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More than 1300 physicists from all over the world use the Tevatron particle collider at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to search for the elusive Higgs particle, one of the greatest mysteries in particle physics. Scientists believe this hypothetical particle is key to explaining the origin of mass for elementary particles. While scientists working on the collider experiments are often in the limelight, hundreds of engineers and technicians are crucial as well to keep the search for the Higgs particle going. Robert “Obie” Oberholtzer, Fermilab senior engineering associate, is one of the people at the laboratory who work around the clock to keep the Fermilab accelerator complex running day and night. When there is an electrical or mechanical problem with one of the accelerators, Oberholtzer is called in to help fix it. “Obie is probably one of the leading contenders for the person most called to come in during off hours,” said Roger Dixon, head of the Fermilab Accelerator Division. “He frequently spends a large fraction of his weekend at the lab solving electrical problems. If we come across something difficult, Obie is who we call.” Oberholtzer first came to the lab in 1968. He worked on the construction, installation and commissioning of the Antiproton Source, which supplies antiprotons for the collider experiments. He has applied his expertise to the accelerator complex ever since. In the 1990s, Oberholtzer worked on electrical components for the upgrade of the Linear Accelerator. During the construction of the Main Injector Accelerator he helped install five million feet of cable. Keeping the Antiproton Source operational is one of Oberholtzer's many responsibilities today. Although he could retire, Oberholtzer promised he would stay until the Tevatron shuts down in a couple of years. “My job is interesting because I never have to do the same thing over and over,” Oberholtzer said. “It's always something new and different.” —Amelia WilliamsonSubmitted by DOE's
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A breakthrough event at SLAC
On Wednesday, June 27, SLAC celebrated a major construction milestone for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Tunneling crews broke through the final few inches of the Undulator Transport Hall into daylight after nearly three months and 560 feet of digging. The event marks partial completion of one end of the 1,700+ foot tunnel. The event was webcast live from the construction site, a short video of which is now available here (Requires Real Player). An interactive dashboard detailing the LCLS project is also available here. Upon completion in 2009, the LCLS will be the world's first hard X-ray free electron laser. By producing ultra-fast, ultra-bright pulses of X-ray light, scientists will be able to use the LCLS much as a camera's flash to freeze images of atoms and molecules in motion. Such processes occur on timescales that until now have been out of reach of even the most sophisticated instruments—molecules vibrate and react with each other on the order of quadrillionths of a second. Opening the door to this world of femtosecond dynamics will deepen our understanding of process such as how chemical bonds form and break and how electrons behave within atoms, potentially revolutionizing a range of fields from physics to biology and medicine. The LCLS is a collaboration among SLAC, University of California Los Angeles, and Los Alamos, Argonne and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. Submitted by DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center |
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