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April 10, 2007

This Month in Research Update:

OVPRANL News

UChicago Argonne, LLC Board meeting deepens board commitment to Argonne
Vigorous dialogue, thoughtful discussion, and creative ideas characterized the second meeting of the UChicago Argonne Board of Governors that was held on February 14 and 15th at the University’s Gleacher Center downtown.

The event kicked off with a number of individual committee meetings followed by an address by Robert Zimmer, University of Chicago President and Chairman of UChicago Argonne, LLC, and presentation by Robert Rosner, Argonne Laboratory Director. In his address, Zimmer announced several structural changes that would serve to more fully engage Board members in overall Laboratory operational issues and better align the Board with the new management contract. In the future, each Board member will be assigned to at least one Standing Committee to maximize overall Board contributions to the Laboratory. In addition, the Executive Committee will meet more frequently to strengthen the dialogue between Board members and Laboratory Director, Bob Rosner. A data compendium also will be included in future Board materials to serve as a mechanism for routine reporting of critical information and metrics.

Rosner’s presentation included an overview of the FY07 budget, plans for DOE financing of Argonne’s petascale computing facility, approval of third party financing for the Theory and Computational Science Building, an update on the rare isotope facility, and current activities in support of the Laboratory’s mission "to solve the Nation's key problems in energy, the environment, and national security, and to answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the universe, based on the unique facilities and strengths of Argonne and its partners."

His presentation also identified some of key opportunities for Argonne, including:

Rosner also emphasized the need to increase branding efforts and collaboration between the basic and applied sciences at Argonne; broaden academic partnerships and partnerships with other national laboratories; and increase partnerships with Argonne’s industrial collaborators.

The second day of the Board meeting included more committee meetings and breakout sessions, a new feature of the Board meeting. The breakout sessions focused on the following areas: the Laboratory’s bioscience strategy, industrial research partnerships, Global Nuclear Energy Partnerships (GNEP), and the Rare Isotope Accelerator. Key Argonne subject matter experts attended each session leading to a lively exchange of information and ideas.

“The discussions served as a framework for understanding where we are today and where we want to be in the future,” said Rosner. “I look forward to continue working closely with the Board to ensure that Argonne remains a key contributor to the national laboratory system as well as a valuable asset to the nation.”

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for June 20 and 21, 2007.

Vietnamese Delegation visits University
On March 14, a delegation of twenty-five officials from Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Mr. Pham Gia Khiem, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with Don Levy, Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories at the University of Chicago, and Bob Rosner, Argonne Laboratory Director, for a tour of the Gordon Center for Integrative Sciences followed by a reception. The University visit was an important stop on the delegation’s tour of Chicago area that included meetings with The Boeing Company and Caterpillar Inc. as well as Mayor Daley’s office.

The Gordon Center visit included a tour of University of Chicago Chemistry Professor, Steven Sibener’s laboratory, whose interests include chemical physics/physical chemistry, surface science, and materials research. During the reception, the President’s office exchanged gifts with the delegation and introduced them to a University doctoral student from Vietnam. After the visit, the Deputy Prime Minister expressed keen interest in seeing more students from his country attend the University in future. Moreover, a videographer accompanied the delegation to film their visit so that it might be aired later on Vietnamese national television.

“For the U.S. to establish good scientific relations with countries with which we have had a complicated political history is ‘absolute gold’,” says Levy. “Our relations with Vietnam are warming and both sides want to see improvement. This is the way we have always done it, through scientific and cultural exchanges.”

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Research Highlights

Howard T. Ricketts Regional Biocontainment Laboratory construction and community outreach well underway
Construction of the Howard T. Ricketts Regional Biocontainment Laboratory is well underway with the foundation laid, utilities connected, and exterior masonry completed. Next steps include completing mechanical rough-in, interior masonry build-out, dry wall, and beginning interior finishes. Turner construction, the contractor for the project, is expected to complete its work by the end of January 2008. Additional activities will continue throughout the first months of 2008 as the finishing touches are put on the space.

"Our team is working very well together and that collaborative effort is going to ensure a very successful project," says Anthony Zamer, Project Manager, Renovations, Capital Plan, Construction, Maintenance and Operations, Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago.

Moreover, solicitations were made for volunteer members of the recently formed Community Liaison Committee which offers community members the opportunity to get involved and to learn more about plans for the Ricketts facility. To date, fifteen volunteers have been recruited including representatives from Argonne, the Department of Energy, The University of Chicago, local Public Health departments, the medical community, surrounding neighborhoods, congressional offices, The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Red Cross. The first meeting of the Community Liaison Committee is planned for either May or June.

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Events

Summer Lab accepting registrations
Enrollment for the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools' Summer Lab 2007 program continues at a brisk pace as students from all over town and around the world plan to gather at the Lab Schools this summer. Unique and compelling as Lab itself, Summer Lab offers full-day, morning, and afternoon programs for children entering nursery school through high school. Students can pursue everything from summer school courses such as Exploring Scientific Activities, Web Design, Pastry Passport, and several high school courses for credit, to Adventure Kids Day Camp, Summer Lab on Stage, and late-afternoon Sports Camps.

Summer Lab 2007 starts on June 18th and concludes on July 27th. The first three-week session runs thru July 6, the second three-week session begins on July 9. Completed registrations received by April 15 may take advantage of Summer Lab's Early Bird Discount of $100 off the registration fee. Call 773-834-7766 for a brochure, or visit Summer Lab online at www.summerlab.org. Brochures will also be available in a number of kiosk locations throughout Argonne.

University March event highlights

Nine free lectures at the University of Chicago will explore how black holes, remnants of exploded stars and other exotic celestial objects emit streams of powerful gamma rays. “The Quest for Gamma Rays: Exploring the Most Violent Places in the Universe,” is the title of this year’s Arthur Holly Compton Lectures, sponsored each spring and fall by the University’s Enrico Fermi Institute. The 65th series of these public lectures will begin Saturday, March 24, and will be held each Saturday through June 2 (except for April 21 and May 26, when there will be no lectures). The lectures will be given from 11 a.m. to noon in Room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Ave. For more information about the lecture series, call (773) 702-7823.
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a prominent Mexican politician and intellectual leader, will address a conference to discuss the rising challenges to the left in Latin America and share a reflection on the current political ideas prevailing in Mexico. The event will take place on Wednesday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at the International House, Assembly Hall,1414 E. 59th St., at the University of Chicago. Full story.
The Renaissance Society: Allora and Calzadilla, “Wake Up”: Through Sunday, April 15, Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Room 418.
“Reveille,” the bugle call that signals the start of the military day, is the subject of “Wake Up,” a sound and light installation by artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. For “Wake Up,” the artists asked trumpet players from around the world, working in a range of styles, to interpret “Reveille.” These recordings will be played over a series of speakers running along diagonal corridors that are a radical alteration of the gallery space. The warm lighting scheme will take its cue from the sound, gradually dimming and brightening in relation to the amplitude of the music.
Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library: “The Meaning of Dictionaries”: Through Friday, July 6, Joseph Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th St.
Focusing on English language dictionaries, this exhibit explores the ways dictionaries have defined meaning from the Enlightenment to the digital age, as well as what dictionaries mean within their cultural contexts. Often considered neutral, authoritative works of reference, dictionaries reflect the social and political circumstances of the time and place in which they are produced. And, while frequently associated with one person, dictionaries are the products of many hands that are frequently revised, adapted and even appropriated. Dictionaries and their makers, from Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster to Sir William Craigie and the University’s work on The Dictionary of American English, will be considered, along with themes such as nationalism, standardization of language, and dictionary-making and use in a digital environment.

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Research in the News

University of Chicago strikes historic agreement with elite French institution
The University of Chicago will become the first American university to offer courses taught by members of the College de France, one of the world’s most elite scholarly institutions. This fall, for the first time in its nearly 500-year history, the College de France will send its faculty to lecture in the United States as part of the Collège de France Visiting Chair Program. Full story.

Physicists shine a light, produce startling liquid jet
It is possible to manipulate small quantities of liquid using only the force of light, report University of Chicago and French scientists in the March 30 issue of Physical Review Letters.

“In previous work, people figured out that you can move individual particles with lasers,” said Robert Schroll, graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago and lead author of the PRL article. Now it appears that lasers can also be used to generate bulk flow in fluids. “As far as we know, we’re the first to show this particular effect,” Schroll said.

Schroll and Wendy Zhang, Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago, carried out the project with Régis Wunenburger, Alexis Casner and Jean-Pierre Delville of the University of Bordeaux I. The technique might offer a new way to control the flow of fluids through extremely narrow channels for biomedical and biotechnological applications. Full story.

Scientists compute death throes of white dwarf star in 3D
University of Chicago scientists will demonstrate how to incinerate a white dwarf star in unprecedented detail at the “Paths to Exploding Stars” conference on Thursday, March 22, in Santa Barbara, Calif.

White dwarf stars pack one and a half times the mass of the sun into an object the size of Earth. When they burn out, the ensuing explosion produces a type of supernova that astrophysicists believe manufactures most of the iron in the universe. But these type Ia supernovas, as they are called, may also help illuminate the mystery of dark energy, an unknown force that dominates the universe.

“That will only be possible if we can gain a much better understanding of the way in which these stars explode,” said Don Lamb, Director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes. The Flash Center has been simulating exploding stars since 1997 with funding from the Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Full story.

Two-step process filters evolution of genes of human and chimpanzee
Although the human and chimpanzee genomes are distinguished by 35 million differences in individual DNA "letters," only about 50,000 of those differences alter the sequences of proteins. Of those 50,000 differences, an estimated 5,000 may have adaptive consequences in the evolutionary divergence between these two species, according to a study published in the March 6, 2007, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Before such a new and beneficial mutation can take its place in the human genome it has to pass through a rigorous two-step—negative and positive—screening process, say the study authors, evolutionary geneticists from the University of Chicago, the University of Tokyo and the University of Washington. Both steps focus on the most radical changes. Full story.

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