Fermilab Asks Employees to Partake in "Self-Select Voluntary Separation"
By Sean Stillmaker in News on Jun 18, 2011 8:00PM
For the past 30 years some of the great wonders of science occurred at Batavia-based Fermilab. But budget priorities have put the lab in the red this year, and now they're gearing up for another set of layoffs.
This week Fermilab is asking for 100 employees to partake in a "self-select voluntary separation program." Employees have until July 7 to apply for the self-select voluntary separation program. If not enough people apply, layoffs will begin.
Last November the separation incentives were offered to 600 employees hoping 50 would take it; 30 ended up doing so. Fermilab employs 1,926 full and part-time workers. At its peak in 1993, Fermilab had 2,314 employees, the Daily Herald reports.
Fermilab was once the epicenter of the world for particle accelerators. It had the largest and fastest accelerator, the Tevatron, until Switzerland’s Hadron Collider powered up in 2008. With a new sheriff in town the Tevatron is slated to close in September due to the inability to finance their $35 million annual budget.
Particle accelerators are used to smash subatomic particles in hopes of creating new elements. Tony Stark was using a particle accelerator to get his power source. For the last 25 years the Tevatron has been trying to find the Higgs boson aka the God particle.
Four months before the Tevatron shuts down, it may have found what it has been looking for all this time. In April a mysterious bump was found in a routine particle smash. Theories are pouring out for an explanation. Some say it is the God particle while others remain skeptical.
Quite the timing too.