In recognition of International Women’s Day, March 8, we present a photo gallery of women at Fermilab: technicians, admins, scientists, educators, engineers and many other professionals whose work helps drive discovery. Thank you, women of Fermilab, for pushing us toward the frontiers of fundamental science.
Lab director Robert R. Wilson and others celebrate the accelerator achieving an energy of 200 GeV.
After years of design and construction, the NAL Main Ring achieved its design energy of 200 GeV on March 1, 1972, ahead of schedule and under its authorized $250 million budget.
The NAL Accelerator Section had achieved a beam of 20 GeV on Jan. 22, 53 GeV on Feb. 4, and 100 GeV on Feb. 11, surpassing the 76-GeV machine at Serpukhov in the U.S.S.R. which, up until that point, had been the most powerful accelerator in the world. By the morning of March 1, the lab employees knew they were on the cusp of achieving the design energy they had been striving towards. By 11 a.m., they had a steady, stable beam. At 12:30 p.m., the beam reached a new record of 167 GeV, and people began gathering around the screen in the Control Room to watch the beam’s progress. At 1:08 p.m., the crowd cheered as the beam passed 200 GeV for the first time. The achievement was followed by a lively labwide celebration.
The lab quickly surpassed this 200-GeV energy goal, reaching 300 GeV on July 16, 1972, and 500 GeV on May 14, 1976.
You can read about the achievement of 200 GeV in the March 9, 1972, Village Crier. You can also read the Main Ring logbook entry from March 1, 1972, which includes signatures by many of the people present for the event.
Visit the history website for more photos of this day in Fermilab history.
The seventh page from the Main Ring logbook entry for March 1, 1972. Note the “Hip hip hooray!” on the pasted-in printout.
Geneva artist Jim Jenkins works on his sculpture “Deus Ex Machina,” installed outside the Aurora Public Library. Photo courtesy Jim Jenkins.
Jim Jenkins likes to think big.
A sculptor by trade and by passion, he is best known for his grand-scale projects with local public libraries, including the enormous ring-like structure outside the new Aurora Public Library building and the glass collages inside the New Lenox Public Library that detail, in his words, the “evolution of knowledge.” Jenkins’ work is not only grand in scope, but finely detailed, its themes and secrets revealed only after repeated observation.
All of which makes this Geneva artist a perfect choice to partner with the country’s premier particle physics laboratory, where scientists construct gigantic experiments to uncover the mysteries of the universe’s smallest details. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has chosen Jenkins as its 2017 artist-in-residence, and over the next 10 months, he will meet with Fermilab researchers, learn more about their work and create new pieces of art to reflect it.
“I’m the luckiest person I know,” Jenkins said. “I’m just delighted about this.”
Jenkins sees plenty of overlap between his work and more scientific endeavors. His sculptures, he says, are “puzzles, for both me and the viewer,” and he embeds hidden themes and clever allusions within them. His work, he says, is “technical, philosophical, poetic, and it uses language and puns,” and he develops his multilayered concepts over time, writing each day as he works through ideas.
“Read It Like a Book” by Jim Jenkins, on display at the St. Charles Public Library. Photo courtesy Jim Jenkins.
He brings a unique perspective to his work, informed by more than two decades in manufacturing.
“I was exposed to a lot of things during that time, including engineering,” he said. “My work has a lot of electrical and mechanical components to it because of that exposure.”
His sculptures are formed mostly with metals, but he uses many other mediums as well.
“Whatever I need to accomplish the piece,” he said.
“We were drawn to Jim’s playful yet sophisticated use of imagery and language,” said Georgia Schwender, curator of the Fermilab Art Gallery. “He has a history of using physics and physics references in his work, and his enthusiasm leapt off the page of his application.”
Jenkins is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in fine arts, and he rents studio space at Water Street Studios in Batavia.
“Deus Ex Machina” by Geneva artist Jim Jenkins, on display at the Aurora Public Library. Photo courtesy Jim Jenkins.
He also brings a decades-long fascination with Fermilab. The laboratory is known not only for its cutting-edge physics research but also for its physical beauty, an aesthetic that traces back to founding director Robert Wilson, who was a sculptor himself. Fermilab launched the artist-in-residence program in 2015 as a way of connecting the laboratory’s science with new audiences using the medium of art. Oak Brook textiles artist Lindsay Olson was the first artist-in-residence in 2015, and Chicago multimedia artist Ellen Sandor of (art)n held the position in 2016.
As artist-in-residence, Jenkins will produce new works inspired by Fermilab’s work, and he already has several ideas. As he usually does, he also plans to compile a book explaining his work and donate it to the Fermilab Art Gallery.
Learn more about Jim Jenkins at his website. Learn more about the Fermilab artist-in-residence program on the Fermilab website.
In March, Fermilab saw the installation of its final Tevatron magnet, the start of MINOS and Tevatron Run II operations, and the groundbreaking for the Main Injector. Read on for more March milestones.
Director Robert Wilson offers a toast to celebrate the milestone. Photo: Fermilab
March 1, 1972: Accelerator reaches design energy
After years of design and construction, the NAL Main Ring achieved its design energy of 200 GeV on March 1, 1972, ahead of schedule and under its authorized $250 million budget. It quickly surpassed that energy goal, reaching 300 GeV on July 16, 1972, and 500 GeV on May 14, 1976.
The CDF (above) and DZero (below) collaborations in 2011. Photo: Fermilab
March 1, 2001: Tevatron collider Run II begins
Tevatron Collider Run II began on March 1, 2001. This run began after the completion of upgrades to the accelerator complex that increased the energy of the particle collisions by 10 percent, ultimately reaching about 2 TeV, and the completion of the Main Injector, which greatly increased the number of collisions. This allowed CDF and DZero to observe 20 times the number of collisions they saw during Run I.
Fermilab’s Ramsey Auditorium is filled for the announcement of the discovery. Photo: Fermilab
March 2, 1995: Discovery of the top quark
On March 2, 1995, CDF and DZero scientists announced the discovery of the top quark, the last remaining quark predicted by the Standard Model. Finding this particle had been one of the primary goals of the Tevatron Run I.
MINOS detector hall in Minnesota. Photo: Fermilab
March 4, 2005: MINOS begins operation
MINOS, Fermilab’s first long-baseline neutrino experiment, officially began operating on March 4, 2005. It used the lab’s new NuMI beam and two detectors, one at Fermilab, near the source of the neutrinos, and another 450 miles away, in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota. In Fermilab’s tradition of blending art and science, the detector hall is decorated with a mural by artist Joseph Giannetti. MINOS completed its run on June 29, 2016.
Pierre Auger Observatory detector. Photo: Pierre Auger Observatory
March 17, 1999: Pierre Auger Observatory groundbreaking
The Pierre Auger Observatory, first conceived in 1992, is an international collaboration operating an array of detectors in Argentina for detecting cosmic rays. It broke ground in 1999 and began operating in 2003.
The last superconducting magnet for the Tevatron is installed. Photo: Fermilab
March 18, 1983: Last Tevatron magnet installed
As early at the summer of 1967, lab director Robert Wilson had talked about the possibility of one day upgrading the Main Ring with a more powerful superconducting accelerator and introducing a colliding beams program. The design effort for this “Energy Doubler” officially began in September 1972. The Department of Energy authorized the construction of this superconducting accelerator on July 5, 1979, and on March 18, 1983, the lab installed the final magnet in what would come to be known as the Tevatron.
Groundbreaking for the Main Injector. Left to right: Lab director John Peoples, Representative Dennis Hastert, Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Senator Paul Simon and Wilmot Hess of DOE break ground on the Main Injector. Photo: Fermilab
March 22, 1993: Main Injector groundbreaking
The lab broke ground for the Main Injector on March 22, 1993. This new accelerator would upgrade Fermilab’s accelerator complex by replacing the Main Ring, which up until that time was used to inject protons into the superconducting accelerator of the Tevatron