Index

Public Affairs

Introduction/Background

Date of last assessment:  October 1999

The Affirmative Action Office's functional area received an overall good rating in the performance measure area currently agreed upon between SLAC and DOE/OAK in the FY 1999 Annual Appraisal. We had no 'marginal' areas in our last Assessment.

Departmental overview

 Laboratory Mission

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is dedicated to experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics and in those fields that make use of its synchrotron radiation facilities, including biology, chemistry, geology, material science and electrical engineering.  This includes the development of new techniques in particle acceleration and detection, and of synchrotron radiation sources and associated instrumentation.  The center is operated as a national user facility for the Department of Energy by Stanford University.

Organizational Missions

The Communications and Public Affairs groups continue to implement their primary goal to be open to the community by strengthening relationships with the DOE, laboratory, and Stanford University communities.  These service-oriented departments are constructive participants actively working with the media, the local community, and the general public through a wide range of activities.  Staff members were effective in contributing to a large number of laboratory events, conferences, and community activities this past year.  The services provided to laboratory staff, visitors, and the general public have not been reduced despite the severe limitation of resources and dedicated staff time.

The efforts of many individuals at the laboratory were recognized when SLAC received the Annual Golden Acorn Award for community service from the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce.  SLAC was also recognized as one of the “Best of Bay Area” with special mention of our tours, visitor center, and linear accelerator facility in SF Magazine.  This type of recognition comes about only when a great deal of work is done behind the scenes to promote laboratory research endeavors to our neighbors and the general public, and to make it both accessible and interesting to a variety of audiences.

 Identification of Self-Assessment Report Staff

Names, titles, affiliations of participants

Helen Quinn, Assistant to the Director for Education/Public Affairs

P.A. Moore, Assistant to the Director, Director's Office

Nina Stolar, Public Affairs Manager, Public Affairs Office

Performance Objective # 1: In keeping with the expectations of the Office of Science initiatives to improve the management of its laboratories and programs, SLAC will maintain the Lab's position as being open to the community and as being constructive participants with stakeholders and neighbors in the community.

DOE Field Office and Headquarters Relations

We worked closely with the Site Office, the Field Office, and Headquarters to keep them informed of relevant activities and responded promptly to all requests. SLAC participated in weekly conference calls with the Oakland Field Office.  SLAC supported DOE-Oakland public activities by participating in DOE Day in Oakland (October).

DOE relations included hosting visits by Secretary Richardson (December) and Office of Science Director Mildred Dresselhaus (August).  In addition we coordinated a site visit and tour with DOE MA-1 (September).  The Communications and Public Affairs Office staff members played a major role in logistics for the National Security Stand Down (site-wide attendance) and the DOE Diversity Training sessions conducted for over 1100 staff members.

Media

Press inquiries were diverse.  SLAC was featured prominently in the New York Times for B Factory scientific results and for the announcement of the NASA award for GLAST. Inquiries from highly scientific press included Nature magazine, technical press such as Superconductor Magazine, and many computer publications including Wired and Click Weekly.  The two-mile accelerator brought Travel magazine here for some photos, as well as Discovering Archeology.

Formal requests for media information about SLAC came from more than 20 press sources, 5 film companies and several radio stations.   SLAC was a location for 3 film crews, and another half dozen inquiries were received from various film companies. Both the BBC and NPR showed interest in the laboratory this year.  These numbers reflect only the requests that came to the Public Information Officer (PIO).  Many other requests are answered directly by the scientific and professional staff and are not monitored.

SLAC continues to contribute to DOE Pulse, the electronic newsletter published by the DOE Office of Science National Laboratories Communications Council.

Education Programs

SLAC continued the long-established Energy Research Undergrad Lab Fellowships program (ERULF) [formerly the Summer Internships in Science and Engineering (SISE)], which brought 20 undergraduates from under-represented groups to SLAC.  This year SLAC co-hosted an event for the American Association of Physics Teachers and participated in the UCSC Science Teachers Workshop.

The PIO continues to maintain e-mail correspondence with a list of over 100 high school physics teachers, providing them with updates on physics and other resources.  SLAC provided donations of surplus equipment to 8 public schools and non-profit groups, which reached over 1200 students. 

SLAC sponsored Take Our Daughters to Work Day for 30 girls ranging from 8-15  of age. old.  Participants attended tours, hands on workshops, and open houses in various parts of the facility. 

The Virtual Visitor Center website is intended for the general public, particularly students and teachers.  Anyone with an interest in the science we study at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the tools we use in that study is invited to explore this web site, and to visit our physical site, and its real visitor center as well.  The Virtual Visitor Center website received over 300,000 hits in the past year, demonstrating the success of our education and public information outreach effort in this arena.

Community Relations

As mentioned previously, SLAC was the recipient of a community award for service from the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce. This award was in recognition of the laboratory public tours, charity in food drives, and assistance in education with surplus equipment and guest speakers for schools.  SLAC continues to be active in the local community, lending out a tabletop exhibit to parents for their children’s schools. 

In her capacity as Vice President of the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce, the Public Information Officer was active in many community events, such as meetings with the City Council, liaison with Women in Business, and discussions with the Mayor.  In addition, we opened the Main Gate during the Sand Hill Road Soap Box Derby (a large-scale community event held in September) encouraging access to the Visitor Center and making information about the public tour program available to the visitors.

Offering SLAC facilities to the community at no charge continues to be an important aspect of being a good neighbor.  Eighteen community groups (such as the Association of Women in Science, Math Science Network, IEEE, other professional groups and hobby clubs) used SLAC facilities for their meetings bringing over 650 people to the laboratory.  The Stanford Hills Homeowners Association held their annual meeting at the laboratory and the Associate Director for Business Services was the keynote speaker.

Tour Program

The SLAC Tour Program accommodated ~10,000 visitors with no impact on laboratory operations.  There were 280 formal laboratory tours, including 30 educational groups (K-12, High School and College/University groups).  In addition there were many youth groups including Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Camp Fire Boys and the Lyceum Group.  Educational, professional and government visits from throughout the world included Canada, France, Japan, the People's Republic of China, Singapore, Sweden. Taiwan and Thailand.  Other tours included visitors participating in DOE reviews and other laboratory committees, meetings and conferences.

The number and range of international visits are indicators of SLAC’s reputation as a world famous laboratory. The Crown Princess of Thailand visited the laboratory in January. The visit was arranged in conjunction with a visit to Stanford University. She met with a number of scientific staff members and saw the full range of scientific endeavors at the laboratory.

Accolades are received by the Tour Guides throughout the year. A sample of comments follows:

"A special thanks to [the tour guide] for adding such a personal touch to the science of physics. Your enthusiasm and ability to field questions across various age levels goes a long way toward inspiring others (young and old) to try to understand the world in which we live."

Member of the general public

"Certificate of Appreciation received from the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine in San Francisco for your commitment educating, inspiring and motivating the young leaders of tomorrow through your participation."

Blue Walcer, Program Development Manager, Washington, DC

"Lyceum's success in providing educational enrichment for gifted students is due in great measure to the cooperation of people such as yourself. Thank you for your interest in our program and for your efforts in its behalf."

Michael Skinner, President, Lyceum of Santa Clara Valley

"In appreciation for the wonderful tour your organization provided last week for the National Model Railroad Association convention attendees. All those who visited returned with a better understanding of your work and a heightened awareness of the important work you do. The guide was complimented on his ability to explain a very technical subject in terms we ordinary mortals could understand."

Katie Smith, General Tours Chair, 21

"I am writing to commend our tour guide for the excellent job that he did. We were welcomed to the Visitor Center and treated to a very clear, complete and easy to understand talk about the history of SLAC, its construction and much of the exciting research done there to discover new particles over the years. The subject of high-energy particle research is not an easy one to explain to a group of regular people. [The guide] did a wonderful job of explaining it all in simple terms, while not making it too simple so as to gloss over the importance of the effort. I was amazed at how he could translate the complex into understandable explanations. He never tired of all of our questions, although I am sure that he has had to answer lots of them many times before. This was one of the best tours that I have participated in over the last 27 years of attending Model Railroad Association conventions."

Gregory Madsen, Vancouver, Canada

"Thank you for the incredible tour! SLAC even beats the Eiffel Tower. It was more mind-boggling than I had ever imagined. I'm still busy digesting it all, but one thing is for sure, it was incredible!"

A local artist, hosted by a Tour Guide alumni from the scientific user community

Conferences, Meetings and Seminars

The Public Affairs Office provides multimedia support for conferences, meetings, and seminars including audio-visual services, video production and coordination of streaming-media to the web for scientific and public access.  We publicize activities through the web-accessible Seminars database.  The SLAC Seminars database (maintained by the Public Affairs Office since May 1983) contains meetings, colloquia and seminars of interest to the broad high-energy physics community. There were over 550 entries for FY00.  This information is also disseminated in a weekly Compendium, distributed internally and by request to an outside distribution of approximately 80 individuals.

In addition to collaboration and committee meetings, the laboratory was instrumental in the bringing together of 22 conferences and workshops involving the international scientific community. These included scientific and technical conferences, the annual Summer Institute on Particle Physics, and annual users meetings for the synchrotron and high-energy physics scientific communities. 

The SLAC Users Organization (SLUO) has continued a series of tutorials in technical areas.  This is an asset to continuing education for staff and visiting scientists, students and other professionals at the laboratory.  These included a Linear Collider Detector Tutorial and a Statistics Lecture series for which Public Affairs provided multimedia support.

Highlights of the year included a Celebration Honoring Burton Richter, SLAC director emeritus II (January) and James (bj) Bjorken’s Day in the Sun (September).  SLAC co-hosted off-site meetings including the XX International Linac Conference (Monterey) and the Radiative Corrections Symposium (Carmel).

Laboratory Relations

Several changes in laboratory management received support from the PIO and Public Affairs Manager.  Thomas Himel became SLAC’s associate director for research in early January.  In late February, Joachim Stohr was appointed Deputy Director for the SSRL Division.  The Director requested a six-month long survey of work force interactions and communication channels.  Members of the Public Affairs Office and the Public Information Officer were involved in these discussions to help identify and analyze current communication practices and develop recommendations.

Both the PIO and Public Affairs Manager serve as Emergency Public Information Officers (EPIO) and continue to participate in emergency preparedness activities.  This included a SLAC Emergency Exercise involving Stanford University.

In addition to the annual State of SLAC talks, we held the National Security Stand Down (October), DOE EEO/Diversity Training and the annual Safety and Environmental Stand Down (April).  The laboratory responded to the emphasis on cyber-security with a number of events including a Computing Town Meeting and the annual Cyber Faire, sponsored by SLAC Computing Services.

The Human Resources Department has improved new employee orientations.  Staff members are offered a tour following the orientation, which has helped facilitate the effort to introduce staff members to the scientific endeavors at the lab early in their tenure.  A number of internal events were held for employees, such as the annual award ceremonies for 10, 20 and 30 years of service. 

More general activities included speakers during Black History Month (February), Earth Day Lectures and a PEP-II/BaBar Milestone event (April), the annual Juneteenth Celebration and a public lecture on the Draft Yosemite Valley Plan (June).  The 11^th annual Juneteenth theme this year was  “Education:  Make the Dream a Reality.” 

The bi-annual SLAC Family Day (September) featured a wide variety of activities, from games for the children to science lectures, tours and technical demonstrations.  The event was attended by over 1,000 people and widely appreciated by laboratory staff members, their families and friends.  A special effort was made to include Laboratory Pioneers, (a.k.a. lab retirees).   Combining concerns for improving both internal communications and community outreach, an effort has begun to start an alumni group (tentatively called “Friends of SLAC”) comprised of retired staff members who are advocates for the laboratory.   The invitation to attend Family Day was a start in this direction.

The current paper and electronic newsletters continue to function as important news sources.   The Interaction Point, published monthly, highlights current scientific achievements as well as milestones and personal achievements of lab staff.  Electronic media include QuickNews (published weekly) and announcements posted by staff members on the laboratory internal home page.  A section has been added allowing posting for social events, such as retirement parties, to better foster internal communications.

Stanford University Relations

University relations are strengthened by hosting meetings such as the annual Stanford Optical Internet Symposium sponsored by the Networking Research Center (formerly the Center for Telecommunications) at the W.K.H. Panofsky Auditorium conference facilities.  In addition, the laboratory provided facilities for several Union meetings, including the annual picnic (normally held on the Stanford campus).

There were approximately 17 Stanford University formal tours of the laboratory.  These included Stanford Parents Weekend, the annual Commencement Tours of the laboratory, Stanford graduate student orientations, as well as numerous student, staff and alumni groups.

Public Affairs staff members continue to support the quarterly mobile blood drives with the Stanford Blood Center.   There has been an accelerated effort in this area resulting in a consistently high number of donors throughout the year.

Improvement Action Plan/Goals

Goals for FY2001

Community and Laboratory Relations.  In line with the Communications Task Force recommendations, the Director will realign the communications areas at the laboratory.  When the new organization is established, goals and objectives will also be redefined.  This will include implementation of policies and procedures to improve internal and external communications and outreach, including strategic direction for public information vehicles that serve international, national and local audiences.  The PIO and Public Affairs Manager will play active roles to support this transition and implementation of projects (such as upgrading visual media, literature and public information materials). 

Dissemination of Information.  It is our goal to provide information that reflects the current science and administrative developments at the laboratory.  A focus of this effort will be continuous process improvement for maintaining and upgrading public information materials to assure consistent dissemination of information through different media.  The result will be to offer improved information availability while reducing staff effort required.

Tour Program.  In order to respond to the increased demand for laboratory tours (both internal and external), it is necessary to increase the pool of graduate students serving as tour guides.  In conjunction with the above focus on public information vehicles, upgraded materials will also be integrated with tour guide training materials.  The Public Affairs Office staff members are working on improvements in this area.

WorldWideWeb.  In conjunction with the 10^th Anniversary of the web (December 2001), efforts are underway to produce a permanent exhibit to recognize SLAC’s role as the first US web site.  This exhibit, which will have a web component, will showcase the pioneering role of the DOE and high-energy physics in this highly visible area of society.