About the Author

Peter Ingrassia is the Main Control Room Group Leader of the Machine Operations Division of the Collider-Accelerator Department.

A Small Army: The Accelerator Operations Groups

By Peter Ingrassia

If your auditory buss can pipe information at 100Gb/s then you will have no trouble keeping up with Jenn Niedziela when she makes one of her frequent visits. She is a packet of energy and, as such, energizes her crew of two operators Carl Andersen and Jeremy Jacobsen. Jennifer is one six Operations Coordinators (OC) charged with the safe and efficient operation of the accelerator complex. In a short period she became quite adept at operating the RHIC and has collaborated on a number of RHIC Accelerator Physics Experiments. Her crew is one of the top luminosity producing crews for Run7.

If you were on duty on those occasions when the time between stores was comparable to the time needed to consume a pint, then you witnessed the magic of Travis Shrey at the controls. Travis is “the” senior Operations Coordinator with extensive experience with the injectors and the RHIC. If there is a problem, he can usually find it. Travis is always in charge whether he is at the controls or giving directions to his operators, Michael Lafky and William Jackson. He and his crew have demonstrated that they can repeatedly turn a store around in about 25 minutes. Travis’ crews have consistently set the pace in the informal competition for luminosity production during Runs 4, 5 and 7.

The unofficial “lumi czar” for Run7 is Nicholas Kling, a master at the controls in his own right. Those stores that registered high on the peak luminosity scale probably were crafted “at the hand of Kling”. Nick is another Operations Coordinator who, in short order, learned the nuances of the RHIC. As with Travis, operators trained by Nick go on to become skilled accelerator operators. Presently Paul Menga, and Ian Blackler round out Nick’s crew. Look for good things from them. Nick has also donned the mantle of MCR NSRL expert . Probably one of Nick’s strongest suits is his ability to get us to laugh. Oftentimes during Run7 a dose of Nick’s humor was what was needed to keep us going.

The “Iron Men” include Lee Hammons and his operator Brian Brueggert. The Iron Man title goes to the crew that has operated short-handed for the most consecutive runs. The crew has born the stress and workload normally shared by three. Lee is the analytical one in the group. Not surprising that he is working with Vladimir Litvinenko on the Energy Recovery Linac project. Lee played clarinet professionally before he joined the MCR group. He is expected to become the next Deputy MCR Group Leader.

James Jamilkowski, aka JPJ, is another of our experienced Operations Coordinators. Jim is the “programmer” in the group in that he has written a number of tools the operators, and the Department, use to track vital information. Jim’s crew includes Vincent Schoefer, soon to become an OC, and Rebecca Paris. Jim has a number of years of experience in operations and has a good handle on the needs of the users and of the operators.

Brian Van Kuik, last but not least of the OCs, is also an experienced member of the group. He and his crew, Christopher Naylor, and Charles Spataro, comprise the MCR crew with the most experience in the department. Brian and his crew often turn a dead machine into a luminosity producer. Their experience and systematic approach have paid dividends time and again.

The MCR group has defense in depth. The heavy hitters lurking behind the scenes are the two machine specialists, Keith Zeno, and Gregory Marr, both former OCs. Both are primarily responsible to be expert on the accelerator(s) they are responsible for. Zeno is the master of the injectors, the Booster and the AGS.

It is Zeno (above) who finds the way to maximize the output of the AGS. Marr (at right) is the master of the RHIC. Marr finds ways to maximize the performance of the RHIC and the operators RHIC performance. Both can be called upon when operators encounter problems they cannot resolve. Both can be counted on to educate new operators as well.

The group that neither the users, nor the MCR can do without is the Collider-Accelerator Support (CAS) group. They provide the first line of defense for any problem in the Complex from a STAR/PHENIX power supply, to the Linac ion source. This dedicated group of technicians cut their teeth on experiment and beam transport power supplies in the fixed target days, and were given the added responsibility for the injectors, and the RHIC when Collider operation began. The experience found in CAS is unparalleled amongst the operations groups. The group members are Henry Ashby, Tim Costanzo, Joe Curley, Joe De Cicco, Charles Gardner, Jim Meier, George Murdock, Frank Scheifele, and Chris Zarcone.

The users interact directly with both the MCR and CAS groups, yet there are still more groups behind the scenes that interact with MCR and CAS alone. The Cryogenic group, responsible for the operation of the liquid helium refrigeration plant that maintains the RHIC magnets at 4.3K includes James Biancarosa, Mark McNeil, Ken Riker, Chris Salat, Bernard Yatauro, Glenn Anderson, Dan Martin, George Meade, G. Polonski, Nils Danielson, Dave Derryberry, and John Moore. The Siemens Motor-Generator and the AGS Main Magnet Power Supply are watched by another dedicated group of technicians including Joe Famiglietti, Jorge Galarraga, Joe Mingoia, and Chris Watts. At the upstream end of the accelerator chain one finds the Tandem Van de Graffs, staffed by another very experienced group that includes John Bohnenblusch, Robert Eich, Allan Gustavsson, Harry Hacker, Lou Mazarakis, Michael Morello, Brent Nelson, and Peter Schnitzenbaumer.

Please take some time to find the workstation in your counting house that permits web access behind the C-AD controls firewall. There you can catch a glimpse of the faces of the members of the C-AD Operations groups who devote their efforts to the service of the RHIC-AGS user community.