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In this issue:
SLAC Hosts SNIC Conference
People Today: Ruth McDunn's Creations
Out of the Box: Designing the ILC
Photo: Owls on End Station B Continue to Grow

SLAC Today

Wednesday - March 29, 2006

(Image - SNIC)

SLAC Hosts SNIC Conference

Two hundred scientists from around the world will converge at SLAC next week (April 3-6) to participate in The International Symposium on the Development of Detectors for Particle, Astroparticle and Synchrotron Radiation Experiments. This is the ninth conference in a series that was started in 1977 by SLAC and the Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics at Novosibirsk, Russia. In reference to this history, the symposium has adopted the acronym SNIC for SLAC Novosibirsk Instrumentation Conference.

Because the research programs at many high energy physics laboratories will change dramatically in the years to come, the program for this year’s symposium will cover detector development for experiments in three different areas of research: Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics, and experiments at synchrotron radiation facilities. The goal of this symposium is to bring together experts from different communities to exchange information and stimulate interdisciplinary developments.   Conference website....

(Weekly Column - Profile)

Ruth McDunn's Creations

(Photo - Ruth McDunn's pottery) Web Information Manager Ruth McDunn's pottery

It's only fitting that Ruth McDunn, SLAC's Web Information Manager, created her first commercial website for a pottery studio, Blossom Hill Crafts Pottery. For the past 15 years, McDunn and her husband, Warren, have dedicated Wednesday evenings to taking classes and throwing pots at the studio. Located near their San Jose home, the studio provides clay and ovens for firing and has other advantages too: "You leave the mess there," says McDunn.

Before coming to California, the McDunns took pottery lessons for a year at a community college in Minnesota. Then, after a job layoff, Ruth turned to pottery for "something to do during the day."

The McDunns have a lot of fun with their shared artistic avocation, concentrating mainly on functional pieces (mugs, pitchers, plates) as opposed to artistic work which is primarily decorative. Ruth throws smaller pieces, under 10 pounds; Warren throws the larger ones; Ruth does the glazing. She says pottery is, "A good teacher. You learn nothing is perfect."

Out of the Box: Designing the ILC

(Graphic - ILC)

In December 2005, among the rolling hills of Frascati, Italy, the international 63-member team of the Global Design Effort for the proposed International Linear Collider met its first goal: adoption of the Baseline Configuration Document (BCD), just four months after convening for the first time in Snowmass, Colorado.

At 700 pages divided into nine sections, the report outlines the basic configuration for the next-generation particle accelerator that will make electrons and positrons collide at energies well beyond present accelerators. Particle physicists can now visualize for the first time what the machine will look like. Read more in symmetry...

Owls on End Station B Continue to Grow

(Photo - owls)
Photo courtesy of Diana Rogers
(click on image for larger version)

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