REPORT 1996

hroughout September and October, eye-catching banners lined the main boulevards of Berkeley. Posters and flyers invited visitors to come and see an x-ray machine the size of an airport terminal; a microscope the size of a building; a lamp the size of a quarter and powerful enough to light up an auditorium; a sphere that "looks" inside atoms; and a machine that "listens" to the earthquake signals it sends through our planet's crust.

On October 28, 1995 Berkeley Lab opened its doors to the community. More than 5,000 people, young and old, came to tour Laboratory facilities, hear lectures by award-winning scientists, and interact with hands-on exhibits.

On October 28, 1995, Berkeley Lab undertook its largest, most ambitious community relations event ever. For the first time in more than a decade, the Laboratory held an Open House.

More than five thousand Bay Area residents took advantage of the opportunity to tour Laboratory facilities, hear lectures by award-winning scientists, see video presentations, interact with hands-on exhibits, and take scenic walks around the hill where scientific history has been made. There was also a special "Family Science Tent" with educational activities geared to young children. The response from the local community was overwhelmingly positive. Arriving by bus, car, and on foot, visitors came and stayed. At the end of the day, many asked that the event be repeated in 1996. The most succinct response came from one young visitor who described his day at the Lab as "Cool!" More than 300 Berkeley Lab employees gave generously of their time to make this event a success.

One of the special highlights of Open House was a noontime luncheon honoring the nine Nobel laureates who did their scientific research at this Laboratory. The five living Nobelists were joined at the luncheon by their family members and the families of their four colleagues, plus the mayors of Berkeley and Oak-land. In a ceremony after the luncheon, the nine roads running through the Laboratory were named in honor of the Nobelists: Ernest Lawrence (Berkeley Lab's founder and namesake); Edwin McMillan, Glenn Sea- borg, Emilio Segrè, Owen Chamberlain, Melvin Calvin, Luis Alvarez, Donald Glaser, and Yuan Lee. The Laboratory also installed an entrance sign featuring the bronze image of Ernest Orlando Lawrence.

In education, the Laboratory continued its traditionally close ties with the neighboring UC Berkeley campus. Each year, nearly one thousand graduate and undergraduate students make the trip up the hill from Cal to Berkeley Lab to participate in our scientific research projects. A growing number of students are also now coming to the Lab from UC Davis and other campuses. The Laboratory also continued to work with grade school children, primarily through its Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE). Berkeley Lab has been the lead laboratory in the highly acclaimed Bay Area Science and Technology Education Collaboration, and is a founding member of the Science Education Academy of the Bay Area and a contributor to the PBS science series, "The New Explorers."

Albert Hale (center), president of the Navajo Nation, visited the Lab to discuss plans for incorporating the Lab's Hands On Universe Program into all seven campuses of the Navajo community college system. With him are Hands On Universe coordinators Elizabeth Arsem and Carl Pennypacker (left and far right), and Deputy Director Pier Oddone.

Another Berkeley Lab educational program is "Hands On Universe." It allows high school students from all over the nation to link computers in their classrooms with computers at the world's largest telescopes in order to retrieve astronomical images. Through this rapidly growing effort, students have been discovering their own asteroids, witnessing the births and deaths of supernovas, and observing with their own eyes other phenomena of the cosmos. In 1995, Albert Hale, president of the Navajo Nation, came to Berkeley Lab to discuss the incorporation of Hands On Universe into the Navajo community college system.