September 23, 2005

The 2005 NSLS Barbeque Wraps Up the Year

NSLS Chairman Steve Dierker

The unusually warm, sunny weather of September 23 did not hint at the cool autumn days to come, but did make for an enjoyable 2005 NSLS Barbeque. However, it was the NSLS staff members in attendance, particularly the service and spotlight-award winners, that made the event memorable.

Service Awards

Nick Gmur and Dennis Carlson were honored for 30 years of service at Brookhaven Lab, and 25-year awards went to Shu Cheung, John Klug, Gloria Ramirez, and Peter Zuhoski.

In the 20-year category were Erik Johnson, Eileen Morello, Mihai (Mike) Radulescu, Lydia Rogers, David (Peter) Siddons, and Yong-Nian Tang. Mary Anne Corwin and Zhijian Yin celebrated 10 years.

Not available to receive their awards at the barbeque were Wayne Rasmussen, for a very impressive 40-year award; John Bohenek for 25 years of service; Sorin Pop, Leonard Pharr, and Madeline Hughes for 20 years; and Syed Khalid and Elio Vescovo for 10 years.

Steve Dierker presents a 30-year service award to Nick Gmur

Spotlight Awards

The Spotlight awards are tributes to NSLS staff members who have shown exceptional dedication to their jobs during the year. This year, the winners were: John Aloi, nominated by Bob Casey; Angela Bowden, nominated by Laura Miller; Michael Caruso, nominated by Gary Nintzel; Bob Kiss, nominated by Gerry Van Derlaske; Patrick Moylan, nominated by Ed Haas; Dennis Poshka, nominated by Anthony Kuczewski; John Vaughn, nominated by Gloria Ramirez; and Zhijian Yin, nominated by Peter Siddons.

Gary Nintzel (left) said a few heartfelt words about Shu Cheung (right), who received a 25-year service award. Steve Dierker looks on.

John Aloi: From January to April 2005, the Laboratory set new electrical safety requirements in place that required immediate implementation. John took on several activities to make this happen, including preparing PowerPoint presentations for several audiences to review the new requirements, serving as the technical expert for the updates, determining and then purchasing the proper protective clothing for NSLS electrical workers, and developing and administering a training program to instruct workers on the new guidelines.

Angela Bowden: For five weeks in April and into May, Angela worked under the pressure of a tight deadline to bring the NSLS into compliance with a Department of Energy "Corrective Action" item. She volunteered to learn two new computer programs, and then used them to create more than 3,000 safety warning labels for hazardous equipment on the NSLS experimental floor. All the labels were accurate and completed before the deadline.

Michael Caruso: Caruso is recognized for providing invaluable assistance to the NSLS Vacuum Group over the past several years. Notably, he helped develop a coating process that greatly reduces the time necessary to coat a ceramic chamber, and then used the method to titanium-coat three ceramic chambers. He demonstrated excellent knowledge and skills in vacuum processes, and all three chamber coatings proved to have excellent mechanical and electrical properties.

A group of NSLS staff members watch the awards ceremony

Bob Kiss: In response to a Brookhaven Lab directive, Bob crafted and implemented new and improved procedures for the NSLS Hoisting and Lifting program. He created new check-out sheets tailored for equipment at each beamline, came up with an NSLS-specific rigging-training program, took control of 49 NSLS overhead cranes by preventing unauthorized people from operating them, and assigned to each beamline a person responsible for hoisting and lifting activities at that beamline. These actions helped make the NSLS experimental floor a safer place.

Patrick Moylan: Pat demonstrated exceptional initiative and written skills by putting together Worker Qualification and Training forms for the Mechanical Tech Group, which falls outside of his own training and work area. On top of that, he put together a training program designed to enhance on-the-job safety in the x-ray ring tunnel for workers who need unescorted access to the tunnel. He then presented that training to all NSLS staff, to inform them of potential hazards in the tunnel.

NSLS staff members Igor Pinayev, Timur Shaftan, and Richard Heese

Dennis Poshka: By starting up a verification and maintenance routine for the facility beamline user interlock systems, a project he undertook on his own accord, Dennis uncovered many beamlines in which legacy interlocks were disconnected or inadequately instrumented. Identifying these interlocks prevented a potentially huge loss of equipment and greatly added to the measure of safety at the NSLS.

John Vaughn: After a period of repeated beam dumps on the x-ray ring in 2004, caused by random trips of a faulty power supply, John assisted in several studies to trace the origin of the trips in the power supply. When nothing surfaced, he set up diagnostics, and logged and charted events to establish a correlation between the trip frequency and the x-ray ring maintenance periods. These efforts led him to a solution after months of efforts by other staff members did not.

Zhijian Yin: Zhijian installed and commissioned a complex request-tracking system for the User Science Division over a very short time period. He discovered an open-source software package that fit the needs of the division and successfully incorporated it into the existing email, web, and database servers. This complex task involved many extended hours of experimenting and testing to make sure the software worked properly. Since then, more than 100 requests have been tracked without problems and the system has proved to be easy to use and efficient.

All NSLS Barbeque Photos

ARTICLE BY: Laura Mgrdichian

PHOTOS BY: Michael Herbert