Thursday - June 12, 2008

SLAC Awards 2008 Globies

by Carmella Huser

The 2008 Employee Recognition Awards ("Globies") have been awarded this year to 35 deserving recipients across SLAC:

The Globie awards are about people promoting a positive, respectful and harmonious work environment. They are about good citizenship and making SLAC an enjoyable place to work.  Read more...

Midweek Colloquium: Norbert Holtkamp to Present on ITER

In this afternoon's colloquium, Norbert Holtkamp will discuss ITER, one of the largest construction projects for science and technology ever undertaken. He will focus on the history of ITER, its present status and its challenges.

ITER's goal is to demonstrate thermonuclear fusion with a power amplification of more than a factor of ten as well as extended operation of the plasma creating 500 MW of fusion power or more. ITER will also demonstrate the technological readiness to move into industrial style fusion power plant construction.

ITER is funded by China, EURATOM, India, Japan, Korea, Russian Federation and the United States. The collaboration aims to finish construction within the next 10 years with more than 80% of the components being built and delivered "in kind."

The colloquium takes place today at 4:15 p.m. in Panofsky Auditorium. All are invited to attend.

Learn more...

GLAST Blasts into Space

by Kelen Tuttle

The GLAST spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral. (Photo courtesy of NASA.) View more photos...

At 9:05 a.m. yesterday morning, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) rocketed into space.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the GLAST mission!

The observatory is now in a stable orbit 350 miles above the surface of the earth, and is beginning a long series of checks and calibrations. The first stream of data is expected to reach SLAC's Large Area Telescope Instrument Science Operations Center (ISOC) early next month.

SLAC managed the development of the GLAST's main instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), and runs the ISOC, which will process data for the duration of the mission. Once in orbit, GLAST will open a wide window on the universe through the study of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Data from this new observatory will enable scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics including supermassive black-hole systems, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays. GLAST will also search for signals of new physics.

View photos of the launch...

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