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News Briefs: April 17, 2009

NARAC to celebrate 30-year anniversary

The Laboratory's National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center will be celebrating its 30-year anniversary at a special celebration, Wednesday, April 22, in Bldg. 170.

NARAC opened its doors in 1979 during the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown. Now, 30 years later, scientists are using advanced models to predict the impacts of atmospheric, biological, chemical and radiological releases.

NARAC current and former program leaders will be on hand at the anniversary event. Opening remarks will be held from 10-10:30 a.m. at the NARAC Center, Bldg. 170, room 1018. The general open house will be from 10:30 a.m.-noon in Bldg. 170, room 1018 and conference room 1091 with cake and light refreshments. Videos and photos of past and current events will be shown.

All employees are invited..

- Anne Stark

George Wagner publishes new WWII memoir

As a restless 23-year-old draftsman in New York City in 1941, George Wagner welcomed his induction into the U.S. Army April 10, 1941, as an escape from the monotony of his work. However, the Lab retiree got a lot more than he bargained for.

Wagner's routine one-year tour of duty as a draftee was abruptly extended indefinitely when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, and the United States entered World War II. In a first memoir, Wagner recounted his experiences in basic training, "One Man's War: A Soldier's Diary in the 1941 U.S. Army."

Now in the recently published second volume of his memoir, "Voyage to War: A Soldier's Combat Memoir 1944-1945," the 91-year-old veteran describes his combat experiences in harrowing detail. Wagner's unit, Company C of the First battalion, 28th Infantry, 8th Division was sent to Europe in late 1943 and saw extensive action in the wake of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Born of German heritage, Wagner spoke fluent German, a skill that served him well after his unit crossed the Rhine River.

See the May 21, 2007 edition of Newsline for an interview with Wagner about his memoir project:

Wagner's self-published memoirs are available on the Lulu Website.

- - Don Johnston

Lab's Zsolt Jenei featured in New York Times

Zsolt Jenei, a physicist from Romania working at the Laboratory, is featured in a New York Times audio interview included as part of a series of articles on immigration.

Jenei, 30, was interviewed as a highly-skilled immigrant working in the United States on an H1B visa. He has worked as a graduate student in physics at the Lab since 2002, first in the positron group from 2002-2004 and in high-pressure physics since 2005.

The interview is available on the New York Times Website.

Jenei was born and raised in Transylvania as a member of the Romanian province's Hungarian-speaking population (the region was under Hungarian control until the end of World War I). As a science student in high school he became a great admirer of Edward Teller, who was a national hero to many Hungarians, and working at the lab co-founded by Teller "became a distant dream. "

Not only did he come to the Laboratory, Jenei met Teller in 2003. A photo of the meeting appeared on the front page of Newsline May 30, 2003 (see the accompanying photo).

- Don Johnston

April 17, 2009