Celebrating Achievement: Photon Sciences Recognizes 2012 Award Winners

April 11, 2013

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 7^th 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

¹Business Operations
²InformationTechnology Division
³Magnet Division

Service Awards

UEC Community Service Award

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
• Paul O'Connor, Instrumentation Division
• Don Pinelli, Instrumentation Division
• D. Peter Siddons, Photon Sciences

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