LLC Newsletter
February 8, 2007
This Month in Research Update:
- Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories (OVPRANL) News
- UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne to meet and retreat in new setting
- Research Highlights
- Community leaders learn more about proposed Theory and Computing Sciences Facility and other exciting computer technologies at Argonne
- Events
- Saturday lecture series in Park Forest begins Jan. 27
- University February Event Highlights
- Research in the News
- U.S. Patent Gives Chromatin Inc. exclusive mini-chromosome rights in plants
- Yerkes Observatory initiates Astrophysics Academy for Young Scientists
OVPRANL News
UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne to meet and retreat in new setting
The UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory which meets three times a year will hold its next Board meeting on February 14-15th at the University’s Gleacher Center downtown, rather than at Argonne where the meeting is usually held. The new location was chosen to give Board members an inside look at the University as the managing entity of Argonne via UChicago Argonne, LLC, and to create a more retreat-like atmosphere.
The agenda begins with a tour of the University of Chicago campus highlighting University/Argonne interactions and is followed by committee meetings, breakout sessions and a report by Robert Rosner, Laboratory Director, Argonne, President, UChicago Argonne, LLC, and Member of the Board of Governors. As always, Robert Zimmer, President, The University of Chicago, Chairman of the Board of Directors for UChicago Argonne, LLC and Chairman of the Board of Governors will play an active role in the discussions along with Don Levy, the newly appointed Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories at the University of Chicago, Chief Executive Officer of UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Directors, and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors.
There are seven committees of the Board. Following is a brief overview of each:
- The Administrative and Budget Committee works with the Laboratory Director and other senior management to ensure that the management, fiscal and personnel systems are being effectively operated with sound business methods and administrative integrity. The Committee also reviews matters relating to technology transfer and the programmatic budgets.
- The Audit Committee ensures that Laboratory management, the internal auditor and the independent public accountants are carrying out their responsibilities.
- The Compensation Committee has the principal responsibility for compensation related matters, particularly as applied to compensation plans and awards for executives of the Laboratory and general oversight of the Laboratory's compensation structure, including equity compensation plans and benefits programs.
- The Environmental, Safety, Security and Health Committee has the principal responsibility to review and oversee Laboratory policies, programs and practices involving employee, customer and public safety, security and health, including the safety of nuclear operations and the protection of the environment.
- The Executive Committee is empowered to act on behalf of the Board of Governors.
- The Nominating Committee makes recommendations to the University of Chicago, as sole member of UChicago Argonne, LLC, for members to the Board of Governors.
- The Science Policy Council works to enhance Argonne's scientific capabilities, strengthen the state's technological base and workforce preparation, and improve Illinois' ability to compete for federal research funding. The Science Policy Council does not meet in conjunction with the Board meeting.
Unique to this meeting are breakout sessions that will focus on several important topics for Argonne leadership namely, the Laboratory’s strategic plan for all Biology-related activities; Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) initiatives; plans for an advanced exotic beam facility based in the U.S. of roughly half the cost of the originally proposed rare-isotope accelerator; and industrial research partnerships.
“Sometimes a change in venue or meeting format can trigger more innovative thinking,” said Renee Carder, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories, University of Chicago, “By moving the meeting to downtown and allowing more time for brainstorming and discussion, we hope to not only familiarize the Board with the University, but also generate some new and actionable ideas concerning key areas for the Laboratory.”
If you have questions, or would like to know more about the upcoming UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne meeting, please contact Mary Ann Hejny, Assistant Director, The University of Chicago, at (630) 252-3246.
Research Highlights
Community leaders learn more about proposed Theory and Computing Sciences Facility and other exciting computing technologies at Argonne
On January 17, the U.S. Department of Energy Argonne site office and the Laboratory hosted the first Community Leaders Roundtable meeting of 2007. Meeting highlights included an update on plans for the proposed Theory and Computing Sciences Facility to be located at Argonne given by Angela Harvey, Acting Deputy Manager, Argonne Site Office and a presentation by John Hummel, Director of the Advanced Simulation Technologies Center, Decision and Information Sciences Division (DIS) at Argonne.
Harvey reported at the meeting that on January 19th, the DOE Office of Science cleared the way to fund and build the Theory and Computing Sciences building. The new arrangement uses third-party financing by a trust for the construction; and then the space will be leased back for lab use. “Angela deserves an enormous amount of credit for her fortitude in moving this process forward,” said Don Joyce, Deputy Laboratory Director. “She had to jump through a number of hoops to get this done.”
The Theory and Computing Sciences Facility will provide a world-class research center that will host servers and large-scale systems needed to support the growing number of R&D programs across the Laboratory and beyond that incorporate theory, math and computation. The proposed facility will support large-scale computation; high-end visualization; the integration of computers, people, data and instruments over high-speed networks; and a venue conducive to interdisciplinary interactions among researchers spanning theory, computing science and experimental validation. The approximately 130,000-150,000 square foot building to be located near Argonne’s North Gate will improve operating efficiencies and accommodate approximately 300-350 people including Argonne staff, students, visiting researchers, and other short-term visitors.
Laboratory Director Bob Rosner also complimented the work of a number of key individuals at Argonne for their contributions to the project including: Mike Bartos, CFO; Bill Luck; Legal Counsel, Adam Cohen; former Argonne COO, now on strategic placement at DOE headquarters; Jim Feigl, Assistant Director, Computing and Life Sciences; Mary Spada, contractor project lead for the Theory and Computing Sciences facility; and Rick Stevens, Associate Lab Director, CLS.
“The vision for the facility originated several years ago with Rick Stevens,” said Spada. “It stemmed from his belief that the lab needed a flagship facility in order to evidence its extraordinary capability in computing sciences.”
“It was really an amazing team effort,” Spada said. “One of the really unique things about this project was that it was a highly complex business transaction that called out the talents of many people at Argonne.”
Harvey’s update was followed by Hummel’s overview of the programs and integrated modeling tools developed in DIS to address a variety of problems of national and international significance involving transitional changes in past as well as present societies. One such prototype system was developed for the U.S. Defense Department showing how Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) can be used to address major problems, such as analyzing how to develop better drug interdiction strategies. More recently, DIS teamed up with social scientists from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute to study the dynamics of development and sustainability or demise of settlement systems in ancient Mesopotamia.
The Community Leaders Roundtable Meeting, held four times a year, provides community leaders and local government agency officials with news and information about important developments and research taking place at the Laboratory. Open dialogue and the exchange of information, ideas and concerns are integral to the format.
Meeting attendees included DOE representatives, Angela Harvey and Brian Quirke, Public Affairs Specialist, Chicago Office; Bob Rosner, Laboratory Director; Don Joyce, Deputy Laboratory Director; Bo Arnold, Associate Laboratory Director for Operations and Business Management; and Don Levy, Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories.
Visiting attendees included representatives from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Natural Resources/Illinois Waste Management and Research Center, the Office of the Illinois Attorney General and a number of neighboring home owners associations and environmental committees.
Events
Saturday lecture series in Park Forest begins Jan. 27
The public is invited to learn about a scientific expedition to the Sahara Desert, a police department canine unit, the ecology of the Great Lakes and other topics in a new series of lectures starting Saturday, Jan. 27, in Park Forest.
The lectures will begin at 10 a.m. each Saturday in Freedom Hall, 410 Lakewood Blvd., in Park Forest. The series, called “Saturday Mornings at Freedom Hall,” is sponsored by the Village of Park Forest and is organized by Steven Simon, a Park Forest resident and scientist at the University of Chicago, and Park Forest Village Manager Tom Mick.
The series schedule is as follows:
- Jan. 27, “Dinosaurs and Ancient Humans: A Saharan Odyssey,” by Paul Sereno, Professor in Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago.
- Feb. 3, “Forensic Trace Evidence: Big Picture Clues from Microscopic Particles,” by Christopher Palenik, research microscopist for Microtrace, a forensic consulting laboratory.
- Feb. 10, “Police K-9 Work Dogs: Sniffing Out Crime,” by Park Forest Police Chief Tom Fleming.
- Feb. 24, “What’s so Great about the Great Lakes?” by Mary Khoury, aquatic ecologist, the Nature Conservancy.
- March 3, “Central Park Wetland Restoration and Demonstration Project,” by Rob Gunther, Park Forest Parks Superintendent.
- March 10, “Technological Changes in Firefighting 1900-2007: Then and Now,” by Park Forest Fire Chief Bob Wilcox and PFFD Firefigher Lieutenant Mike Wheeler.
See www.freedomhall.org for directions to the lecture hall. For more information about the series, call the Park Forest Village Hall at (708) 748-1129.
University February Event Highlights
- The Renaissance Society: Scott Short Solo Exhibit, Sunday, Jan. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 18, 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Room 418, http://www.renaissancesociety.org
- Chicago-based painter Scott Short has a simple and highly refined method for arriving at abstract compositions. He places a piece of colored construction paper on the scanning bed of a black and white photocopier and makes a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, a couple hundred times. Within a few generations the photocopied images become monotonous fields of black and white static, which Short faithfully and painstakingly reproduces on canvases varying in size. This very restricted economy provides Short a wealth of visual effect in which value, arrived at through the textural interplay of black and white becomes as rich and complex a phenomenon as color itself.
Research in the News
U.S. patent gives Chromatin Inc. exclusive mini-chromosome rights in plants
Chromatin, Inc., a leader in the design, delivery and use of mini-chromosomes, recently announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,119,250 entitled Plant centromere compositions. This landmark patent permits construction of mini-chromosomes as vectors for plant and animal cells and includes techniques for creating transgenic plants using engineered mini-chromosomes. Importantly, this patent is not specific to a particular plant species, but instead provides Chromatin with exclusive rights to use mini-chromosome technology in all plants.
The issued patent covers technology developed by Drs. Daphne Preuss, Gregory Copenhaver and Kevin Keith at The University of Chicago. The patent has been exclusively licensed to Chromatin and allows the Company to sublicense the technology for commercial development. It further strengthens Chromatin’s intellectual property position, adding to the Company’s portfolio of over 40 patents, applications and inventions that cover the design, delivery and use of mini-chromosomes.
Alan Thomas, director of U ChicagoTech, the technology-transfer office at the University of Chicago, said “This is an important patent for the University and Chromatin, and reflective of the breadth and impact of this technology." Progress at Chromatin is also featured as an example of an unusually promising and successful tech-transfer project in the February 1, 2007 issue of the University of Chicago Chronicle.
In addition to awarding Chromatin exclusive rights to mini-chromosomes in plants, this patent also describes technology that makes it possible to add several genes (“gene stacks”) simultaneously to a plant, reducing the time and expense to commercialize new products. In addition, the identification of nucleic acid sequences that function as plant centromeres has allowed Chromatin to generate stably inherited DNA constructs and mini-chromosomes in several plant species.
For additional information visit www.chromatininc.com.
Zimmer, colleagues urge Congress to support funding for Argonne, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
President Zimmer and five other Illinois university presidents are urging Congress to ensure that a yearlong federal budget measure, now under consideration, will include enough support to maintain the health of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
Failure to do so could undermine the nation’s global competitiveness in science and innovation, wrote Zimmer and his colleagues in a letter dated Friday, Jan. 19, to Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois. Zimmer and James Crown, Chairman of the University Board of Trustees, sent a similar letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Full story.
Yerkes Observatory initiates Astrophysics Academy for young scientists
Students and teachers from 20 Wisconsin and Illinois schools will explore the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope and a variety of other research instruments as participants in the newly created Yerkes Observatory Astrophysics Academy for Young Scientists. Yerkes will formally launch the Academy with an astronomy festival for participants on Saturday, Jan. 20. Full story.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for Research Update, please feel free to email them to ResearchUpdate@listhost.uchicago.edu.
