Holton

Scientists are finding a computer program called Elves to be a nearly magical solution to the tedious and time-consuming task of determining the 3-D shape of proteins from X-ray diffraction data. According to Elves developer James Holton of the Physical Biosciences Division — who now operates an X-ray beamline devoted to protein crystallography at the Advanced Light Source — researchers can unleash Elves on a set of X-ray diffraction data and go on to other things while the computer spits out a protein structure. Read Robert Sanders’ UC Berkeley press release here.

SNAP Satellite

Lab Work Among Top 10
Achievements in 2003

The Office of Science recently announced their top 10 achievements of 2003, and work done at the Lab was included in two of those picks. Among the mentions was the Joint Genome Institute’s participation in the completion of the human genome, and the proposed use of the SuperNova Acceleration Probe to measure the expansion history of the universe. Go here to see the complete list of top achievements.

Canning

Berkeley Lab is a strong partner in the DOE’s Computational Science Graduate Fellowship program, which supports some of the nation’s best computational science graduate students. Berkeley has hosted 13 students over the last three years, including Mary Ann Leung, who worked with Andrew Canning in the Computational Research Division last year. She is profiled in the program’s 2003 annual magazine. Go here to read the story. For more information about the program, contact local coordinators Phil Colella or Jon Bashor.

The Lighter Side
Of Ron Gronsky

Gronsky

Lab material scientist Ron Gronsky, who is also UC Berkeley’s academic senate chair this year, is featured in an article in the Berkeleyan, the campus’s faculty and staff newspaper. In the story, Gronsky discusses the challenges facing the senate, and, on the lighter side, reveals his passion for blues guitar and souped-up cars (which appears at the end of the article). Go here to read the full story.

Accolades for Koomey’s
Book on Making Choices

Koomey

Jonathan Koomey — a scientist in the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division — was selected as a finalist for the “2003 Readers Preference Editor's Choice Awards” in the science and mathematics category. His book — Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving — is described as “a lively and entertaining guide to help people beat information overload, hone their decision-making skills, and achieve success in this information-glutted world.” Koomey is currently on leave while serving as a visiting professor at Stanford University. Go here to read more about the award, and here to read a description of the book by the publisher.