SLAC Users’ Organization
Report from the Chair of the Executive Committee
Gregory Dubois-Felsmann
Caltech
SLAC Annual Users’ Meeting
26 September 2005
Users’ Meeting 2005.9.26
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SLUO activities 2004-2005
• The Executive Committee
• SLUO elections
• Reports from the subcommittees
• Future directions
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SLUO Executive Committee
2004-2005 Committee
Name
Institution
Years
Left
Exp.
Ray Cowan
MIT/LNS
1
BaBar/SLD
Lance Dixon
SLAC
3
Theory
Gregory Dubois-Felsmann (C)
Caltech
2
BaBar
Berrie Giebels
Ecole Polytechnique, LPNHE
2
GLAST
Yury Kolomensky
UC Berkeley
1
BaBar, E154, E155, E158
David Lange
LLL, Livermore
3
BaBar
Eli Rosenberg
Iowa State University
1
BaBar
Bruce Schumm (ST)
UC, Santa Cruz
2
BaBar, SLD
Gabriella Sciolla
MIT
1
BaBar
Abi Soffer (CC)
Colorado State University
3
BaBar
Alexandre Telnov
Princeton University
3
BaBar
Eric Torrence
Univ. of Oregon.
2
BaBar, LCD
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SLUO Executive Committee
Outgoing committee members
Name
Institution
Years
Left
Exp.
Ray Cowan
MIT/LNS
1
BaBar/SLD
Lance Dixon
SLAC
3
Theory
Gregory Dubois-Felsmann (C)
Caltech
2
BaBar
Berrie Giebels
Ecole Polytechnique, LPNHE
2
GLAST
Yury Kolomensky
UC Berkeley
1
BaBar, E154, E155, E158
David Lange
LLL, Livermore
3
BaBar
Eli Rosenberg
Iowa State University
1
BaBar
Bruce Schumm (ST)
UC, Santa Cruz
2
BaBar, SLD
Gabriella Sciolla
MIT
1
BaBar
Abi Soffer (CC)
Colorado State University
3
BaBar
Alexandre Telnov
Princeton University
3
BaBar
Eric Torrence
Univ. of Oregon.
2
BaBar, LCD
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How to join us
• Any user is welcome to serve on the EC
– As I’ll hope to convince you…
The work is interesting and new contributions are
needed!
• Nominations are made by the
Institutional Representatives
– Lunch-time meeting today (Orange Room)
• If you are interested in serving, please…
– Let your Institutional Representative know
– Ask any of us on the EC for more information
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SLUO Elections
• An election is held from the set of nominees
by e-mail, a few weeks later (mid-to-late October)
– Nominees must be confirmed as candidates
– Candidate statements are solicited and
posted on the web
• Every user is eligible to vote
– You have four votes to allocate as you see fit:
• One to each of four candidates
• All four to a single candidate
– This is intended to help balance the representation on the EC
among large and small groups
• The top four recipients of votes join the EC
– The new EC selects its own officers
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Subcommittees of SLUO
• Computing
– Relationship of users with SLAC computing
– Rosenberg (chair), Cowan, Kolomensky, Lange, Torrence
• Outreach
– Public lectures and other outside communication
– Cowan (chair), Dixon, Sciolla, Telnov
• Public Meetings
– SLUO lectures, grad. student seminars, Annual Meeting planning
– Sciolla (chair), Dixon, Giebels, Telnov - and Sokoloff
• Quality of Life
– Health insurance, accommodations, user experience on site
– Torrence (chair), Giebels, Lange, Schumm
• Washington Trip
– Communication with our elected representatives & executive branch
– Soffer (chair), Dubois-Felsmann, Kolomensky, Rosenberg, Schumm,
Telnov
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SLAC Public Lecture Series
• Bi-monthly series, non-scientistoriented
• Lecturers generally are
SLAC/SSRL users and staff
• An important outreach effort
• Sponsored by SLAC’s Office of
Communication, SLUO, and
SSRL UO
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Public Lectures in the Last Year
• Roger Blandford: The Runaway Universe
– October 2004. Attendance: 300
• Joachim Stöhr: Physical Attraction: The Mysteries
of Magnetism
– December 2004. Attendance: 250
• Mike Peskin: Profiling the Invisible: Quantum
Mechanics and the Unseen Universe
– February 2005. Attendance: 275
• Clyde Smith: Smarter Drugs: How Protein
Crystallography Revolutionizes Drug Design
– April 2005. Attendance: 225
• Philip Bucksbaum: The Physics of Super Lasers
– June 2005. Attendance: 250
• Boris Kayser: Neutrinos Get Under Your Skin
–
August 2005. Attendance: 300
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Upcoming SLAC Public Lectures
• October 2005: TBA
• December 2005: Archimedes at Stanford
– Uwe Bergmann (SSRL)
• Advertising
– SLAC Connections, flyers, web
– Stanford media
– NPR rush-hour radio spots
• Watch the Public Lecture Series web page for
upcoming lecture
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/lectures/
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Public Meetings
• Organizing the Annual Users’ Meeting
• SLUO Lecture Series
– Past lecture series, e.g., on detectors and statistics;
lecture notes still available through the Users’ Office
• New initiative in the past year:
Graduate Student Seminars
– SLUO joined by Mike Sokoloff in organizing this
– Emphasis on continuing education for students stationed here
• Next:
A new SLUO lecture series organized with KIPAC
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Seminars (primarily) for Graduate Students
(encouraged by, and helped by, SLUO)
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Tutorials given by Pat Burchat and
Aaron Roodman; more coming.
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Quality of Life
• In previous years, SLUO has addressed:
– Office space
– On-site accommodation (the Guest House)
• Main focus this year has been:
– Health insurance for visiting users
• This committee always needs your input in order
to define its priorities!
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Health Insurance for Visitors
• Adequate health insurance is a serious issue for everyone
– The U.S. health care system is expensive and can be difficult to
navigate
• SLUO encourages all users to consider whether they have
adequate coverage while staying at SLAC
– Institutions can help by alerting their members to this need and
assisting them in finding and arranging insurance
• Options can be difficult to find, even for “locals”
• SLUO set out to help…
• More information will be released officially soon
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Health Insurance for Visitors
• Much assistance from Lee Lyon
Scholars Plan
* Full featured HMO-based health plan with range of options
* Can include dental coverage
* Potentially better coverage for similar costs for people
far from home institution/HMO coverage area
Vaden
* Grad student access to Vaden student health center
* Not free, but less than market rates
* Probably much more convenient, used to dealing with students
Blue Shield Short Term
* Users eligible to enroll in BS short term plans
* Significant restrictions, read details carefully:
http://www.bscalife.com/product2.htm
* May be useful if you have absolutely no other coverage.
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Washington Trip
• 14 SLUO members and 16 FNAL UEC members went to Washington for 3 days in
March
• Together, had 125 meetings in Congressional offices and staff of key committees
– About 2/3 of attempted appointments resulted in actual meetings
• Meetings with staff from OMB, OSTP, DOE, NSF
• Our message was the need for increased support for Office of Science and physical
sciences as a whole, not just HEP
• The message resonated well
– Many Congressional staffers conveyed a sense that underinvestment in the physical
sciences has reached a dangerous level and needs to be reversed
– Interest in the perspective of the user and university community
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Washington Trip
• We advertised a Senate “Dear Colleague” letter in support of increasing the Office of
Science budget
– Began circulation while we were in DC
– Finally signed by 68 senators (compared with 55 last year)
• Meeting with Rep. Adam Schiff (CA) resulted in a similar House letter
– Final signature count: 121
• House and Senate bills slightly increased 2006 Office of Science budget relative to
the President’s request
• Continued effort after returning from Washington
– Encouraged offices we met with to sign the Dear Colleague letters
– Working on contacting Congress to ensure conference on the energy bill adopts the Housepassed HEP budget, which is higher than in the Senate bill
– Looking into the possibility of a fall visit to Washington, mostly to discuss 2007 budget
with OMB
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Future directions
• Adapt to changing structure of the laboratory
– More fully incorporate KIPAC and GLAST visitors
• SLUO Thesis Prize
• Your input is very much needed
– Your ideas
– Your participation (on the EC or with us)
Users’ Meeting 2005.9.26
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Two more key people
Olga Iakovleva
Users’ Office Admin
Fran Spiller
Users’ Office Admin emerita
Many thanks to them for their service
to the user community, past and present!
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