Wednesday, March 24th, 2004

Time	Event
8:34a	Graphic Design I'm no expert, but I'd like to share some of the horrors that I just witnessed. Crimes against humanity: perpetuated by BAD graphic arts. FermiVMS, as promised, had my posters printed out and laminated for me first thing this morning. So I pick them up (D0 picked up the tab for the printing), and run up to the 15th floor to put them up in my display area. Since I'm of a fairly competitive bent, I took a few minutes to look around and see what other presenters had chosen to do. The Horror: I don't want to name names (*cough* CDF *cough*), but some posters were outright RIOTOUS displays of text and plots. For your benefit, I snip part of our instructions out: Please note the following points when designing your poster: - DO use large, easy-to-read letters. - DO NOT paste-up typed pages from a paper. - DO NOT clutter the poster with details. - DO include clear figures and tables. - Posters should be understandable - even in the absence of the author(s). So. I went for simplicity, especially since I didn't have a lot of results to show, and tried to turn that into a virtue. I had no more than three simple, large easily readable text boxes on each poster, with the plots to go with it. I tried to make a simple straightforward path on what was done, and what the result was. When I looked at some of the other posters I was aghast. There was TEXT EVERYWHERE. Period. Around the plots. In the plots. Under the plots. Not a square inch of the posters were bare. ARG! I'm progressing pretty fast in this field, and I don't know if I would understand all of this stuff if the author weren't there. Especially considering that our reviewers are not all particle physicists, some are engineers, and they aren't necessarily all from labs like this one. So I guess we'll see what wins out tonight. Next up: Dinner with the DOE Part 1: This Guy's Got a PLAN. (Comment on this)
9:35a	Dinner with the DOE Part 1: This Guy's got a PLAN. I may have mentioned the Next Linear Collider before. If not, let me explain a little bit, since it's important to this entry. So as you may know, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is set to begin operation in 2007. This would be at CERN, in Geneva (no, not Geneva, IL). Lord only knows what they'll find there. Chances are, if there IS a Higgs boson, and the Tevatron can't find it, LHC WILL. But there's always the question in this field, after that, then what? The NLC is the 'agreed upon' solution to this (BTW--No one asked me, though everyone says there is consensus in the field). The NLC would be a gargantuan electron-positron linear accelerator, and anything interesting produced at the LHC, could be studied in great detail by this puppy. There's still some debate about HOW the NLC would be contructed. DESY, in Germany, has a superconducting design, and this would be towards TESLA (acronym probably is in German, I can't remember if it is or not now). Fermilab has been working on a warm design, made from copper. But that's not the point. Whichever design they choose, there is massive debate about WHERE the thing would get built. The big contenders (in my mind at least), are Fermilab, DESY, and SLAC. It has been said that if the US asks for it, that it'll get it, it just remains a matter of political will. What I think is that if Fermilab is going to have a future that fits its pioneering past, then it needs to have a new machine (past the Tevatron). All of which is pretty much beside the point. I had dinner with a remarkable collection of individuals last night: at one table we had a faculty member from Boulder, a guy from URA (University Research Association, the actual organization that runs Fermilab), one of the reviewers from DOE, and one of the leaders on the NLC project at Fermilab. He said at dinner, that he had somewhat changed the scope of how Fermilab was dealing with the NLC effort. To wit: It isn't enough to build things, or do the research for them. If we get involved at all of the levels, accelerator physics, detectors, and the actual construction, and GROW the expertise to deal with a project like the NLC at all levels, then the choice for location is obvious. To me this was pretty eye opening. Someone from the high rise thinking long term, and actually showing some vision, not the just GET the machine built here, but to make this the place you'd WANT to build it. (Comment on this)
4:38p	Dinner with the DOE 2 / Shameless Promotion Tour '04 A last comment about dinner last night. It is clear to me that the DOE office of science is in it for the science. We just have to give them the ammunition that they ask for. 'Nuff said (I realize that's cryptic, but I feel the need). Shameless Self-Promotion Tour 2004 kicks off tonight, as I attempt to go put a good face with my posters. Other tour dates, subject to change, are scheduled for Madison and Denver (I'd better fuckin' well be going to Denver, I've already made reservations). (Comment on this)

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