz

Grass goes uncut. Dirty dishes accumulate. Weekends blur into workweeks. Then there's a large, cumbersome cell phone to lug around, one with electronic innards powerful enough to muscle through the Lab's incessant electromagnetic noise.

For two weeks, 24 hours a day, JLab Program Deputies, or PDs, have little in the way of a personal life. The deputies, members of the Accelerator Division, are on call to oversee and troubleshoot the accelerator and the experiments in all three halls. Among the two-week job requirements are establishment of accelerator goals and priorities, publication of the detailed accelerator program, schedule preparation for each shift and review and approval of test plans conducted when beam isn't delivered to one or more halls due to maintenance or repair.

"It's a 24-hour-a-day job," says Paul Rutt, a staff scientist with the Injector Group who in the last 12 months has twice worked as a PD. "That's not to say you don't get six hours or so of sleep a night."

Riding Herd

The toll can be taken as early as 6 a.m., with the PD's phone call to the owl shift crew chiefs to determine accelerator and research status. When the program deputy arrives at the Lab, sometime after 7, in-person meetings with users (visiting experiment teams) usually occur. By 8 a.m., the PD runs a 50-person briefing that reviews the previous 24 hours, with details provided from each shift. A list is presented of what's scheduled in each hall for the next 24 hours. If necessary, task groups are also set up to solve technical or equipment problems. The rest of the morning can be spent attending to the details associated with accelerator operation.

Experiments may require different energy levels, for example, which can require beam recalibration. At other times, the machine must be taken off-line for scheduled maintenance, or to repair malfunctioning parts or subsystems. It is during such times that PDs turn to test plans.

Test plans are opportunities to check non-beam components of the accelerator apparatus, including the power supply of the steering magnets, examination of optical systems and certain measurements of the beam injector. Because improvements and upgrades are constantly being made, either to accelerator hardware or to the software that controls it, the test plans are a means to acquire valuable information about equipment function.

"The program deputy's job is to make sure that whatever the machine's capabilities, they are efficiently used at all times," Rutt points out. "Ideally, we get beam to the users all the time. If not, and with the exception of a widespread power outage, there's always something useful we can do."

Come afternoon, it's time to devise shift plans for each of the control-room operator groups for the next day's shifts. It is then, says Rutt with a smile, that the PD's famed ability to provide tasty treats for the hard-working operators comes to the fore. "We have great operators, professional and attentive. They're a real pleasure to work with," he says. "They really like program deputies who feed them well. The operators are even more charming when they're well fed."

A Pre-emptive Strike

If there's a secret to surviving the two weeks of PD duty, it may be in one's ability to anticipate difficulties. As afternoon gives way to evening and then to night, Rutt says program deputies typically check in with users and operators several times before going to bed. While there's no guarantee that a deep sleep won't be interrupted by a phone call, a potential problem can be nonetheless pre-empted.

Helping the program deputies stay in touch is a relatively large cell phone known to habitués as the Brick. A beefed-up version of its smaller cell-phone cousins, the Brick has the requisite power to deal with the electronic interference that otherwise plagues smaller models.

"You have this cumbersome appendage for two weeks," Rutt observes. "You go to the bathroom - it's with you. You go to a dinner - it's with you. You take your kids to the movies - it's with you. At the end of two weeks you're ready to hand it to somebody else."

Rutt originally came to the Lab in 1989 shortly after completing his Masters in physics from Michigan State University. He remained at the Lab through his doctoral studies at William & Mary. Then it was on to Rutgers University in 1993, where he remained until he returned here in 1995, this time as a user overseeing construction of a key piece of Hall A equipment. In 1996, he was co-spokesman for the Lab's first polarized beam experiment. He joined the Lab as a staff scientist in November 1997.

"It's been a delightful transition," Rutt says. "I've gone from being a beam user to actually helping to provide beam. It's given me a chance to work on things from another perspective. It's really very satisfying."

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