October 15, 2008

Employees Enjoy Food, Recognition at Light Sources Directorate Awards Barbeque

The recent growth spurt of the Light Sources Directorate was obvious at the annual awards picnic by the sheer number of people who gathered to eat, drink, and celebrate the past year’s accomplishments. The annual event, hosted by NSLS Chair Chi-Chang Kao and Steve Dierker, Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources, included a barbeque, clam bake, and awards to honor NSLS and NSLS-II employees for another year of smooth and productive operation.

NSLS and NSLS-II Staff

Service Awards

Keith Klaus and Cecilia Sanchez-Hanke were recognized for 10 years of service at Brookhaven Lab. Ove Dyling, Steve Hoey, Chi-Chang Kao, Tom Kim, Frank Lincoln, Ed Losee, Lino Miceli, Om Singh, Ivan So, and Emil Zitvogel received 20-year awards. In the 25-year category were Diane Hatton, Steve Hulbert, and Jim Murphy. Roy D’Alsace, Walter DeBoer, John Gallagher, George Ganetis, Rick Greene, Chris Lanni, Bob Meier, Payman Mortazavi, Jack Tallent, Frank Terrano, and Gerry Van Derlaske were recognized for 30 years of service, and Al Almasy, Bob Casey, and Sam Krinsky were honored for 35 years.

Spotlight Awards

The Spotlight awards are tributes to NSLS and NSLS-II staff members who have shown exceptional dedication to their jobs during the year. This year, the winners were:

Bill Bambina/Ed Losee: NSLS mechanical technicians Losee and Bambina took the lead to fabricate, assemble, align, and install the X13B end station. This was a complicated assembly that required high-precision machining, assembly, and optical alignment skills during the fabrication process. They also helped the scientist commission the device in the X13B beamline. This assembly was built entirely using sketches. In addition to designing pieces, suggesting modifications, fabricating most of the parts themselves, and solving problems on the fly, Bambina and Losee helped with tasks such as procurement, interacting with the scientific staff, and staying after hours.

Pete Davila / Walt DeBoer / Bill Newburgh / Gloria Ramirez / Bob Scheuerer / Tom Seda: After the winter maintenance period, a series of system faults on the X-Ray radiofrequency (RF) System 3 plagued the re-start-up of the ring, causing both poor injection and beam dumps and interfering with normally scheduled operations. Each member of this group contributed significantly to the diagnosis and repair of the RF system. The X-Ray Ring continued to operate for NSLS users at a lower energy, and thus, the repair effort had to be squeezed into several study periods and two short monthly maintenance periods. On many occasions, each group member willingly stayed overtime – well into the night and early morning hours – and shifted hours on short notice, showing outstanding dedication to the NSLS and its users.

Jorge Oliva: Oliva, an electrical technician assigned to the RF and Power Systems Group, took on the project of upgrading controls for the VUV Ring and transport line focusing and steering magnet power supplies. He implemented a programmable logic controller to provide remote on/off control and real status read-backs as well as remote fault and error displays. Previous to this upgrade, VUV trim power supplied had to be turned on locally, on/off status read-back was non-existent, and faults on the main magnet power supplied had no remote display requiring the operator to go to the supply to determine the faults. This program will save inestimable time in diagnosing magnet power supply problems as it easily flags tolerance errors and displays faults for all supplies in one place on an easy-to-use display page.

Ken Pedersen: Pedersen, a senior technical specialist, was assigned to provide electrical technical support to the engineering effort on the kicker upgrade project. The project included development and testing of prototype replacements for the high voltage electronics powering the pulsed magnets that transfer the electrons for injection from the NSLS Linac to the Booster Ring and for extraction from the Booster ring to the x-ray transport line. In addition to assisting with the development of the electrical design and layout, he took on the role of mechanical designer at a time when the NSLS mechanical designers were overloaded with other priorities. His expertise not only allowed the unit to be constructed on schedule, in time for test fitting during the May shutdown, but resulted in a modular design with multiple applications.

Carrie Sauter: Sauter worked very hard on the NSLS-II Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary documentation and June variance analysis documentation to ensure that a quality product was submitted to the Department of Energy for Earned Value Management System (EVMS) certification. She spent several days revising this documentation and was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done on time to meet the deadline. Sauter’s dedication, attention to details, and thorough approach to planning and organizing the EVMS documentation and two-day meeting contributed to the success of the EVMS certification review. In addition, Sauter has a very positive attitude and takes it upon herself to make incoming NSLS-II staff members (joining the project at a rate of about five per month) feel comfortable and welcome.

Will Smart: Smart was tasked with creating a web page to track personnel who come to NSLS-II. This form, which takes into account the different purposes for which someone would come to the project – including visitors, new hires, transfers, contractors, etc. – was created to eliminate the problem of non-NSLS-II personnel arriving at the project without proper paperwork and training in place. Each of these purposes has a different set of tasks that must be performed before or as they arrive. The website was enthusiastically received and has already transformed the way new arrivals are processed, saving time and eliminating confusion. In addition, Smart was honored for his exemplary technical and customer service skills that have been regularly commented on by many staff members.

Jack Tallent: Tallent, an NSLS technical research associate, took a lead role in the development of a pulse magnet (kicker) timing and waveform monitor. In a rather short period, he programmed the PXI chassis to accomplish about 90 percent of the pulsed magnet monitor design goals, despite being limited to a budget amounting to only one third of the original projected cost. This system will be used to monitor the Linac and booster pulsed magnet system operation, greatly improving the ability to find and recover from a problem and expediting startup after shutdowns. Previously, each waveform had to be located on the scope and then tediously compared a known good signal individually. This system is capable of digitizing eight signals and presenting them for comparison to eight digitally saved signals quickly and easily.