General Lab Information

George Ganetis

Accelerator Div. Mgmt, National Synchrotron Light Source II

George Ganetis

Brookhaven National Laboratory

National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 744
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4476
ganetis@bnl.gov

George Ganetis is a senior electrical engineer working for the NSLS II Accelerator Division Director as a Special Advisor. He started his career at BNL on Feb 2, 1978, just after graduating college.  His first job at BNL was in the Isabelle accelerator as a junior power supply engineer. When the US decided to build the SSC George’s work switched to electrical systems supporting SSC magnet construction and testing.  George was made a supervisor in ~ 1984 and led a dedicated group of engineers, designers, and technicians in various projects in supporting the construction and testing of the first prototypes for SSC magnets and later George’s group and other SMD staff collaborated in design systems for production magnetic measurement systems. SSC project was cancelled in October 1993. In parallel to SSC work, SMD was working on RHIC superconducting magnets. George was the technical lead for designing the internal superconducting buses of the RHIC magnets and he performed quench protection analysis for all the magnet circuits. He and his team then designed the quench detection and protection systems used in RHIC.  He was then asked to lead the design, procurement, and installation of RHIC’s superconducting magnet power supplies. These systems were commissioned in the summer 1999. For the next 4 years George and his team did RHIC upgrades to various systems. In 2006 George was asked to develop a plan for power supplies and other electrical systems for the new NSLS II project. In 2008 George formally transferred over to NSLS II as the Electrical Engineering Group Leader. George was the Technical Lead and CAM for the Electrical Engineering group’s scope. In late 2013, George and his team started commissioning the power supply and other systems; in 2014, all systems were commissioned and beam established in the accelerator machines (LINAC, Booster, Storage Ring) and first light to a beam line in October 2014. George and his team designed and installed a TOP Off Magnet interlock system which enabled the SR beam to remain at a fixed beam current.  George’s latest project was to help LBNL by being the power supply Technical Lead for their Advanced Light Source upgrade project. NSLS-II and ALS-U made an agreemeement for George & his staff to design and suport procurement of  power supply systems for ALS-U staff to install.

Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Highlights | Awards


Expertise

  • High precision power supply systems used for large accelerator facilities
  • Superconducting magnet quench detection and protection systems
  • Testing systems used for large superconducting magnets
  • Cryogenic instrumentation used in performance measurements of superconducting magnets
  • Equipment layout designs of Electrical Systems in large accelerator facilities
  • AC power distribution for large accelerator facilities
  • Circuit analysis modeling for power supplies & superconducting magnets
  • Fault analysis of large electrical systems
  • Design of cabling system between power sources and normal and superconducting magnets in an accelerator facility
  • Design of Top Off Injection Magnet System Interlocks used in NSLS-II
  • Management of large groups in the design, construction, & commissioning of electrical systems in an accelerator facility
  • Electrical Safety as it pertains to an accelerator facility.

Research Activities

  • Development of the use of voltage taps and strain to determine the location within a large (15 to 10m) superconducting magnet of a quench and the motions that could cause a quench
  • Development of practical systems to measure the magnet center in long superconducting quadrupole magnets
  • Development of a compact rotating coil magnetic field probe that could be pulled through a long superconducting magnet beam tube at 6 Tesla field strength

Education

Queens College, New York: Pre-Engineering Program:  1973 to 1975

Pratt Institute, New York: Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering: 1975 to 1977

Professional Appointments

  • 10/01/88 to 02/01/96 - Head of Electrical System Section - Superconducting Magnet Division
  • 02/01/96 to 10/01/99 - Head of RHIC Electrical System Group
  • 10/01/99 to 01/01/05 - Head of Electrical System Section of the Superconducting Magnet Division / Group Head for Superconducting Magnet Protection in the Collider Accelerator Department
  • 01/01/05 to 1/1/0 - Head of Electrical System Group & Cryogenic operations of the Magnet Division /Group Head for Superconducting Magnet Protection in the Collider Accelerator Department
  • 01/01/07 to 2010 - Head of Electrical System Group of the Accelerator Division of the NSLS II Project, Head of Electrical System Group & Cryogenic operations of the Superconducting Magnet Division /Group Head for Superconducting Magnet Protection in the Collider Accelerator Department
  • 2010 to 2022 Head of Electrical System Group of the Accelerator Division of the NSLS II
  • 2019 to 2024 Power Supply Systems Technical Lead for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade Project at LBNL
  • 2022 to Present Senior Adviser to NSLS II Accelerator Division Director

Research Highlights

BEPC II - Beijing Electron Positron Collider. BNL supplied a magnet system that was part of a detector at BEPC II. I supplied the design for the superconducting magnets internal wiring and quench detection system and gave guidance on power supply requirements. Spent ~ 10 days in Beijing helping to commission the BNL supplied systems. The project was from April 2003 until testing at Beijing in September of 2006.

AGS Cold Snake Magnet – This was a complete stand-alone superconducting magnet that was installed in the AGS ring. I supplied designs for the superconducting internal wiring, quench protection and detection systems. I also led the testing activities of the fully cryostated magnet (with its cryo-coolers). This was the first standalone magnet system built at the Superconducting Magnet Division. This project started in 2003 and finished with installation into the AGS in late 2005.

LHC Magnet Failure Analysis – BNL was asked to help with the analysis of the LHC magnet bus failure. Although BNL’s RHIC has similar superconducting bus work, we had a different design for making the copper to copper part of the superconducting bus connections. We shared the list of requirements that we used and have been successful with for all superconducting magnet interconnection done for RHIC and all out design and testing for SSC.  They adopted the requirements and incorporated into their repair plan the required all the LHC dipole magnet interconnection to be opened and modified. I also developed circuit models to explain transient voltage signal during a quench. Other NSLS II staff participated in this knowledge transfer.

Awards & Recognition

BNL Engineering Award January 2003 – For work done on the RHIC Superconducting Magnet Electrical Systems

BNL Brookhaven Award July 2015 – For work done in the design , construction, and commissioning of NSLS II

Spotlight Awards March 2018 and August 2018

NSLS-II Environmental, Safety, Security and Health Achievement Award September 2016

George Ganetis

Brookhaven National Laboratory

National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 744
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4476
ganetis@bnl.gov