ng through electromagnetic fields as easy to visualize as golf balls rolling across a putting green. The user chooses some ions, chooses a field to simulate, finds a comfortable viewing perspective, and lets the ions fly. The simulated ions, whose "flight" paths the user can trace mimic real ions inside a mass spectrometer. Mystery ions, whether in cosmic dust, environmental contaminant samples, or a drug-user's bodily fluids, can be identified by mass spectrometers based on how the particles move through the machine.

Dahl's SIMION odyssey began in 1985, when he re-wrote the original Australian version of the program. He made it compatible with personal computers, re-wrote the user interface, and improved the numerical methods that the program uses to calculate each ion's trajectory. The program was passed from scientist to scientist around the world, and over the years successive versions of the program have gained a widespread user community.

Each generation of SIMION "and he is now on Version 6" has been faster and more powerful. Dahl says, "This is an example of what you can accomplish if you stick with something for a long time."

To read more about this and other award-winning research at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, visit our Web site at http://www.inel.gov. Read more about SIMION at http://inelext1.inel.gov/science/prestige.nsf/ineel/dahl.

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Contact: Laura Helmuth
helmll@inel.gov
(208) 526-0063
DOE/Idaho National Laboratory
2-Sep-1998

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