The Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Employees of the Month program recognizes two individuals each month—one programmatic and one operations—based on the excellence of their work and demonstration of Argonne’s Core Values: Impact, Safety, Respect, Integrity and Teamwork.

October 2019 PSE Employee of the Month – operations category

• Ruthie Burns, in the High Energy Physics division, is recognized for her efforts in replacing a newly installed cold-head used for a superconducting 4T test solenoid. This cold-head stopped working just days before the end-of-fiscal-year deadline for purchases. Recognizing the urgency for cold-head replacement, Ruthie immediately set up purchase orders for its replacement and installation. In addition, to expedite the refurbishment she handled special arrangements for shipping. As a result, the cold-head system was installed prior to the fiscal year end, saving hundreds of dollar every day.

October 2019 PSE Employee of the Month – programmatic category

• Lisa Utschig, in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division, is recognized for her embodiment of Argonne’s core values while acting as a newly appointed Lead Principal Investigator (PI) for the CSE photosynthetic systems proposal during a DOE triennial review. She demonstrated Teamwork by including all PIs as well as the technical staff in discussions about the structure and scientific questions to be included in the final proposal and presentations, Impact by encouraging new ideas and opinions from every member of the group, Respect by considering everyone’s ideas for inclusion in the final product, and Integrity by working extraordinarily hard on this proposal and delivering a well-thought-out and well-received proposal renewal document (as communicated by DOE program managers during the visit).

Each month, the PSE Associate Laboratory Director and Division Directors review PSE Employee of the Month nominations and select recipients. All Argonne employees are eligible for nomination, including people within PSE and those who work with PSE. All PSE staff, postdocs and students are welcome to submit nominations. The call for nominations opens on the first of each month.