The Argonne Club is looking for three energetic people to promote good fellowship, healthful recreation and other matters of common interest for employees.

Board members serve a three-year term (2019-2021) beginning in January 2019. Interested employees should contact ArgonneClub@anl.gov.

Members will help with the following:

• Plan the Argonne Picnic and Breakfast with Santa (these events are the responsibility of this committee alone and would not happen without it)
• Oversee the many affiliated clubs and help with the formation of new clubs
• Plan group outings or discount offers for local professional sports, theater and more
• Plan social events such as the Halloween, Oktoberfest, St. Patrick’s day and other on-site parties

Meetings are held on a monthly basis and are an hour to an hour-and-a-half maximum. The committee features nine elected and two appointed members.

The call is open to all full or part-time employees from Argonne, U.S. Department of Energy, consultants, loanees and other persons assigned to the work of the laboratory.

For more information visit www.argonneclub.anl.gov or email argonneclub@anl.gov.

The Global Travel Office will close for the holiday break at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018. The office reopens at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. Argonne’s off-site travel office, ADTRAV, will be open during the break.

Holiday break travel contacts:

• RezDesk and GetThere, Argonne’s online booking tools, will operate normally.
• The ADTRAV off-site travel office will be open throughout the holiday break period during the hours of 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. (CST). ADTRAV’s after-hours team can assist you outside of regular business hours.
• To change travel arrangements during the break, contact ADTRAV directly:
  • On-site: ext. 2-5050
  • Off-site: (205) 745-4911
  • Toll-free:  (855) 218-1513
  • Email: Travel@adtrav.com
  • After-hours code: SI3C

Helpful tips and reminders:

• Division management must approve travel plans prior to departure.
• The Global Travel Office must approve all international travel prior to departure.
• Check flight times before leaving for the airport and allow ample time for weather-related delays, road conditions and an increase of holiday travelers.
• If you need to make changes or require other travel assistance, call ADTRAV well before departure to avoid dealing with long lines at the airport, which can be slow and stressful.

For additional information, email GlobalTravel@anl.gov. Safe travels to all and enjoy the holiday season.

Join Argonne Director Paul Kearns for an informal open discussion Thursday, Dec. 6, at 1 p.m. in the lobby of Building 201. All are welcome and no registration is required to attend the meeting. Coffee will be provided.

The talk will open with an outlook for 2019, but all topics, questions and comments are welcome.

Employees may also email questions and comments to Kearns at listen@anl.gov.

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Volunteers are needed for the Breakfast with Santa event on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children, teens, young adults or adults who are interested in helping the Argonne Club with crafts and games should email the Argonne Club. Students can receive community service hours for volunteering.

On Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, Business and Information Systems (BIS) will be conducting maintenance on the database that supports the visitor registration system. Between 9 a.m. and noon the system will be unavailable.

Employees who experience any problems with the visitor registration system after this maintenance can contact the Service Desk at ext. … Read More »

Argonne travelers who have stayed at Marriott and Starwood hotels should monitor their accounts and credit card accounts for suspicious activity after a breach of the chains’ guest reservations database.

The private information of up to 500 million Marriott and Starwood Hotel guest accounts may have been illegally accessed as part of the breach, potentially one of the largest breaches of consumer data ever. NBC News has a detailed account of the breach.

Marriott has created a website with FAQs and information for consumers who believe their information may have been part of the breach.

Concerned travelers may wish to take the following precautions:

• Members enrolled in the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program should monitor their accounts for any suspicious activity.
• Change your password regularly. Do not use easily guessed passwords. Do not use the same passwords for multiple accounts.
• Review your payment card account statements and immediately report unauthorized activity to the bank that issued your card.
• Be vigilant against third parties attempting to gather information by deception (commonly known as “phishing”), including through links to fake websites. Marriott will not ask you to provide your password by phone or email.
• If you believe you are the victim of identity theft or your personal data has been misused, you should immediately contact your national data protection authority or local law enforcement.

For more information, call Marriott’s dedicated consumer call line at 877-273-9481.

Argonne researchers will discuss their Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD)-sponsored 2018 Expeditions on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, beginning at 9 a.m. in Building 240, Rooms 1406-1407. This event is an opportunity to learn about the research results of the expeditions, and possible future research proposals.

Please note that the afternoon sessions will contain NDA information and therefore will be closed to some audience members. The morning sessions cover quantum and neuromorphic projects and are open to all.

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Argonne’s Thomas Wallner (ES) speaks to the importance of the worker’s role in the new video, “Work Planning and Control: the Worker.” The worker knows the equipment, understands the status of the work and is the most up-to-date on the status of the work, says Wallner, a section manager for Advanced Mobility and Grid Integration Technology. Successful projects rely on worker’s support and expertise.

To understand the basic role of the worker in the Work Planning and Control Process, employees can review the Worker, How to Plan and Execute Work Quick Reference Guide.

All full-time employees will be contacted by phone, email and text Tuesday morning, Dec. 11, 2018, as a part of an exercise taking place across the U.S. Department of Energy complex.

The personnel accountability exercise is similar to ones that took place on Aug. 9, May 7, and April 18, 2018. The objective is to practice contacting and accounting for employees in case of an emergency. Argonne achieved a 97.8 percent response rate in the recent event; DOE is now looking for 100 percent.

Employees will be contacted by work phone, work email, home email, text (SMS) or mobile phone as listed in Workday. A response will be required; after you respond, the alert system will stop attempting to contact you. The messages to be sent Dec. 11 are legitimate and are sent via an Argonne-approved and verified system.

Home phone numbers will not be contacted.

Please review this document for additional details and examples of the messages you will receive.

Argonne blood drive: You give. People live.

Abri Credit Union, in partnership with the Heartland Blood Center, will host a blood drive Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A Heartland Blood Center mobile coach will be located outside of Building 223 (former Abri Credit Union).  A photo ID is required. Donors must register to donate.

• Donors will receive a coupon for a free entrée with purchase of a Coca-Cola Freestyle beverage from Noodles & Company.

Space is limited. Schedule your appointment today.

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All Argonne employees are invited to a Next Generation Society (NGS) Employee Resource Group meeting on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, at noon in Building 241, Room D173.

The meeting agenda includes upcoming plans and ideas for the group, and the sharing of the updated group charter.

In addition to continued efforts related to professional development and resource sharing, a major emphasis next year will be on improved collaboration and cross-disciplinary innovation. A key mission of NGS is helping to ensure the best possible scientific future for Argonne, and we are excited to discuss further how we can facilitate this through the NGS group.

This meeting is a great opportunity for both NGS members and other staff to get more out of the group and help shape Argonne’s future.

NGS is a group that works to enable innovation across the laboratory to build relationships, foster professional development and facilitate communication. For more information, or to join the NGS mailing list, email NGS@anl.gov. NGS resources can be found here.

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Francesco Ganda

Argonne Principal Nuclear Engineer Francesco Ganda (NSE) received an award, and a piece of history, from the U.S Department of Energy.

Ganda received the Fuel Cycle Research and Development (FCR&D) Excellence Award, a keepsake displaying a piece of graphite from CP-1, the world’s first nuclear reactor. He was recognized for excellence in the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program during the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in Orlando, Fla., in November.

Ganda, who joined Argonne in 2013, leads the multi-lab research activities in nuclear economics as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Nuclear Energy System Analysis and Integration Campaign. His research focuses on nuclear economics, reactor physics and nuclear fuel cycles.

“I am glad to be recognized for the several years of effort and dedication to the campaign activities and to nuclear research and development,” said Ganda. “I also want to recognize the importance of the exceptional leadership of the System Analysis and Integration Campaign, my institutional sponsor, and of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Division, which gave me the opportunity to pursue the research that was recognized with the award.”

The award is given by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) to honor excellence in the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program. The award is given annually to one early- to mid-career researcher for each of the five programmatic campaigns of the DOE-NE Nuclear Technology R&D (NTRD) Program.

Nominations are provided by the campaign’s national technical directors. Temitope Taiwo, manager of NSE’s Nuclear Programs Strategy and national technical director of the System Analysis and Integration Campaign, nominated Ganda. Awardees are then chosen by a director within DOE-NE. Patricia Paviet, director of the Office of Materials and Chemical Technologies at DOE-NE, chose Ganda. Ganda qualified through his work in support of the Programmatic System Analysis and Integration Campaign in nuclear economics.

At the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Orlando, Ganda presented a brief summary of his past research in nuclear economics for the campaign, and then focused on the recent work on the Algorithm for the Capital Cost Estimation of Reactor Technologies code.

In addition to receiving the FCR&D award, Ganda was nominated this year to serve as the U.S. representative on the Working Party in Nuclear Economics of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and its Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris.

By Anna Marie Tomczyk

By Dan Raker (LEG), Senior Attorney, and Darryl Howe (HRS), Manager Employee and Labor Relations

The holiday season is here and, for many, it is a time to celebrate at the year-end party with co-workers. Holiday parties are great opportunities for team building, recognition and camaraderie. Please remember, though, that holiday parties are work functions. Here are a few important tips to keep the celebration merry:

• Be Inclusive: The party may not have a religious theme — be mindful when selecting decorations and music. Argonne welcomes everyone. To that end, all employees within a work group should be invited to the celebration, but none are required to attend and no judgment should be made about an individual’s choice.
• Be Respectful: As a work-related event, Argonne’s Core Values are to be demonstrated and the Employee Conduct Policy must be followed. Please maintain a level of respectful conduct suitable for work, regardless of the setting.
• Act with Integrity: Sexually explicit comments and unwelcome sexual advances are not acceptable. Any employee who experiences or observes conduct at a holiday celebration that is objectionable should report that behavior to HRS-Employee Relations. Any Argonne manager who observes misconduct should immediately act to stop it and report it to HRS-Employee Relations. Misconduct at holiday events will be taken seriously and investigated in accordance with Argonne’s established procedures.
• Be Safe: Although there is no prohibition of alcohol at off-site Argonne events, please limit alcohol consumption. Organizers should consider outsourcing alcohol service to a professional vendor, utilizing drink tickets and/or narrowing windows of service (preferably at the beginning of the event or during a meal).

These tips are a reminder to everyone in the Argonne community of our high standards and expectations at this festive time of year. We sincerely hope that your events are memorable for all the right reasons.

The year-end holiday break at Argonne begins at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018, and ends Wednesday morning, Jan. 2, 2019. Argonne observes Dec. 24, 25, 31, and Jan. 1 as holidays and Argonne employees embedded in federal offices observe Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 as holidays. For employees eligible for holiday pay, the Dayforce system will automatically generate holiday hours for those days. For questions about laboratory holidays, see the Argonne Holiday Schedule.

Please review the information below in order to assure that your W-2 tax statements and effort are not disrupted.

W-2 tax statements

To ensure that your W-2 tax statement is mailed to the correct address, please verify and if necessary, change your mailing address in your Workday profile before Dec.12, 2018. The following link will assist you in changing your contact information,  How do I update my contact information.

Reporting effort

• All effort for the week ending Dec. 16, 2018, must be entered and authorized in Dayforce by 5 p.m on Monday, Dec.17, 2018. After the deadline, any changes to effort will require a timecard and effort corrections form.
• All effort for the week ending Dec. 23, 2018, estimated effort or absences must be entered and authorized in Dayforce by 5 p.m on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018. After the deadline, any changes will require a timecard and effort corrections form.
• All effort must be authorized in Dayforce for the week ending Dec.30, 2018 by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019.

Please make the appropriate arrangements if you are on travel or away from the laboratory.

• Dayforce Timecard and Effort Corrections
  • Employees: Dayforce Timecard and Effort Corrections (ANL-1007)
  • Argonne Associates: Argonne Associate Timecard and Effort Corrections (ANL-1077)

• Timecard and effort corrections for employees that are fully approved by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, and have a bearing on an employee’s compensation, will be reflected in the employee’s last pay statement of December 2018. After the deadline, any employee corrections that has a bearing on an employee’s compensation will be processed in the employee’s first pay statement of January 2019.

Holiday time off

Argonne suspends normal operations on Dec. 26, 27, and 28. Time off during this period may be paid or unpaid. For questions about the End-of-Year Suspension of Normal Operations see LMS-POL-42: Cancellation of Laboratory Business Hours.

• Employees may apply vacation benefits by entering the pay code “Vacation-Vac” and their regular scheduled hours in Dayforce. Employees who have exhausted their vacation benefit and want to avoid loss of pay during this period are permitted to use December vacation accrual by entering the pay code “Vacation No Pay-VNP” and their regularly scheduled hours in Dayforce. Vacation and floating holiday balances are available in Dayforce under the “Timesheet” view and by clicking on “Balances.”
• If a floating holiday or a portion of the benefit is still available, employees may elect the floating holiday pay option for a portion of this period by entering the pay code “FHL Floating Holiday” and the balance of the floating holiday benefit in Dayforce.
• For employees hired on or after Oct. 1, 2018, who have not accrued sufficient vacation benefits to accommodate time off during this period, Argonne will advance the necessary amount of paid vacation benefits to avoid loss of pay. Advanced vacation benefits will be deducted from succeeding monthly vacation accruals. Employees should enter the pay code “Vacation No Pay – VNP” and their regularly scheduled hours in Dayforce.
• Employees electing the unpaid option for Dec. 26, 27 and 28,should enter the pay code “Close No Pay – CNP” and their regularly scheduled hours.  Exempt employees using the “Close No Pay – CNP” option will have their compensation reduced in January of 2019.
• Employees are not eligible to receive paid sick leave, parental leave or supplemental worker’s compensation during this period. For exceptions see the LMS-POL-42: Cancellation of Laboratory Business Hours.

For additional information, contact Denise Screens at ext. 2-6921 or Nghe Nguyen at ext. 2-8020.

Due to a scheduling conflict, the Conversations with Kearns meeting originally scheduled for Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, has been cancelled.

Another series of meetings will be scheduled for 2019; watch Snapshot and Argonne Today for details. Employees are always welcome to email questions and comments to Argonne Director Paul Kearns at listen@anl.gov.

Conversations with Kearns are informal gatherings held approximately twice a month at locations across the Argonne site. Wide-ranging discussions at these meetings have covered laboratory strategy, safety, and many other topics of interest. No registration is necessary.

Bring completed registration form and check, payable to Right Fit, to Building 201, Health & Employee Wellness.

After 3:30 p.m., please use the drop box to the right of the receptionist window.

Registration will not be accepted after Friday, Jan. 4, 2019.

For additional information, contact Julie Freyer.

Grab your holiday sweater, Santa hat or Rudolph nose and join the Argonne Running Club for their holiday run or walk on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, at noon. Participants should meet at the Building 203 North Lobby.

The run or walk follows an out-and-back course ranging from one to four miles. There will be refreshments and a raffle at the finish.

All employees and their guests are welcome.

For information, contact Tracy Rager at ext. 2-4148.

Flyer
Course map

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Ilke Arslan (NST)

Ilke Arslan (NST) has been named to the third cohort of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program. The initiative brings together exceptional early- and mid-career professionals who have the potential to contribute significantly to DOE’s work, whether at DOE or in national labs, academia or industry.

Arslan is the Group Leader for Electron and X-ray Microscopy at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials. After receiving her Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Davis, she went to the University of Cambridge with Postdoctoral Fellowships from both the National Science Foundation and the Royal Society. She then returned to the United States as a Truman Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Following this, Arslan became a faculty member in the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department at the University of California, Davis, before moving to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Senior Scientist while maintaining an adjunct professor position at University of California, Davis.

Her research interests include understanding the dynamic, atomic, electronic and 3D structure of a range of nanomaterials for energy, including materials for quantum computing/sensing and materials for catalysis. She is also interested in technique development in electron and X-ray microscopies, including time-resolved microscopy and in situ liquid/gas/heating/cooling/biasing environments in the microscope.

The Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program was developed to introduce the next generation of Department of Energy leaders to the breadth and depth of the National Laboratory system and expose them to the broader scientific, policy, and energy ecosystem within which the Labs operate. The professionals participate in a year-long series of workshops, in Washington D.C. and at national laboratories, covering the spectrum of DOE’s missions and operations.

“Oppenheimer Cohort 3 is an impressive group of 15 highly-qualified individuals,” said Mark Peters, Idaho National Laboratory Director, who announced the selections on behalf of the National Laboratory Directors Council (NLDC). Peters is also a former Argonne associate laboratory director. “The backgrounds and roles of the Cohort are diverse, ranging from technical group leaders and division directors to a deputy general counsel and facilities and operations director.  We have every expectation that their engagement in the Oppenheimer experience will be of great benefit to the program—and to them.”

In addition to Arslan, Cohort 3 includes:

• Chris Haase, Ames Laboratory
• Gabriella Carini, Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Beth Fancsali, Fermilab
• Heather Chichester, Idaho National Laboratory
• Tanja Pietrass, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Tom Kirchstetter, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Rebecca Nikolic, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Kristin Munch, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Eric Pierce, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Suresh Baskaran, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Stuart Hudsonm, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• Machelle Vieux, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
• Marcey Hoover, Sandia National Laboratories
• Kristine Zeigler, Savannah River National Laboratory

Each nominee was scored by an NLDC Selection Committee and the list was finalized by its Executive Committee.

By Chris Howes

For those who spend their time in buildings 206, 221 and 300, October 2 no doubt seemed like a normal work day. They were probably unaware that during a heavy storm just hours earlier – at 12:35 a.m. – lightning struck a power pole on Argonne property, knocking out electricity completely to their buildings and partially to others. Electricity was automatically transferred to powerless areas, with various structures in the 200 and 300 areas experiencing a power bump.

Fortunately for the researchers and operations employees in those buildings, the laboratory has a crew dedicated to monitoring and fixing such circumstances. The crew jumped into action to reset the system as soon as possible.

When the lightning strike occurred, the off-shift team – which has a foreman and mechanic onsite 24/7 to troubleshoot problem areas – saw the automatic power bump and, at the same time, heard a loud bang. After identifying the cause, they alerted the High-Voltage Crew foreman just after 1 a.m.

A lightning strike on this pole momentarily interrupted power to part of the Argonne site. Near the top of the pole, the lighter, unweathered wood was exposed where the lightning hit.

High-Voltage Crew linemen were onsite by 1:40 a.m., working with an engineer to fix the problem. By 2:45 a.m., they had restarted electricity from a substation that had been impacted by the lightning strike and all buildings were back at full power.

Just a few hours later, by 7 a.m., the crew was on the move fr

om building to building, ensuring that all equipment was functional. To find the source of the power outage, linemen were also checking each power pole, even traveling outside the fence line to inspect poles located in Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. By midmorning, they had found the damaged pole. The next day, they returned to repair it. Everything was back to normal within three days.

Argonne administers processes and research that require 24-hour power, and the off-shift team, in tandem with the High-Voltage Crew, provides constant monitoring and support to make sure it’s available where needed.

“The off-shift team is the eyes and ears of the facility,” said Josh Koons, manager of utility systems. “They’re like an EMT, patching up a patient until the doctors – in this case the High-Voltage Crew – can get involved.”

The High-Voltage Crew is just one of the teams that are ready to respond at any moment. As with problems with power issues, the off-shift team monitors for anything that goes awry with infrastructure, including sanitary waste treatment, water and steam systems, buildings and roads. These crews are also prepared to jump into action at a moment’s notice.

Argonne’s entry/exit gates will observe an abbreviated schedule during the holidays.

Holiday gate schedule:

Monday, Dec. 24, 2018 (Christmas Eve)

• North Gate: 24-hour operations
• East Gate: closed
• West Gate: 5:45 a.m. to 7:10 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018 (Christmas Day)

• North Gate: 24-hour operations
• East Gate: closed
• West Gate: closed

Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018 to Friday, Dec. 28, 2018

• North Gate: 24-hour operations
• East Gate: closed
• West Gate: 5:45 a.m. to 7:10 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 (New Year’s Eve)

• North Gate: 24-hour operations
• East Gate: closed
• West Gate: 5:45 a.m. to 7:10 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019 (New Year’s Day)

• North Gate:  24-hour operations
• East Gate: closed
• West Gate: closed

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

• Laboratory re-opens; all gates open.

Gate hours are available on Inside Argonne.