Fermilab welcomes first baby bison of spring

What brought you to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory?

I was previously at Argonne National Lab working on their sustainability strategy. I joined Fermilab in January 2023, so I’m still very new. I wanted to come and try to help accelerate the great sustainability work going on here at Fermilab.

The lab has long-standing success and commitment to ecological management and preservation of the natural environment. Now, the lab is developing a more robust sustainability program to exceed the sustainability goals set forth by President Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan. As a sustainably professional, it’s really exciting to work in a place where there’s so much leadership support and a lot of bold visions and interest in making significant progress.

What are some sustainability goals Fermilab is working toward?

Currently, there is a lot of urgency around addressing climate change. The main currency of climate change is carbon emissions because they cause the greatest change to our climate which ultimately causes havoc in pretty much every part of our daily lives.

At Fermilab, over 90% of our carbon footprint is coming from energy usage related to the operation of our high-energy, mission-specific facilities, which include our particle accelerators, so that is a large target area for sustainability practices. We are also working to make individual smaller facilities more sustainable with new building materials and using things like greener, more recyclable products in different experimental areas. But the big sustainability goal for Fermilab is definitely energy efficiency.

What is one of your current projects?

One fairly large project we have going on now aims to identify energy-efficiency opportunities at 14 different buildings. It has the potential to result in sustainable opportunities, like the installation of a solar photovoltaic system with a micro grid. If that were to happen, it would be really great, because we could generate renewable energy on site that would be used immediately by our scientific equipment and help us to be more resilient on site.

What is your role in developing the new sustainability program?

I know lots of general sustainability best practices, but I need to help the team here make a sustainability strategy and program that’s unique and special to Fermilab.

I’ve been really excited to learn how many people have been contributing to this already for over a decade; there’s a whole community of people here that has been doing this for a long time, and they are really passionate. Before we had full-time people, there was the Sustainability Management Team, a rotating committee of people working at Fermilab who had other responsibilities as well. I’ve encountered so many people who are aware that we were working on sustainability and who’ve been on that committee before laying the early groundwork for what we’re doing today.

It’s really great to see how many people care about this topic and how many folks have taken a turn being involved. I’m excited to now bring them more resources by having full-time people to help support that boots-on-the-ground interest.

Is there anything people can do to get more involved?

We are having an internal Earth Day fair on April 20, and I’ll be hosting a booth. It’s the first good opportunity this year to learn about sustainability here at the lab because people can learn about how we’re converting our fleet to electric vehicles, how they can get involved in the bike-share program or how they can participate in employee electric vehicle charging. There will also be people talking about greener products employees can purchase. Just becoming more aware of what’s available is a really great first step.

I’m also going to be at my booth, collecting ideas from people on things that they think we should be pursuing, as well as sustainability successes. I think that a big part of tackling climate change and sustainability is acknowledging our successes in addition to talking about what we can do to be more successful. So, if there are things that people have done in their own work areas or want to do, they should reach out to me — I can help identify more resources and get them better connected into the overall lab activities.

What would you say to someone who feels like committing to sustainability and combatting climate change are hopelessly large challenges?

I always try to tell people to focus on something that you can do with what you have right now, and you can always build upon and do more over time. Although we have these targets we’re trying to hit, sustainability is a journey, not a destination. It’s really a lifelong community and global-scale effort. We’re all working together, so every little effort matters.

Addressing climate change at the lab is a long-term, big, challenging project, but we’ve proven ourselves good at tackling those kinds of projects. We just need to commit ourselves to doing it and then taking it one step at a time, just like we do when we design and implement big science projects. We totally have the right skills; we just need to work together to keep committing to sustainability and tackling climate change.

What do you like to do for fun?

I really like doing outdoorsy things and spending time with my family. I just got back from a spring break trip with my family to the Grand Canyon. I was fascinated by the sheer breadth and depth of the canyon.

And I’m also into crafting and board games and doing social things with friends and family.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Minutes away from Fermilab’s particle accelerators, the lab’s iconic bison herd welcomes its newest (and most adorable) member. The first calf this spring was born on April 13; mom and baby both are doing well.

The newest calf brings the herd to 40 animals, joining 24 cows, two bulls and 13 yearlings. “This year we have more than usual because we kept more calves from last year,” said Cleo Garcia, Fermilab’s bison herdsman. Normally, calves are sold in the fall after they’ve been weaned, but last year, 11 were not purchased, and two calves arrived so late in the season that they were still nursing.

Bison have been living on the natural areas of Fermilab since 1969 when the lab’s first director, Robert Wilson, established the herd to connect the lab with the Midwestern prairie on which it’s built. The herd started with a single bull, two cows and three yearlings — all introduced with lively personas — and another 12 animals were donated by the Illinois Department of Conservation in 1971 to help diversify the stock.

Most of the Fermilab bison today are descendants of this original herd. “All the cows were born here at Fermilab,” Garcia said, “the only thing we change is the bulls every five to six years.” Rotating the bulls keeps the herd healthy and genetically diverse. In fact, genetic testing in 2015 revealed that the Fermilab herd is 100% bison, free of cattle genes, and shares lineages with wild herds in six other states.

“We hope to have at least 22 calves this year,” said Garcia. Determining exactly how many calves to expect annually is an imprecise science because the grounds team lets everything happen naturally. Rather than testing the cows to see if they’re pregnant, the team must rely on physical signs like swollen udders and bellies for an estimate. “You can see when they’re about to give birth,” Garcia said, “Most of them tend to get away from the rest of the herd, and then they come back with a baby. It’s amazing.”

Calving season is expected to continue through July, and perhaps a bit longer; the final calf of last year’s season was born in September. As more calves arrive, the grounds team will be on the lookout to ensure they are thriving. “We’re looking for signs that calves are nursing,” explained Garcia, “and that they are welcomed by the herd.” And sometimes, the team must chase coyotes from the pens. Although a single coyote doesn’t present a danger to the bison, Garcia said they don’t want to risk a whole pack taking an interest.

For those visiting the herd, Garcia suggested coming to Fermilab public areas multiple times throughout the season to see the color of the calves change from a light cinnamon to a dark brown. And of course, keeping an eye out for playful newborns. “They play sometimes,” Garcia said, “You see them running around and start jumping, especially after nursing.”

The Fermilab site has been designated a National Environmental Research Park by the U.S. Department of Energy. The lab’s environmental stewardship efforts are supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science as well as Fermilab Natural Areas.

Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit Fermilab’s website and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab. 

Gov. Pritzker and other local legislators joined DOE officials at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, for the opening of two new buildings and the groundbreaking of another to usher in a new era of science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory celebrated three important construction milestones yesterday that will increase the lab’s research efficiencies and capabilities. In attendance at the “Building Fermilab’s Future” ceremony in Batavia were representatives from the DOE Office of Science, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and local officials, including U.S. Reps. Sean Casten and Bill Foster, and national and international partners and collaborators.

“We don’t know that we’re witnessing history until, frankly, it is in the rear-view mirror. But with Fermilab, we get to celebrate discovery and innovation in real time, right now,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The brand-new, 80,000-square-foot Integrated Engineering Research Center (IERC), located next to the iconic Wilson Hall, will provide state-of-the-art lab space, making research and development a more collaborative and centralized process. It will be the new home of engineers and technicians working on high-energy physics projects, like the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment led by Fermilab and the proposed next-generation cosmic microwave background project called CMB-S4. It will also enable cutting-edge engineering for emerging technologies, including quantum and microelectronics.

Fermilab Director Lia Merminga welcomed all who attended, adding, “The completion of two buildings and the start of the PIP-II Linac Complex are major steps toward transforming our lab’s physical and scientific/engineering landscape. The new IERC and the PIP-II Cryoplant buildings will be centers of excellence for research, innovation and collaboration that will accelerate the science of DUNE and a rich array of discoveries.”

The new PIP-II Cryogenic Plant Building was also opened at today’s event. It will house a cryogenic plant, which is an in-kind contribution from the Department of Atomic Energy, India, to provide the PIP-II accelerator with liquid helium to cool superconducting radio-frequency modules for particle acceleration. PIP-II is an essential enhancement to the Fermilab particle accelerator complex that will power beamline-based experiments at Fermilab. Its new 215-meter linear accelerator, or linac, will eventually power the high-energy neutrino beam that will send neutrinos through the earth toward the international DUNE project in Lead, South Dakota. PIP-II is the first U.S. accelerator project to be built with significant international contributions.

The groundbreaking today for the Linac Complex for the PIP-II accelerator kicks off the construction of the approximately 800,000-square-foot complex that will have four components: the linac tunnel, where the linear accelerator will reside; the linac gallery that will house equipment, much of which will come from international partners as in-kind contributions; the high bay building, where the loading dock and room-temperature front end of the linac will be located; and a beam transfer line. The entire construction project is expected to take approximately 39 months.

Fermilab is located on 6,800 acres of prairie land in Batavia, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. The area selected for the PIP-II site minimizes the impact on the prairie, which Fermilab maintains. The site resides along Fermilab’s Main Ring Road, where contractors can work without interrupting other operations of the lab.

The construction of the Integrated Engineering Research Center was funded by the Science Laboratory Infrastructure program within the Department of Energy Office of Science.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov or at www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab.