Proposed US Budget A Major Blow to High Energy Physics

[ZapperZ]

If you haven't noticed it yet, the budget that was approved by the US House of Representative, and which President Bush intended to sign after it makes its way through the Senate, is a severe blow to several areas of physics, especially in High Energy Physics. This includes a severe cut to the International Linear Collider (ILC) project, and a complete funding cut for the NOva neutrino experiment.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/us-budget-spell.html

Oy vey!

Zz

 

[animalcroc]

7O billion to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am sure that money could have been used for other things like physics. Useless politicians, like always.

 

[ZapperZ]

Fermilab may not survive as a laboratory with the latest round of budget cuts.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1219/1

The earlier optimistic view that it can still be a high energy physics lab with the series of neutrino experiments after the Tevatron shut-down has now crumbled. History may show that this is where the US High Energy Physics effort dies, so you may want to remember this moment.

Now, someone may ask "Well, is it that bad if they lay off people, shut it down for a year or two, and then maybe after the war is over (HA!), restart it?"

Ask anyone who had to start a major project cold, and trying to get back all the expertise that was lost, and you'll get a very discouraging answer. The nuclear industry is going through that right now. Look at how many schools have closed their nuclear engineering programs for the past 20 years. You simply can't dangle money in front of people and expect to get back all that you've lost by turning it on like a switch.

Zz.

 

[Astronuc]

The nuclear industry is going through that right now. Look at how many schools have closed their nuclear engineering programs for the past 20 years. You simply can't dangle money in front of people and expect to get back all that you've lost by turning it on like a switch.

Yep - that's a BIG problem. Not only that - we lack skilled trades people. Kids coming out of school may be smart, but they lack experience.

 

[robphy]

Some chatter on the blogs:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=632
http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/12/19/2008-is-looking-bleak/
http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot.com/2007/12/doe-budget-blues.html articles:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1218/1
http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchronicle.com%2Fdaily%2F2007%2F12%2F1021n.htm (need subscription)

 

[dlgoff]

Yep - that's a BIG problem. Not only that - we lack skilled trades people. Kids coming out of school may be smart, but they lack experience.

Maybe we should turn to the Navy. When I was in college, many of my physics classmates were Navy guys. They were given their education in exchange for serving on a nuclear submarine.

Is there a way to recruit these guys? Or are there not enough of them to make it worth while?

Needing nuclear power
Don

 

[robphy]

Needing nuclear power
Don

Although off-topic for the thread,
"Toshiba Builds Ultra-Small Nuclear Reactor"
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/20/0429200

 

[Astronuc]

Maybe we should turn to the Navy. When I was in college, many of my physics classmates were Navy guys. They were given their education in exchange for serving on a nuclear submarine.

Is there a way to recruit these guys? Or are there not enough of them to make it worth while?

Needing nuclear power
Don

I've met some ex-Navy nukes in the industry. Even so, they certainly have some experience, but the commercial side has its nuances and the various codes that are different from those in the Navy. It takes a few years to get up to speed - and there are always new issues to deal with. Everyone is looking everywhere for talent these days!

The link to the Toshiba Micro Nuclear Reactor -
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

 

[animalcroc]

Everyone is looking everywhere for talent these days!

The link to the Toshiba Micro Nuclear Reactor -
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

engineering college grads would disagree. Companies are looking everwhere but the U.S.

 

[Astronuc]

We hire grad students from US universities. However, most are originally from overseas.

I'm hoping we continue to grow, and I'll certainly consider anyone from a US grad program who has talent. I strongly recommend strong math and programming backgrounds, and a diverse engineering program. If one has experience in state-of-the-art multiphysics codes, that's a plus.

 

[turbo]

Maybe we should turn to the Navy. When I was in college, many of my physics classmates were Navy guys. They were given their education in exchange for serving on a nuclear submarine.

Is there a way to recruit these guys? Or are there not enough of them to make it worth while?

Needing nuclear power
Don

Many years back, General Physics corporation wanted to start up a pulp and paper division, so they hired me for my expertise (4 years as a process chemist in a new pulp mill and 6 years running the newest, baddest coated paper machine around). GP recruited heavily from the Navy, and they got a lot of talent out of the nuclear submarine personnel. The VP that hired me, my division's manager, and my two project managers all came out of the nuclear subs and all had skills in multiple fields. It was a pleasure to work with them - they were some of the most level-headed fellows I'd ever hooked up with.

 

[mheslep]

If you haven't noticed it yet, the budget that was approved by the US House of Representative, and which President Bush intended to sign after it makes its way through the Senate, is a severe blow to several areas of physics, especially in High Energy Physics. This includes a severe cut to the International Linear Collider (ILC) project, and a complete funding cut for the NOva neutrino experiment.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/us-budget-spell.html

Oy vey!

Zz

Craig Ventor of human genome fame was featured in http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/99-craig_venter_physiologist_entrepreneur.html" that aired last night where he suggests that a greater reliance on private benefactors might be a good thing; that government doesn't do a very good job choosing research topics.

Most scientists don't study the unknown because you can't get funding for it

 

[ZapperZ]

The problem here is that, in high energy physics, the facilities require extended operations, such as particle collider facilities, and that they costs hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars, to build. There aren't many private benefactors that would fund such a thing. Look at CERN's LHC and see how many different countries had to fund that. The same with ITER.

Ventor should also look at his area of study. How many synchrotron radiation centers that many biologists and bio-physicists use to study genes and proteins were built by such entity?

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

On a related note, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is resigning and there will be a special election to replace him (14th district). One of the contenders is noted Fermilab physicist, Bill Foster.

http://foster08.com/main/index.cfm

http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=403895

 

[ZapperZ]

This was distributed for immediate release. The 3 prominent members of the Illinois delegation on Capitol Hill has taken steps to try and remedy the Omnibus bill. This is their press release:

December 21, 2007

DURBIN, OBAMA, BIGGERT CALL ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO INCREASE FUNDING AT FERMILAB

In light of recent funding cuts, Illinois members will meet to discuss strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL) and Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL) today sent the following letter to Jim Nussle, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), calling on him to increase next year’s funding for the High Energy Physics (HEP) program, which supports research at Fermilab in Illinois, and at several other laboratories and universities across the nation that are doing vital, cutting edge research.

Durbin, Obama, and Biggert are in discussions with Congressional appropriations and authorization committees and the Department of Energy to address the current funding situation and avoid potential layoffs during fiscal year 2008. They also plan to call for an Illinois delegation meeting in January with representatives from Illinois labs and organizations to discuss a strategy to avoid potential job loss at Fermilab. The spending bill, approved by Congress this week, provided the HEP program with $88 million less than was requested. This challenges Fermilab's ability to remain one
of the world's preeminent research facilities after it has achieved outstanding success in research on neutrinos, the high energy frontier, and particle astrophysics.

Adequate funding for the labs is critical to ensure that our country maintains its technological edge and that we continue to add to our high-tech manufacturing base. Fermilab is the nation’s premier high-energy physics laboratory. The laboratory leads U.S. research into the fundamental nature of matter and energy, and in 2007, Fermilab’s researchers and facilities achieved results judged by the American Institute of Physics as among the Ten Top Physics Stories from around the world.

-30-

[text of the letter is below]

Dear Director Nussle:

We are writing to you concerning a matter of critical importance to our country, to science in America, and to our global competitiveness. As you continue to develop the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2009, we respectfully request that you increase funding for the High Energy Physics (HEP) program in the Office of Science at the Department of Energy.

As you know, the budget approved this week by Congress dealt a severe blow to HEP, which received $88 million less than requested. This budget rejected funding for the NOvA neutrino experiment at Fermilab, and drastically cut funding for research and development on the International Linear Collider. These cuts could cripple Fermilab's ability to remain one of the world's preeminent research facilities. And this is at a time when Fermilab has achieved outstanding success, with significant results in each of its central areas of research: neutrinos, the high energy frontier, and particle astrophysics.

The facilities at Fermilab are essential for the basic scientific research that nurtures technological and scientific advances, and that fuels American innovation. Fermilab is one of a handful of our nation's premier training sites for scientists, and a centerpiece of the system of DOE National Laboratories. Disruptive funding
shortfalls have ripple effects throughout the American scientific community, displacing today's scientists and discouraging tomorrow's. We must work together to restore funding in basic physics research to maintain America's role as the innovator in technology, to retain our leading scientific institutions and their skilled workforces, and to provide opportunities for future scientists.

While we recognize the formidable challenges you face regarding the demands on the federal budget, we respectfully encourage you to increase the funding request for the Office of Science, particularly for the HEP program, in the President’s FY2009 Budget.



Barack Obama
Richard J. Durbin
Judy Biggert

Zz.

 

[fourier jr]

Lots of details in Nature. I'm sure the author of this is just a liberal with an axe to grind though:

It was an imperative that was supposed to transcend party politics. The America COMPETES Act, put forth by congressional Republicans and Democrats and signed into law by President Bush in August, was meant to signal support for boosting basic science in the name of remaining competitive internationally.

But in a mammoth $555-billion spending bill passed by Congress on 19 December, funding for basic science took a beating. Gone are plans to double funding at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Science of the Department of Energy (DOE). "It’s dead in this budget," says Samuel Rankin, Washington DC office director for the American Mathematical Society and chair of the Coalition for National Science Funding. "Hopefully we can resurrect that feeling again next year."

etc etc

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071224/full/451002a.html

 

[Astronuc]

Budget Cuts Will Mean Layoffs at Fermilab
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/science/22fermi.html
NYTimes, Dec 22

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the nation’s premier center for plumbing the mysteries of the universe in the tiniest bits of matter, is planning to lay off more than 10 percent of its employees in the coming months, the result of impending budget cuts mandated by the spending bill passed by Congress this week.

Fermilab’s collaboration in an international project to design and build the International Linear Collider, which would slam together electrons and their anti-particles — positrons — at ever-higher energies, will slow to a halt. A Fermilab experiment called NOvA to look for an asymmetry in the laws governing evanescent particles known as neutrinos will be placed in limbo with hopes that it can be revived next year by new financing.

Outside of Fermilab, the spending bill also eliminated the United States’ planned contribution of $160 million to ITER, a test fusion reactor that is intended to lead to commercial energy production by emulating the process that powers the Sun.

Fermilab, in the western suburbs of Chicago, had expected its budget to rise to $372 million from $342 million. Instead it will fall to $320 million. Officials said they were caught unaware by the cuts, and because they affect the 2008 fiscal year that started nearly three months ago, the officials said they had to take action quickly.

Not a good sign.


Meanwhile -
U.S. Officials See Waste in Pakistan Aid
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/world/asia/24military.html

After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped.

In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.

“I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation,” said a senior American military official who has reviewed the program, referring to Pakistani requests for reimbursement. “Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn’t have to give them money this way.”

 

[nicky nichols]

Does anyone know if politicians read Physics Forums, and if so, what do they think of us here, and if so, what can we do to help them think better of physics?

 

[ZapperZ]

The most effective means would be for you to write a letter to your congress person and senator. That's it. They know most people are lazy and don't write letters, so when someone actually write something, they know that this means something to this person.

We had a success last year when, due to the continuing resolution, the science budget was in limbo for most of the first half of 2007. Now, most people thought, with the US Competitive act in place, and an almost bipartisan support to increase science funding, things would get better. Everyone was wrong and got blindsided by this.

If you don't like what you see and wish to let them know that they should stop killing funding to basic physics, write to them. That is still the most effective means to help stop this insanity.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is a http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=3974" due to the recent budget bill. Note that the project is supposed to start construction in 2008, and they got flat-lined with NO MONEY at all being allocated for it.

The sad thing here is that, as far as high energy physics experiments go, this is a relatively puny and cheap experiment to construct, and yet, it is a natural extension to NuMi, MINOS, and the evolution of Fermilab after the Tevatron. With Tevatron closing down, such neutrino experiments are the ONLY high energy physics experiments left being done in the US.

And now they might kill it.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

This e-mail was distributed to all APS member:

Dear APS Members:

Although several thousand APS members responded to the last alert on federal science funding, the communications failed to affect positively what ultimately became a highly partisan appropriations process. To attempt to rectify the damage caused by the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) Omnibus Appropriations Bill, APS President Arthur Bienenstock will soon be asking you to e-mail your Members of Congress urging that they take emergency action early in the next session. But first, a summary of what is known and documented:

Two weeks ago, almost three months into the new fiscal year, Congress finally passed an FY08 budget - unfortunately, it is devastating to significant programs in the physical sciences. It represents a dramatic turnabout in a time of unprecedented outspoken support for science across party lines, legislative chambers and branches of government.

Science funding in FY08 was originally set to increase substantially. Consistent with the America COMPETES Act, President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and the Democratic Innovation Agenda, the National Science Foundation would have received a 10 percent increase; the National Institute of Standards and Technology Core Programs, a 17 percent increase; and the Department of Energy's Office of Science, an 18 percent increase. The increases represented the beginning of a 10-year plan to double federal investment in physical science and engineering research.

Early in the summer, the House passed all 12 appropriations bills that cover discretionary spending, totaling $955 billion. By early October, the Senate Appropriations Committee had acted on many of them, but the Senate leadership did not bring any of them to the floor for a vote. President Bush had already warned that he would veto appropriations bills if, in the aggregate, they exceeded his $933 billion ceiling. Two weeks ago, responding to the President's veto threat, Congress, having already passed the Defense appropriations bill, rewrote and passed the remaining FY08 budget bills as an omnibus spending package.

The Omnibus Bill is a disaster for the very sciences that our political leaders have repeatedly proclaimed essential for our national security, economic vitality and environmental stewardship. Several reports have suggested a picture less bleak, but they do not take into account the effects of either earmarks or inflation. In fact, numerous programs will have to be trimmed or canceled.

Hundreds of layoffs, furloughs and project shutdowns at Fermilab, SLAC, LBNL and other national laboratories and research universities seem unavoidable. U.S. funding for the International Linear Collider project will be curtailed for the balance of the fiscal year, placing extraordinary stress on the high-energy physics program. FY08 funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be zeroed out, abrogating our agreement with our European and Asian partners. User facilities will see reductions in operating time and staff, and university research will contract. The list is long and the damage significant.

How could this happen, given the strong bipartisan support for science research and education? There is much speculation that with negotiations having broken down and the President adamant on the total spending, Democratic leaders made the following assessment: First, that there were insufficient votes to override a presidential veto of their spending plans. Second, since the Senate had failed to act on the appropriations in a timely fashion, Democrats would be blamed for any government shutdown that might result from a spending stalemate. Their strategy was to accede to the President's $933 billion bottom line, but, to get there, "by whacking GOP priorities" as the Associated Press reported on December 10. So, with ACI carrying a presidential label, much of the increases for NSF, DOE Science and the NIST labs were erased to meet the budget restrictions. Since ITER was seen as one of the top Administration's priorities, its entire funding was zeroed with strong language to prevent reprogramming of funds to save the project. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) suggested that the $9.7 billion in earmarks be removed to allow funding for other priorities, but his colleagues refused to go along.

Added to this calculus is a well-known fact: Science has rarely, if ever, been a factor in determining the outcome of an election. Even for scientists, funding for research and education most often is not a major determinant in whom they support -- unlike members of other interest groups, such as the National Rifle Association or the American Medical Association, who frequently vote based on their "special" interests. Given such a history and the hard-ball politics that played out this month, letters from scientists to their Members of Congress, unfortunately, did not rule the day.

When Congress returns later this month, Members may be more receptive to listening to their science constituents. We will be sending you another alert next week, after we have determined that the landscape is more favorable. Please respond when we contact you. Your voice may well make the difference at that time.



Michael S. Lubell
Director of Public Affairs
The American Physical Society

This is INSANE!

Zz.

 

[Cyrus]

With China and India on the rise for science, you got to be f'in kidding me that they would cut funding, meanwhile spend billions on a failed war.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is a summary of the major research projects that are severely affected by the recent budget cuts.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/07/557301.aspx

With the layoffs and shut down planned for BaBar at SLAC after their all-hands meeting yesterday, things are looking very gloomy. And in case people think this is only affecting High energy physics and nuclear physics, the shutdown of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne is a severe blow to mainly material scientists, especially in the US since the Spallation Neutron Souce at Oak Ridge is not even completely built yet.

Zz.

 

[mheslep]

This is a summary of the major research projects that are severely affected by the recent budget cuts.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/07/557301.aspx

...Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is among those who say they're riding to the rescue...

It was the current Congress that made these cuts "by whacking GOP priorities as the Associated Press reported on December 10", not the Executive, as stated up thread. This msnbc piece obfuscates that.

 

[Gokul43201]

It was the current Congress that made these cuts "by whacking GOP priorities as the Associated Press reported on December 10", not the Executive,...

This is made clear in the APS email that is quoted above in post #21.

 

[fourier jr]

Looks like it's not just Fermilab that's facing layoffs:

US physics begins to crumble under budget strain

16:45 08 January 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Stuart Clark

The reality of the US budget cuts to particle physics has hit home. The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, US, has just announced a trio of painful consequences: the end of work on the International Linear Collider, the imminent closure of its BaBar antimatter experiment, and the layoff of 125 workers.

SLAC and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois are the main US institutions involved in the International Linear Collider (ILC), a future $6.7 billion particle accelerator designed to recreate the conditions of the early universe.

But all US work on the ILC has now ground to a halt after the US Congress voted in December to cut $90 million from the country's high-energy physics programme for fiscal year 2008. The decision came just days after the UK pulled out of the project.

"The future of the ILC is unclear at this time, both nationally and internationally," Persis Drell, SLAC's director, told employees on Monday.

(etc etc)

Fermilab is also struggling with the disastrous cuts and may lose 200 jobs. It has also been forced to suspend work on the NOvA experiment, which was designed to study the way neutrino particles spontaneously transform into different varieties.

The US will also cut its 2008 funding for ITER, set to become the world's largest nuclear fusion facility. China has responded that it will boost its contribution to 10% of the €10 billion project.

"Particle physics is suffering mixed fortunes at the moment," says Blair. On the one hand, there are the devastating budget cuts. But on the other, there is also the excitement of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland, which is nearing completion.

"No one knows for sure what we will get from the LHC, but everyone is hoping for a rich harvest of results that will show people how much we need these other facilities to continue the work," Blair told New Scientist.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13159-us-physics-begins-to-crumble-under-budget-strain.html

 

[wolram]

Does anyone remember i forcast cuts a long time ago, it is very sad it has come true.

 

[mjsd]

7O billion to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am sure that money could have been used for other things like physics. Useless politicians, like always.

or pump some of that into health, social security or education...so that we don't pick war as a solution to our "problems".

 

[ZapperZ]

While the budget cuts and debacle are going on both in the US and UK, the http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/32378" .

The 20-page roadmap report outlines an ambitious five-year plan that includes a major upgrade to KEK’s flagship "B-factory"

SLAC's PEP/II and BaBar are in the process of being shut down.

The laboratory has also reinforced Japan’s already dominant position in neutrino physics, with the K2K experiment firing a beam of muon neutrinos at the SuperKamiokande experiment 250 km away to study neutrino oscillations.

The US budget zeroed out money for NOvA.

Develop advanced accelerator and detector technologies to help establish the next generation synchrotron radiation facility, to promote material and life science research via a THz light source, and to promote technical developments for the ILC — in particular the superconducting accelerator system.

The UK has pulled out of the ILC, while the US cut the ILC budget by 75%.

Zz.

 

[mheslep]

Does anyone remember i forcast cuts a long time ago, it is very sad it has come true.

Care to reference that? (Not challenging, just interested). It seems that the the cuts themselves are only part of the problem; the fact that they came unexpectedly at the last minute compounds it.

 

[mheslep]

While the budget cuts and debacle are going on both in the US and UK, the http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/32378" .

I don't see any budget numbers in the piece so I'm unable to get any sense of scale of the Japanese program, only that its growing. I'm curious about the relative size of the Japan / US programs given the US cuts.

 

[rewebster]

They need to have a bake sale to raise some cash---or maybe bingo

 

[ZapperZ]

Care to reference that? (Not challenging, just interested). It seems that the the cuts themselves are only part of the problem; the fact that they came unexpectedly at the last minute compounds it.

Actually, it is worse than that. The fiscal year starts in Sept. So in Sept. 2007, the Fiscal Year 2008 started. Since there were no budget, congress passed a continuing resolution, which meant that we went on the FY2007 budget. So when we got the bad news late December 2007, we had already spent some of the money based on a projection of what we were getting in FY07. So the unfortunate result here is that those programs in which they either had severe cutbacks, or got NO money whatsoever (NOvA and ITER), were already in the RED, because they had already spent money that they ended up not getting at all.

The situation right now is significantly worse than what many people imagine, or are aware of. I've never seen it this bad before. Unfortunately, I don't think the general public is aware of how bad it is, or maybe they do, don't see why they should care.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

If you are a US citizen and concern about the recent budget cutbacks in science, please help!

From: Arthur Bienenstock, President, the American Physical Society
To: Members of the American Physical Society
Re: Federal Funding Alert: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts


I am writing to request that you contact your elected representatives and let them know that the 2008 federal budget deals a devastating blow to basic research. You can make this contact quickly and easily at:
http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts

There, you will find pre-written messages to your Senators, Representatives and President Bush. You may send these letters as they are, modify them, or write your own. While individualizing your letter is not essential, please at least make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email so that these emails are more individualized. (See webpage pointers below for further instruction.)

Congress wrapped up the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) budget just before adjourning for the year. The budget, which wipes out $1 billion in increases approved last summer for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE Science) and the NIST laboratories, does irreparable damage to science and abandons the Innovation/Competitiveness initiatives of Congress and the Administration.

While DOE Science programs received a 2.5 percent increase overall (exclusive of earmarks), they will decline by about one percent after inflation. High-energy physics and fusion will feel the greatest pain. High energy physics will likely have to eliminate hundreds of jobs, halt work on both the NOvA, the next step in neutrino physics at FermiLab and partially furlough many remaining employees. The Omnibus bill for FY08 also stopped R&D on the International Linear Collider project, an international high-precision step beyond the Large Hadron Collider, and zeroed out the U.S. contribution to the international ITER project, designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. These actions are severely damaging to the U.S. standing in the international scientific community.

The NSF, with only a 1.2 percent increase for Research and Related Activities, will lose almost three percent in level of effort after inflation is taken into account. Moreover, with new facility projects coming online, their administrative costs will have to be paid out of the research accounts. As a result, university proposal funding rates will inevitably fall.

The request in the attached letters is to restore that funding in an FY08 supplemental appropriations bill, and to support the FY09 budget at the levels authorized in the COMPETES act, efforts that the APS Washington Office are pursuing with both Congress and the Administration.


WEBPAGE POINTERS:
(1) While individualizing your letter is not essential, we ask that you make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email.
(2) If you are a government employee, please do not use government resources to send a communication.
(3) Your browser will take you to a page where you will enter your name and address.
(4) After entering your address, click the “Edit/Send Email button.” A window with an individual email message to the four offices will appear. Click “Send Emails” to transmit the communication.
(5) Electronic submission is preferred.

If you did write, I'd appreciate it if you can let me know either in this thread or via PM. Please note that the last time we had a similar campaign, our voices were heard and FY2007 restored some of the money intended for science. This time, the need is even more crucial because severe cuts are already in place that jeopardizes a lot of programs. So do not discount the effectiveness of your letter.

Since this was intended for APS members, the letter should be modified accordingly to reflect who you are. Again, individualize it to your case.

Thank you for your support.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Not a citizen, but who's to tell. So I wrote, nevertheless, to Senators Brown and Voinovich, Congresswoman Pryce & the President. My letter was a lot stronger than APS's.

 

[ZapperZ]

Good for you.

I should to mention that the APS letter doesn't require that one is a citizen. However, if you are AND a registered voter, that should be something you might want to consider mentioning.

Zz.

 

[Mororvia]

I got that email and sent out some letters. I didn't edit it too much since its pretty well written as it is :) I'm also going to post it on a forum or two where people may be interested

 

[ZapperZ]

Our friends across the pond isn't doing too well either with the recent budget cuts for UK's basic research. In fact, in some ways, they have it even worse because of a complete pull-out of the ILC and the Gemini project.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ma...ml=/earth/2008/01/15/scilights115.xml&page=1" on this issue. Many of his points are directly applicable to the US science budget cuts. I like what Brian Foster of Oxford has been quoted of saying. It is "scientific vandalism".

Zz.

 

[wolram]

Care to reference that? (Not challenging, just interested). It seems that the the cuts themselves are only part of the problem; the fact that they came unexpectedly at the last minute compounds it.

Where did people think money was going to be cut from to pay for serval conflicts going on in the world, in the UK taxes are all ready at straining point wages are not keeping up with inflation, governments are desperate to find ways of saving money that do not reflect (directly on the GP). the thread is in GD some where. i think Astro may remember it as he made a reply.

 

[ZapperZ]

Raymond Orbach, the undersecretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy , sat down with Science's Adrian Cho and Eli Kintisch http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/115/1".

Too bad someone in his position cannot diss those people who passed the budget. Still, I am not as optimistic as he is, considering that FY09 might still have the same political baggage as this year.

Zz.

 

[fourier jr]

more from Nature:

Published online 16 January 2008 | Nature 451, 235 (2008) | doi:10.1038/451235d
News in Brief

Budget cuts force early closure of Stanford collider

In early March, California's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) will shut down a collider that produces B mesons. The closure means that the lab's commitment to BaBar — an international collaboration studying the differences between matter and antimatter — will now end seven months early.

The announcement was made on 7 January by SLAC director Persis Drell after the US Department of Energy gave her its plan to deal with deep budget cuts to high-energy physics. Faced with a choice between keeping SLAC's 'B-factory' open and continuing to run the Tevatron, the high-energy collider at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, the department chose the Tevatron, which might detect the Higgs boson before the Large Hadron Collider is turned on at CERN, Europe's particle-physics lab based near Geneva, later this year.

SLAC also plans to lay off 125 of its 1,600 employees in April, on top of an ongoing 100-person reduction.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/full/451235d.html

 

[fourier jr]

looks like UK physics is in trouble also:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/full/news.2008.446.html

 

[Gokul43201]

It doesn't look to me (judging based on a response from Senator Brown) like there is going to be any emergency appropriations to fix FY08 - Congress just doesn't have the steam for that. The best we can realistically hope for is a decent compensation in FY09.

 

[ZapperZ]

It doesn't look to me (judging based on a response from Senator Brown) like there is going to be any emergency appropriations to fix FY08 - Congress just doesn't have the steam for that. The best we can realistically hope for is a decent compensation in FY09.

Most of us are not expecting anything much to come out of the FY08 supplemental bill (which is why some of us are already starting with furlough and even voluntary/involuntary layoff option) just to survive till Oct. 1st. Unfortunately, and this is just my gut instinct, I don't see any relief or good news to come out of FY09 considering the political climate.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

The Chicago Tribune has a lengthy article on why the budget battle between the US Congress and President Bush http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun_argonne_0120jan20,0,1456861.story?track=rss" .

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

DOE has directed all, and I mean all, programs at their National Labs to cut operations/budget by 1% across the board. So it isn't just HEP and Nuclear Physics that are being affected here.

I don't know about recruitment. All I know is that we are facing voluntary and involuntary layoffs, furloughs, and other issues. Current postdocs within our division are being protected and will not experience any effects on the budget cutbacks, other than what is being affected to their projects. So based on that, I'm guessing that we are having a hiring freeze for staff, but I don't know about postdocs.

A bunch of us were chatting, and we just realized that some of us will still be coming to work even when we are under a furlough. Isn't that sad? There are some extremely dedicated people working who would show up to work not only when they're on vacation, but even on days when they aren't getting paid! There are simply prior commitments to fulfill, and things that just needed to get done. For many of them, they work with an international collaboration and simply refuse to ruin their reputation of not being able to deliver or complete the tasks they've been given.

It is too bad that many of our politicians simply do not have such integrity.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Update: impacts of FY08 budget on Science

Here another broadcast e-mail from the APS:

From: Arthur Bienenstock, President, the American Physical Society
To: Members of the American Physical Society
Re: Update: Impact of FY08 Federal Budget on Science:
http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts

Thank you to the 3000 of you who answered my request last week to write to Congress. I am writing to update you on further impacts of the FY08 Budget on science and to urge more of you to write to your representative, senators, and the president.

While the FY08 budget impacts federal science funding agencies and the various disciplines of physics and science differently, it is important for us to work together as a community to remedy the situation. I urge you to be part of a coherent voice addressing lawmakers.

The Department of Energy Office of Science released a document last week listing the impacts to all of its programs. In addition to the damage to the Fusion and High Energy Physics programs that I emphasized last week, there are major impacts in Basic Energy Sciences (BES) and Nuclear Physics programs. The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory is being closed permanently and various construction projects will be delayed by as much as a year. Operations at the light sources will also likely be reduced by as much as 10%, and nearly 700 proposals responding to a BES solicitation for energy research have been declined.

In the Nuclear Physics program, operations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (BNL) will be reduced from 30 weeks to 13 and at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory) from 34 weeks to 24 weeks. Operations at the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator and the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility are also reduced and construction projects at these facilities and others are also delayed. For the complete listing of impacts at the Office of Science and further details, please see
http://www.aps.org/policy/issues/research-funding/upload/SC08Omnibus.pdf.

The National Science Foundation has yet to release an impact statement. However, as I reported in my previous message, proposal funding rates are likely to go down. The research and related activities account was increased by less than the rate of inflation and increases in facility operation costs are likely to further constrain the award funding.

The impact statement from the National Institute of Standards and Technology reports major setbacks to their FY08 agenda with the NIST laboratories having received only a small fraction of their previously approved increase. As a result, they will not be able to fund initiatives on quantum science, climate change, cybersecurity, nanotechnology and many other programs.

Taken as a whole, the FY08 budget is a major blow to the innovation/competitiveness proposals of Congress and the Administration. If you are not among the 9% of U.S. members who have already written to Congress and the president using the APS software, please take a moment to do so now. It is quick and easy: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts.
I would also ask that you forward this message to colleagues, students, friends or family that support science research funding.

At this URL, you will find pre-written messages to your Senators, Representatives and President Bush. You may send these letters as they are, modify them, or write your own. While individualizing your letter is not essential, please at least make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email so that these emails are more individualized. (See webpage pointers below for further instruction.)

The APS Washington Office continues to work hard for to mitigate the damage to science and relies on your actions to convince lawmakers that they must provide remedies.


WEBPAGE POINTERS:
(1) While individualizing your letter is not essential, we ask that you make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email.
(2) If you are a government employee, please do not use government resources to send a communication.
(3) Your browser will take you to a page where you will enter your name and address.
(4) After entering your address, click the "Edit/Send Email button". A window with an individual email message to the four offices will appear.
Click "Send Emails" to transmit the communication.
(5) Electronic submission is preferred.
(6) For further help, write to opa@aps.org.

If you haven't sent out your e-mail, we could sure use your help. As you can see, the impact from this devastating budget isn't confined to just high energy physics and nuclear physics. The collateral damage goes even beyond physics.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

President Bush's budget proposal for FY09 has been released. If you want to read the Dept. of Energy's portion of the budget, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/appendix/doe.pdf" .

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that basic science research is being proposed to receive a substantial increase across the board. The bad news is that we've seen this before in FY08 budget, and see the disaster we are in right now. There are two major reason why I am highly pessimistic that this will go through in time for the start of the new Fiscal year (Oct 1st):

1. The size of the budget and the size of the projected budget deficit. The current Democratic-controlled congress would not want to pass something like this.

2. The presidential election, with a new president coming in in January.

This all points to a continuing resolution come the start of FY09. This means that science funding will have to live with the current disastrous funding level for many more months, with no relief in sight.

I know things can get worse, but really, there isn't that far left to go to hit rock bottom.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

Hey Gokul,

I have a follow up to this question of yours. Don't miss the Feb 1, 2008 issue of Science. There is a piece written by Adrian Cho on how the BES section of DOE is being affected by this current budget crisis. It is more severe than even I had heard, even when they are not affected as badly as high energy physics and nuclear physics.

Zz.