When shelter-in-place orders shut down Lab sites in March 2020, among the last to leave and the first to return were the essential members of the custodial staff. The 40-member team expanded their duties to include key COVID safety and disinfecting protocols. In the midst of all of this, the custodial team also achieved a remarkable milestone. Between November 2019 and July 2020 -- a 20 month … [Read more...]
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: Mitigating the Effects of Wildfire Smoke
The hazards of wildfires are well known, but smoke is a more likely and prevalent threat this time of year. The Lab’s Facilities and Environmental Health and Safety divisions have made several changes to help mitigate the adverse effects before and during smoke events. Wildfire smoke is a complex mix of fine particulates, gases, and volatile organic compounds. Those fine inhalable particulates … [Read more...]
In Memoriam: Glenn Roberts Jr.
Roberts wrote about physics, accelerators, and nuclear science at Berkeley Lab, infusing stories with wonder and excitement By Aliyah Kovner and Julie Chao Glenn Roberts Jr., a gifted science writer, pun master, devotee of all things tiki, and beloved member of the Berkeley Lab community, has died. Roberts was hired by Berkeley Lab’s then-Public Affairs department in 2015 to cover … [Read more...]
Volunteers Create Lab Vegetation Management Guide
Three years ago Nicholas Bartlett, a fire protection engineer with Security and Emergency Services, started looking at how Berkeley Lab managed vegetation as part of a larger wildfire management plan. Realizing that there was no comprehensive plan, he recruited 15 direct contributors and dozens of consulting partners from across the Lab to build the first Vegetation Management … [Read more...]
Complexity and Communication: The NERSC 9 Upgrade
In December 2020, the Projects and Infrastructure Modernization Division, Facilities Division, and Computing Sciences Area completed a multi-year project to increase power and capabilities for the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). The project’s goal was to add the latest NERSC supercomputer, known as Perlmutter after Berkeley Lab’s own Nobel-prize-winning astrophysicist … [Read more...]