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Users' e-Log

Short news items of interest to the RHIC/AGS community.

Symposium for Gerry Bunce

Yousef Makdisi writes: We are planning a Symposium on November 19, 2008 for Gerry Bunce who retired from BNL last September. We are preparing a program of speakers to look back and reflect on Gerry's research career at BNL and elsewhere. This will be followed by a reception and dinner. Details including the agenda and registration information can be found here. We sincerely hope you can join this festive occasion.

Award for Dennis Kovar

Raymond L. Orbach, the Department of Energy's Under Secretary for Science, wrote to DOE staff about an honor for the Office of Science's Dennis Kovar:

I am very pleased and proud to inform you that three senior managers of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science have been honored by President Bush with Presidential Rank Awards for 2008.

Each year, the President honors an elite group of career members of the Senior Executive Service who are selected for their outstanding leadership accomplishments and service over an extended period of time in some of the nation's most critical positions in the federal government. Each Presidential Rank Award winner receives a cash bonus and a framed certificate signed by the President.

Dr. Dennis Kovar is being honored with the 2008 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executives. Mr. Gerald Boyd and Dr. Patricia Dehmer are being recognized with the 2008 Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives.

Dennis Kovar joined DOE in 1990 after a 20-year career as an experimental nuclear physicist. He led our Nuclear Physics program, first as Division Director and then as Associate Director of Science for Nuclear Physics. He served as co-Acting Deputy Director of Science for Programs, and since has been Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics since 2007.

To quote from the official nomination for Dr. Kovar's 2008 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executives, he has "initiated and strengthened processes for strategic planning, program management and program justification that have been acknowledged as best practices," "played a major role in establishing the new structure of the SC organization, developing a new SC budget planning process and implementing credible annual laboratory appraisals in the first year of a new SC process." He has "charged HEPAP to provide guidance on scientific priorities for the U.S. HEP program at various funding levels" and "initiated plans for a reorganization of the Office of High Energy Physics to better manage the program." In short, Dr. Kovar is a distinguished scientist and administrator, with responsibilities for some of our most important programs.

Gerald Boyd has been in federal service for 20 years, including 18 years in both field and headquarters assignments with the Department of Energy. He has been the Manager of the Oak Ridge Office since 2002.

Citing the nomination for Mr. Gerald Boyd's 2008 Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives, he "implemented and maintained an unyielding focus on safety in the workplace" and thereby "reinvigorated the safety program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory," and "led (in conjunction with the Chicago Office) the effort to establish the Oak Ridge/Chicago Integrated Support Center, a virtual organization that provides administrative, business and technical services to the entire SC complex." He has "demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision by advancing Oak Ridge as the location of choice for SC's science and technology transfer missions." Mr. Boyd's commitment to the success of both the Offices of Science and Environmental Management is exemplary, and has led to significant management advances for both programs.

Dr. Patricia Dehmer is a distinguished physical chemist, having worked at Argonne National Laboratory for 23 years before joining the Department of Energy. From 1995 to 2007, she served as Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences. In 2007, I was pleased to appoint her to the new position of Deputy Director of the Office of Science for Science Programs.

In the words of the nomination for Dr. Dehmer's 2008 Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives, she "is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the management of basic research programs," and "provides a unique voice in describing how basic research ties to applied science, economic development and national competitiveness." She "was selected as the first Deputy Director of the Office of Science for Science Programs in recognition of her abilities to lead program development and the broad community of scientists in the United States." Dr. Dehmer has shown extraordinary leadership in science and program management. Her many achievements have been a cornerstone for the ascendancy of the Office of Science.

I congratulate each of these DOE Office of Science leaders for their accomplishments and this high honor. Their 2008 Presidential Rank Awards reflect so very well on them - and also serve to highlight the wonderfully high caliber of the men and women doing such important work for our nation here in the DOE Office of Science.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Dr. Kovar, Mr. Boyd, and Dr. Dehmer for their well deserved 2008 Presidential Rank Awards.

RHIC Schedule

The current schedule for Run 9 is available here (.pdf). Cooldown of RHIC is set to begin February 1, 2009 for physics with longitudinally polarized protons at 500 GeV.