Our results keep improving. On July 18, 98.59% of Argonne employee responded to text, phone, or email messages as part of the accountability exercise mandated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Seven of the 11 directorates achieved full response. The previous exercise response rate was 97.02%.

All full-time employees were contacted as part of the regular accountability exercise across the DOE complex. The objective is to practice contacting and accounting for employees in case of an emergency.

With safety one of Argonne’s five Core Values, the incredible result for the latest accountability exercise is welcome news. The exercise proved that the lab can effectively reach virtually all employees in the case of a real emergency.

The next exercise will be held in the next months. Watch Argonne Today and Snapshot for details.

Check your phone contact settings in Workday

To make sure the laboratory can reach you effectively for this and other high-priority messages, you may need to update your settings in Workday, especially if you use your mobile phone as your primary contact and you don’t have a landline at home.

If you don’t have a landline phone, and are using your mobile device as your primary telephone, your Workday listing should be: “Usage: Home (Primary)” and “Device: Mobile.” If it’s entered as “Device: Phone” you may not receive important messages from the laboratory. Here are step-by-step instructions for changing your phone settings in Workday.

The laboratory’s alert system is programmed to contact the mobile phone first; if there is no response and the situation warrants, it may contact a landline if one is listed.

If you mark these phone numbers “private,” they won’t be shared with the public or made available in the laboratory directory.

All are invited to sample cuisine from many of the AAA-ERG’s finest chefs. Food selections will include fish, chicken, jerk chicken, chicken sausage and side dishes.

Tickets

Tickets will be on sale daily July 25-31, 2019, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Building 213 Cafeteria.

• Meal ticket: $10 (includes one meat, two sides, dessert and beverage)
• Taste single item ticket: $3
• Beverage ticket: $1

Proceeds from the Taste of AAA-ERG will benefit the AAA-ERG scholarship fund.

AAA-ERG mission

The AAA-ERG mission is to promote fellowship, diversity, cross-cultural awareness and communication and to network as professionals and coworkers, sharing ideas and resources that benefit Argonne National Laboratory. AAA-ERG membership applications will be available during Taste of AAA-ERG ticket sales.

Argonne is updating its patent agreement and assignment (PAA). Employees have until Monday, Aug. 19, 2019, to sign the revised agreement.

In consideration of a Supreme Court ruling on the subject, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is directing national laboratories to have all employees sign new PAAs.

All Argonne employees have already signed a PAA, otherwise known as the Agreement Covering Inventions, Discoveries and Improvements (ANL-23) for regular employees and the Temporary Appointee Access Agreement (ANL-54D) for temporary employees, as part of their onboarding process.

The new PAA protects Argonne’s rights in discoveries and inventions that are created by people working at or for the lab. It does not create new rights in inventions, though it removes a formality of requiring Argonne to make an additional request when it wishes to enforce its rights.

An email will be sent to employees prompting them to sign and submit the new PAA through Workday no later than Monday, August 19, 2019.

Learn more about the revised PAA below.

Argonne National Laboratory Patent Agreement and Assignment (PAA) FAQs

Q. What is the patent agreement and assignment (PAA)?
A. The PAA is an agreement between UChicago Argonne, LLC, and its employees. It gives Argonne rights in discoveries and inventions that are created by people working at or for the laboratory. Argonne is starting a new PAA process for all employees as of July 19, 2019.

Q. Have I already signed a PAA?
A. Yes. During orientation, every employee signs the PAA, otherwise known as the Agreement Covering Inventions, Discoveries and Improvements (ANL-23) for regular employees and the Temporary Appointee Access Agreement (ANL-54D) for temporary employees. A PAA is part of the onboarding paperwork for all employees. By accepting employment at the laboratory, all current employees have already agreed to be bound by the patent agreement and related policies.

Q. Does the new PAA change or enlarge the laboratory’s policy regarding inventions?
A. The PAA does not create new rights in inventions (though it affirms those that the laboratory already has). It removes a formality of requiring Argonne to make an additional request when it wishes to enforce those rights. This change makes the agreement clearer and more immediate.

Q. If I am already bound by the patent policy, why do I need to sign a new PAA?
A. Argonne is complying with direction from DOE which requires all employees to sign an agreement updated in this manner. All future employees will sign the revised PAA as well.

Q. I am not an inventor and never will be, so why do I have to do this?
A. There is no practical way of determining which employee may, in the future, create something with laboratory resources that could be patented and in which the laboratory has ownership. Inventions sometimes arise in unlikely settings and in unexpected ways.

Q. How do I submit the revised PAA?
A. All employees will be notified when the revised PAA is available by email. Then you can sign the agreement and submit it through Workday.

Q. How long will I have to submit the signed PAA?
A. The signed, updated PAA must be submitted through Workday by Monday, Aug. 19, 2019.

Q. What if I have questions before I sign?
A. Should you have questions about the PAA, please contact your supervisor or directorate head. They can then refer you to the Legal Department as needed.

Good news! You have an industry partner and a funding sponsor ready to collaborate on your research. Now comes the difficult part: keeping all the shared information and intellectual property secure and protected.

Thinking through the details while a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) is still in development can go a long way to avoiding problems down the road.

• Agree with your partner and sponsor on security requirements for sharing sensitive or proprietary information, data, and materials.
• Outline what is expected to be published and what will be protected.
• Find out if any data to be used is open source or public, commercially available material.
• Consider what additional sensitivities and advance disclosures may be required for project personnel if your sponsor is involved in national security.

When you have a plan for those immediate security needs, think ahead to the next phase of the project. Go beyond the basic science and consider all future possibilities. How might they impact your CRADA?

On Tuesday, July 23, from 10–11 a.m., in the Building 203 Auditorium, Keith Bradley, director, National Securities Programs is teaming up with Diane Hart, manager, and Angie Alfaro, analyst, both of the Sponsored Research Office of Technology Commercialization and Partnerships (TCP) to provide their OPSEC point of view on CRADAs. They will go over the best practices and resources available, as well as important recent changes to the proposal information questionnaire and the risks associated with disclosures of sensitive information that could lead to fines and loss of sponsor funding. Add to Your Calendar

Feel free to reach out to the OPSEC team at opsec@anl.gov about CRADAs any time for security guidance when planning a collaborative project.

Global Travel Office (GTO) staff will discuss recent changes to policies and procedures, arranging travel for subcontractors, the new International Travel Approval (ANL-1043) form, loaner phones, and answer any questions that attendees have about the international travel process at the August refresher course.

The course is available to all employees, and is especially helpful for new employees, travelers, and travel arrangers.

Hosted by GTO, this international travel refresher course takes place Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, at 2 p.m. in Building 201, Room 102.

On Thursday, July 25, 2019, Walter Hopkins (HEP) will present “Fast Detector Modeling Using Machine Learning Algorithms,” Romit Maulik (LCF) will present “Novel Turbulence Closures Using Physics-informed Machine Learning,” and Zhengchun Liu (DSL) will present “Advancing X-ray Tomography Using Deep Generative Adversarial Networks” at 2 p.m. in Building 241, Room A323, as part of the AI in science and engineering town hall meeting series, hosted by Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Add to Your Calendar

The purpose of the meetings is to build a community and a network of collaborators across divisions and directorates to help catalyze collaborative projects involving development and use of AI in science and engineering. This will enable Argonne to capture major anticipated external funding in the scientific areas over the next five years. Ideas and discussions shared at these meetings will also help articulate a science-driven strategy for AI applications, and areas where Argonne should claim national and international leadership.

The weekly meetings are held in Building 241 on Thursdays at 2 p.m. See schedule below.

Meeting format

Each town hall meeting will last one hour including up to three 15-minute presentations by volunteers, followed by Q&A and discussions.

Interested in presenting?

We are looking for informal presentations on ideas that staff or postdocs would like to pursue, or that you think Argonne should pursue. Tell us why this is a worthwhile idea, and what skills or capabilities are needed to realize the project(s) you propose.

Presentation volunteers are asked to sign up here. Please indicate your preferred presentation date and a tentative title in the comments section. You are welcome to give as many presentations as you’d like, limit one presentation per person per meeting.

Suggestions for external speakers?

If you have suggestions for external speakers, or if you have any questions about the AI in science and engineering town hall series, contact Olle Heinonen.

Schedule (Thursdays at 2 p.m. in Building 241)

• May 30, Room A323
• June 6, Room D173
• June 13, Room D173
• June 20, Room A323
• June 27, Room A323
• July 11, Room A323
• July 18, Room A323
• July 25, Room A323
• Aug. 1, Room A323 tentative
• Aug. 8, Room A323

OPSEC Week Shred Day is a wonderful opportunity to do some “Kondo-ing” and get out from under the forgotten files, mountains of mail, and outdated decks that no longer “spark joy” in your home.

It’s a simple process:

• Gather your documents. Paper only. No electronics. No binders. No binder clips. Paper clips and staples are fine.
• Bring them to the Inner Circle Parking Lot (near Buildings 200 and 205), Wednesday, July 24, between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Feel great knowing your documents are being safely, smartly shredded.
• If you need to shred work papers during the rest of the year, the OPSEC Working Group provides onsite shredding of sensitive lab documents. You can bring them in person to the Security Programs Facility, Building 316.

Or you can place the materials to be shredded in a sealed, opaque container marked “To be opened by addressee only” and addressed to Pat Berglund, Security Programs Facility, Building 316. Fill out a Material Move Order – On Site Only (ANL-8), but do not identify that you are sending sensitive material. Then notify Berglund at berglund@anl.gov about how much you’re sending and when to expect it.

If you have more questions about securely disposing documents, contact Berglund at ext. 2-2946.

To ensure the operational excellence of Argonne’s facilities, the laboratory’s steam system will be shut down from Aug. 23 until Sept. 9, 2019. As Infrastructure Services staff plans for the shutdown, they are requesting input from employees and site occupants. Please take a moment to think about how you are planning for the shutdown and submit any questions or concerns to steamfix@anl.gov. New FAQs will be added below.

FAQs

Q. Why is the steam plant important to Argonne?
A. The steam plant provides steam to Argonne year-round. Steam provides humidity control, hot water and heat.

Q. How long will the shutdown last?
A.The shutdown will start at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, and last until 5 p.m. Friday Sept. 6, 2019. Full site steam will be available starting Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.

Q. What work is being performed during this outage?
A. Critical maintenance and repairs to the steam distribution system to maintain reliability of the steam service.

Q. Will my building be affected?
A. Twenty eight buildings are impacted: 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 211, 212, 213, 221, 222, 223, 241, 242, 302, 306, 308, 309, 315, 350, 360, 362, 363, 364, 370, 371.

Q.When was the last time the steam was shut down to the site?
A. 1994

Q. What if I still have questions?
A. Please email steamfix@anl.gov or contact your building manager.

Q. Who is performing this work?
A. The Utilities and Maintenance departments in the Facilities division with oversight from the Project Management Organization. Both are subsets of the Infrastructure Services directorate.

Q. Can I telecommute during the shutdown?
A. Telecommuting may be a viable alternative during the shutdown, but must be approved by your supervisor or division management.

Q. Will the cafeteria be affected?
A. Bathrooms in Building 213 will not have hot water. Sodexo staff will have an electric hot water heater for food preparation use.

Q. Is there a plan to detect and correct any Legionella spp contamination in the domestic cold/hot water systems following the outage?
A. The steam shutdown will shut off the steam that provides the heat, but it does not shut off the water that goes to the fixtures.  The domestic hot water will still be used at sinks that have automatic mixing valves and will be cycled during the shutdown. Although the water will not be heated, because both hot and cold systems will still be in use, water will not stagnate, therefore alleviating any concerns regarding bacterial growth during that time.

Argonne’s Natural Resources program is hosting a “Bee Blitz” to create awareness of the important role bees play in pollination services on Thursday, July 25, 2019, at 9 a.m. in Building 401, Room A1100.

The event starts with a one-hour class where details about bees and bumble bees in particular will be taught, followed by an optional two to three hours in the field where bees will be identified on Argonne’s campus. This event is open to any site occupant whose work schedule permits attendance.

For more information, contact Casey J. Sullivan at ext. 2-6096.

Add to Your Calendar

The last BBQ lunch buffet will be held on Thursday, July 25, 2019, at the Argonne Guest House restaurant from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The BBQ buffet is $11.75 (two lunch buffets are available for $17.95).

Watch for details on the Guest House Restaurant Thursday shrimp boil special which begins in August.

Think about the last piece of controlled unclassified information (CUI) you touched. Where is it now? On your desk? In a folder on your laptop? Stored on a server? At the bottom of your backpack?

It’s up to you to know. Each of us shares responsibility for the “controlled” part of CUI. And you can make that a part of your Argonne office routine by taking a few simple precautions.

1. Shred sensitive documents. Don’t throw them in the trash or recycle bin.
2. Don’t discuss CUI in public.
3. Mark documents containing CUI appropriately.
4. Encrypt electronic CUI before storing or transmitting.
5. Lock sensitive documents in your office or cabinet.

As part of OPSEC Week, OPSEC team members will answer your questions and share their expertise on properly handling CUI on Thursday, July 25, from 11 a.m. to noon, in the Building 402 Auditorium.

If you have additional questions, you can email opsec@anl.gov, or read the detailed requirements for storage, transmission, marking, and destruction of CUI in LMS-PROC-22, Protection of Controlled Unclassified Information.

Are you confused by the terms associated with your health insurance plan? Terms, such as copay, coinsurance, deductible, and network, are important to know in order to understand how your health plan works. Learn about these very important health insurance plan terms from an Human Resource Services (HRS) Employee Benefits specialist on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at noon in the Building 203 Auditorium.

Add to Your Calendar

The University of Chicago offers the dependent children of regular, full-time Argonne employees, the benefit of a tuition remission program. This program is available for preschool to grade 12 students and undergraduate students.

To be eligible, the dependent child must be a student currently accepted and enrolled at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools or the University of Chicago. This special benefit will cover half (50 percent) of the tuition at the University. Other expenses such as application, room, board, laboratory, and incidental fees are not covered.

The University of Chicago is committed to rigorous scholarship and transformative education regardless of a scholar’s financial means.

To take advantage of this benefit, employees should carefully review the University of Chicago Tuition Remission Program page (login required) on Inside Argonne for important information and full details.

If your dependent child is new to either the Lab School or the University and you are interested in this benefit, please contact Human Resource Services (HRS) Business Administrator Stacey Wojahn at ext. 2-8803. HRS will then generate the necessary paperwork and contact the University.

If you’ve ever wondered about sharing sensitive documents on Box, the new Box Plus application, being launched this Friday, July 26, 2019, by Business and Information Services, will make that decision a lot easier.

Box Plus will allow account holders to securely store and collaborate on sensitive documents, such as controlled unclassified information (CUI), with other Box Plus users at Argonne.

Its list of advanced security enhancements include enforced multi-factor authentication, data encryption at rest and in transit with private key escrow, opt-in CUI data-tagging functionality, and identification of users based on their U.S. citizenship status.

These enhancements allow Box Plus to be certified to store many different types of CUI such as:

• Export controlled information (ECI);
• Personally identifiable information (PII);
• Official use only (OUO) information; and
• Other types of controlled unclassified information as defined in LMS-POL-19 Protection of National Security and Other US Interests.

Employees who currently have a HSPD-12 badge will be automatically enrolled and have access to box-plus.anl.gov on July 26. Employees who do not have an HSPD-12 badge will first need to obtain an ANL PIV Card before beginning the HSPD-12 badging process. Contact the Service Desk at ext. 2-9999 for more information about obtaining an account.

Although Box Drive and Box Sync are disabled to ensure data is not synced to insufficiently protected devices, Box Plus has the same look, feel, and basic functions as Box. To get better acquainted with using this new security tool, join the OPSEC Working Group for their Box Plus introduction on Friday, July 26, at 9:30 a.m. in Building 401, Room A1100.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Science,” a two-day workshop, will be held Thursday, Aug. 22, and Friday, Aug, 23, 2019, in the Building 402 Auditorium. The workshop will dive into the wide-range use of AI across the laboratory. The objective of the workshop is to raise the competency of the lab as a whole.

The workshop is open to researchers, scientists, and students. There is no fee, but participants are responsible for their own expenses. Space is limited and registration is required.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making strides in transforming how we live. From the tech industry embracing AI as the most important technology for the 21st century to governments around the world growing efforts in AI, initiatives are rapidly emerging in the space. In sync with these emerging initiatives including U.S. Department of Energy efforts, Argonne has launched an “AI for Science” initiative aimed at accelerating the development and adoption of AI approaches in scientific and engineering domains with the goal to accelerate research and development breakthroughs in energy, basic science, medicine, and national security, especially where we have significant volumes of data and relatively less developed theory. AI methods allow us to discover patterns in data that can lead to experimental hypotheses and thus link data driven methods to new experiments and new understanding.

On the first day, AI experts around the lab will give a series of talks highlighting the use of AI in their research, and will focus on opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussion, collaboration, and provide ample time for a question and answer session. Day two will offer a full-day introductory hands-on tutorial session for participants of all backgrounds on using AI for their research.

Add to Your Calendar

Results from the Total Rewards Survey are now available on Inside Argonne. We are also sharing the questions and answers from the town hall meeting presenting the results.

The laboratory engaged in its first ever Total Rewards Survey last fall to discover and understand the perceptions and values of the laboratory’s diverse workforce on programs including compensation, benefits and wellness, learning and development, and the work environment.

We had a great response rate of 43 percent.  Here are some of the things we learned:

• Argonne employees are highly motivated by the mission of the lab. Retirement, medical benefits, and base salary are top motivations for employees to stay.
• Employee perceptions of the laboratory are generally positive.
• Employees highly value many of the lab’s core offerings. However, there are opportunities to improve satisfaction, increase understanding of our programs, and improve the perception of how Argonne benefits compare to other employers.

We will use the survey results along with other inputs and knowledge to help inform the laboratory in developing attraction and retention strategies that meet the needs of Argonne’s multigenerational and diverse workforce. Laboratory leadership is committed to providing benefits, compensation, and other rewards of working at Argonne that employees find valuable.

All of these elements, along with the opportunity to conduct innovative work with high-caliber teams, will help Argonne advance its reputation as the home for a mission-focused, world-class community of talent.

We are committed to developing our strategies and making progress toward them; we’ll share updates here.

Argonne will host the High-performance Computing (HPC) Users Forum on Monday, Sept. 9, through Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 at the Building 240 TCS Conference Center.

Registration deadlines:

Visit the event website for details and to register.

Read More »

Experimental setup, maintenance, and breakdown should be included in your work control documents. Often, we focus solely on the experimental task that we forget to address the hazards associated with the setup, maintenance, and breakdown. Stop and ask yourself, “What work control document am I working under?  Is what I am about to do within the scope?”

Consider adding a task to your work control document to cover the servicing, maintenance, and repairs to your experimental apparatus. This planning step can prevent a stoppage of work if an equipment failure were to occur, and to ensure the hazards associated with this activity are included in the hazard analysis.

If you need a tool to access the internal components of equipment, you are potentially encountering electrical work.  Stop and reach out to a Qualified Electrical Worker or the Electrical Safety Program Manager for assistance and clarification.

Based on feedback from listening sessions held with Paul Kearns, the lab leadership team, and frontline supervisors, and from the Work Planning and Control (WPC) researcher forum, the WPC Program Office has created a list of technical experts. The technical experts are available to provide professional assistance in reviewing work control documents and planning or reviewing processes, equipment, or systems.

A list of technical experts by subject area can be found on the WPC webpage. If you are interested in serving as a technical expert in a specific subject area, please reach out to the WPC Program Office at WPC@anl.gov.

Thank you to our current technical experts for their willingness to share their expertise across the lab.

Do you have questions or comments? Contact the WPC Program Office: wpc@anl.gov.

The Postdoctoral Program Office is hosting two workshops to prepare job seekers for diverse careers. Both workshops are scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, in the Building 203 Auditorium.

The first workshop will address structuring your CV for an academic career. The second workshop will present strategies and guidelines for crafting highly effective job application documents. Content will include best practices for diverse job markets with a focus on evaluating your adapting your CV into a resume, evaluating position descriptions, and crafting a cover letter objectively from the perspective of an employer.

In the second workshop, participants will have an opportunity to play “hiring manager” through a small group activity. Based on a job description and sample resumes, participants will decide which candidate they’d like to interview.

Participants are encouraged to bring a draft of their resume or CV.

All postdocs and students are encouraged to attend. Mentors and supervisors who are interested in resources for advising postdocs are welcome to attend as well.

Register here.

Workshop 1: Academic CVs
10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Add to Your Calendar

Workshop 2: Resumes, Cover Letters, Job Ads
1 – 3 p.m.
Add to Your Calendar