Celebrating Achievement: Photon Sciences Recognizes 2012 Award Winners
Photon Sciences Directorate, September 2012
At a ceremony on November 26, 2012, the Photon Sciences Directorate (PS) recognized recipients of Brookhaven Lab awards: the Engineering Award and Spotlight Awards in fiscal year 2012, and service anniversaries during calendar year 2012. Also applauded were winners of awards from outside organizations during the past year. The event was co-hosted by Diane Hatton, PS Chief Operating Officer; and Erik Johnson, PS Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Programs. Acknowledging everyone, Hatton said, "Thank you to the people of Photon Sciences. You work miracles every day!
In March 2013, Human Resources instituted a revitalized Service Award Program, which expands recognition to five, 15 and 45 years of service, retroactively to January 2012. While not recognized at the November 2012 ceremony, these individuals – and two transfers from the Biology Department into Photon Sciences – are included in the service anniversaries listed below. (Note: In 2012, PS had no 45-year service awards.)
Engineering Award
Lewis Doom, Photon Sciences
In recognition of his outstanding achievements in the design, construction, testing and installation of the NSLS-II storage ring girder-magnet assemblies.
Spotlight Awards
Christopher Amundsen, for facing a difficult unfinished design and overcoming many obstacles to complete the design of the secondary deionized water system for NSLS-II
Guillermo Aparicio, who, in carrying out the receipt, assembly, testing and inspection of storage ring magnets, has gone beyond this assignment, providing solutions for unexpected technical problems
Jianming Bai, who readily stepped in to mentor a high school student in the last critical weeks of the summer program, making the experience so rewarding that the student continued the project in his senior year
Paula Callejas-Lynn, for her exceptional and dedicated support of the 7th CW and High Average Power RF Workshop, all the while providing support for guests from Russia's Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics
Tim Campbell2, who shared an award with Will Smart for their extraordinary effort to do a complete upgrade of SharePoint, requiring a reorganization of the sites to represent properly the current organization of the Photon Sciences directorate
Michael Caruso, who shared an award with Rick Greene for their outstanding repair and ongoing operation of the photon shutter at NSLS X21 beamline to preserve the operation of the beamline without awaiting a long maintenance period
Todd Corwin, for exceptional operation of the insertion device magnetic measurement facility for NSLS-II
Michael Davidsaver, for making critical contributions in the NSLS-II linac and linac-to-booster part 1 development, testing and commissioning
Joseph Dvorak, for developing an innovative optical design that increases the throughput of the spectrometer for the SIX beamline
Rick Greene, who shared an award with Michael Caruso for their repair and ongoing operation of the photon shutter at NSLS X21 beamline to preserve the operation of the beamline without awaiting a long maintenance period
Aftab Hussain, for outstanding leadership of the design and procurement phases for three diagnostic beamline components for the NSLS-II project
Rich Iaccarino, who shared an award with Mike Schwarz for their proactive attitude, creative approach, resourcefulness and tenacity in solving a long-standing problem with the Proteus units at NSLS beamlines X29/30 (including X27/28)
Sonya Kiss, who exhibited a strong talent for organization plus a personal quality that enabled her to work with a diverse group of people, contributing to a successful RapiData 2012 at NSLS
Dennis Kuhne, for extraordinary machining work in support of the HXN beamline, specifically, the construction of the MLL microscope prototype and an MLL module
Edwin Lazo, for implementing a cryo-annealing device at NSLS beamline X6A, juggling design work, testing and commissioning while supporting a heavy load of users at the beamline
Frank Lincoln, who applied a high level of technical knowledge and ingenuity to develop and implement solutions to the installation of floor plates for NSLS-II storage-ring girders
Leisa McGee, for immediately taking ownership of additional tasks in administrative services that were transferred to her, all the while carrying out her own work
Brian Mullany, who demonstrated exceptional professional qualities in designing the HXN microscope, modifying and optimizing locations of the laser interferometers and reflectors and improving the overall stability of the instrument
Jennifer O'Connor1, for doing an outstanding job of developing the cost/schedule baseline for the $90-million NEXT Project
Asma Saeed1, for taking the initiative to improve system access for Basic PeopleSoft Financial Access
Andrew Sauerwald3, who showed a high level of achievement by initiating and organizing an improvement to the design of the vibrating-wire photo-interrupter amplifier chassis, a critical part of NSLS-II
Carrie Sauter1, for providing a considerable amount of assistance in preparing for the weekly magnet acceptance committee meetings, behind-the-scenes work that made the quality assurance portion of the meetings very efficient
Mike Schwarz, who shared an award with Rich Iaccarino for their proactive attitude, creative approach, resourcefulness and tenacity in solving a long-standing problem with the Proteus units at NSLS beamlines X29/30 (including X27/28)
Bruno Semon, for coordinating an infrared thermography survey of the ring building to correct performance issues with the wall panel system
Will Smart2, who shared an award with Tim Campbell for their extraordinary effort to do a complete upgrade of SharePoint, requiring a reorganization of the sites to represent properly the current organization of the Photon Sciences directorate
Victor Usack, for showing careful planning, supervision and dedication in carrying out NSLS-II storage-ring vacuum installation
Brian Walsh, for his exceptional analytical skills in assessing possible solutions for problems with the complex X13A endstation development project
Charlie Weilbrenner, for working beyond his normal assignments to fulfill quality engineering tasks for NSLS-II linac, booster and transport magnets
Gabrielle Wilson, for her significant effort to resolve issues and coordinate the return of the NSLS user and Bldg. 726 machine shops to operation after work was suspended over concerns about inadequate machine guarding
Awarded by the Photon Sciences Users' Executive Committee for outstanding service, innovation and dedication to NSLS users.
Dennis Poshka
CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement
Awarded to the Maia X-ray Microprobe Detector and Imaging System Team by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency, "For the development of the Maia X-ray detector and imaging system, a step change technology transforming synchrotron trace element imaging across numerous fields, particularly the geological, medical, environmental and biological sciences." Team members at Brookhaven listed below.
Gianluigi De Geronimo, Instrumentation Division
Anthony Kuczewski, Photon Sciences
Arthur Zhi Yong Li, New Jersey Institute of Technology
The Photon Sciences Directorate operates the National
Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and is constructing the
National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II),
both funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science.
These facilities support a large community of scientists using photons (light) to carry out research in
energy and environmental sciences, physics, materials science, chemistry, biology and medicine.