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Fermilab director announces voluntary separation program

Pier Oddone, Director at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, announced on June 16 that the lab would begin a self-select voluntary separation program (SSVSP) in order to reduce staff by 100.

CSA Corporate Members win R&D awards

R&D Magazine recently announced its "R&D 100" winners for 2011. Several CSA Corporate Sustaining Members were among the winners: Argonne National Laboratory, Brooks Automation, Inc., Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Sierra Lobo. Read the list of winners on the R&D website.

NIST scientist details new method for making thinner, more flexible HTS cables

NIST scientist Danko van der Laan explains details of his invention of a method to make HTS cables that are thinner and more flexible than ever before. The superconducting material used to make the cables is a high-temperature superconducting "coated conductor" that consists of a 50-micron-thick Hastelloy substrate, coated with...

Tributes to Dr. Klaus Timmerhaus

Dr. Klaus D. Timmerhaus, who passed away February 11, 2011, was well-known in the cryogenics community for a number of accomplishments, including his involvement in the Cryogenic Engineering Conference and for serving as founding editor of the publication “Advances in Cryogenic Engineering,” which he edited from 1954 to 1980.

LHC experiments reach data milestone for 2011

CERN press release, June 17: Today at around 10:50 CEST, the amount of data accumulated by LHC experiments ATLAS and CMS clicked over from 0.999 to 1 inverse femtobarn, signaling an important milestone in the experiments' quest for new physics.

Tollestrup receives IEEE superconductivity award

From Fermilab Today, June 21: Alvin Tollestrup came to Fermilab in 1975 for what was supposed to be a six-month sabbatical.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Latest in Cryo Central

Magnetic Levitation

From http://www.superconductors.org. Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to “float” on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have...

Superconductivity

From Superpower website. History of Superconductivity Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kammerlingh Onnes when he was able to liquefy helium by cooling it to 4 Kelvin, or -452°F. This enabled him to cool other materials close to absolute zero and investigate their electrical properties. He...

Medical Applications of Cryogenics

Neutron Therapy Cryogenics is at the heart of nuclear accelerators. Accelerators such as Fermilab’s Tevatron make neutron therapy for cancer possible. From Fermilab Today 4/20/09: Fermilab currently offers neutron therapy. But staff at Fermilab designed and built the proton accelerator used by the nation’s first hospital-based treatment center to use...

Nuclear Physics

Al Zeller National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) at Michigan State University zeller@nscl.msu.edu Cryogenics has a long history in nuclear physics. The technology has its origins in the use of cold traps for maintaining a vacuum, which is required to prevent beam loss and for generating high voltages used in acceleration....

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