September 19-21, 2005

Synchrotron Environmental Science III (SES-III) Meeting

On September 19-21, 2005, the Synchrotron Environmental Sciences III (SES-III) conference was held at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), in Upton, New York on Long Island. Continuing the tradition established by previous SES conferences held at Argonne National Lab, SES-III brought together the diverse community of scientists who apply synchrotron-based radiation techniques to study the biological and geochemical aspects of both local and global environmental issues. The conference included two days of topical sessions that addressed the application of innovative synchrotron methods in environmental science along with applications in bioavailability and remediation science. The third day included a workshop on microbeam methods. Attendees reported on environmental science activities conducted at synchrotron facilities worldwide.

Attendees of the Synchrotron Environmental Sciences III Meeting

The SES meetings are an outgrowth of EnviroSync, a grass roots organization with almost 400 members established in early 1998 to represent the growing multidisciplinary community of synchrotron radiation users who focus on molecular environmental science problems. Stephen Sutton (GSECARS, University of Chicago) has been Chair of EnviroSync since 2002. An EnviroSync open meeting was also held as part of the SES-III conference, during which Richard Reeder (Stony Brook University) was elected as the new EnviroSync Chair and John Bargar (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab) its Secretary for 2005-2007.

Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, Brookhaven National Laboratory's Director, opened the SES-III conference with very supportive comments emphasizing the increasingly important role environmental science research plays at BNL and how well suited light sources are to answer the questions asked by environmental scientists. There were also welcoming remarks from Martin Schoonen, Stony Brook University's Associate Vice President for Research, and Creighton Wirick, Chair of BNL's Environmental Sciences Department. Stephen Dierker, BNL's Associate Lab Director for Light Sources, then gave an update on the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and in particular the progress that the NSLS has made in bringing additional beamlines into operation that support environmental science users. He emphasized that this is need driven by the rapidly increasing number of environmental science users at the NSLS and the over-subscription of beamlines that cater to the community. Steve also updated the attendees on the status of NSLS-II, which was recently granted "Critical Decision Zero" (CD-0) status by the Department of Energy (DOE) (see article in this issue of SRN). NSLS-II is a proposed new state-of-the-art medium energy storage ring designed to deliver world leading brightness and flux with top-off operation for constant output. DOE program managers Nicolas Woodward (Basic Energy Sciences - Geosciences Research Program) and Roland Hirsch (Biological & Environmental Research - Environmental Remediation Sciences Division) also gave updates on DOE support for environmental research and how these programs have stressed availability of synchrotrons to earth and environmental scientists. Todd Anderson from the Office of Biological & Environmental Research was also in attendance.

Gordon Brown (Stanford University) opened the scientific presentations of the first day with an overview of recent environmental science activities that have been made possible by using synchrotron-based approaches, as well as future possibilities. The first day's sessions also included talks by Ken Kemner (Argonne National Lab), Neil Sturchio (Univ. Illinois), Sanjit Kumar Ghose (GSECARS, Univ. Chicago), David Shuh (Lawrence Berkeley Lab), and Lynda Soderholm (Argonne National Lab). Talks on the first day focused on the use of innovative synchrotron based techniques in biogeosciences and how studies of mineral surfaces can employ x-ray standing wave imaging, resonant anomalous x-ray reflectivity, and crystal truncation rod scattering. There were also discussions about the application of soft x-ray emission spectroscopy, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, and extended x-ray absorption fine structure investigations in the study of actinides. The first day concluded with a poster session.

Sessions on the second day included a number of talks on the application of synchrotron techniques to biological-environmental systems. Topics included metal ions in living systems, the structural chemistry of bacteriogenic manganese oxides, the reduction of U(VI) by Fe(II) at cell surfaces, and the application of synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy to environmental studies. There were also discussions of the use of multiple synchrotron x-ray techniques in the study of plant-metal-soil interactions, the effect of microbial siderophores on Pb speciation and adsorption, and the application of synchrotron micro-diffraction in prediction of environmental risks associated with arsenic-bearing mine wastes. Attendees also heard about the benefits of combining x-ray and neutron scattering techniques for obtaining fundamental information about processes of importance to environmental sciences. Speakers included Graham George (Univ. of Saskatchewan), John Bargar (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab), Maxim Boyanov (Argonne National Lab), Stefan Vogt (Argonne National Lab), Lisa Miller (Brookhaven National Lab), Ryan Tapperro (Univ. of Delaware), Bhoopesh Mishra (Univ. of Notre Dame), John Parise (Stony Brook Univ.), Heather Jamieson (Queen's Univ., Canada), and Matthew Ginder-Vogel (Stanford Univ.). The day's sessions concluded with a classic Long Island clambake, where attendees gorged themselves on fresh lobsters, clams, and mussels well into the evening.

The meeting concluded with a workshop on the application of microbeam methods to environmental sciences. Workshop speakers included Steve Sutton, Daniel Grolimund (Swiss Light Source), Matthew Marcus (Lawrence Berkeley Lab), Mary Gilles (Lawrence Berkeley Lab), and Chris Jacobsen (Stony Brook Univ.). The speakers described beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source, Advanced Light Source, National Synchrotron Light Source, and the Swiss Light Source and applications of hard x-ray microbeam fluorescence, absorption, diffraction, and tomography techniques and soft x-ray spectromicroscopy techniques for characterization of environmental materials.

Overall, the meeting proved to be a rousing success, and we look forward to SES-IV in the near future. The organizers wish to thank all who attended and participated. They also wish to thank EnviroSync, the National Synchrotron Light Source, the Center for Environmental Molecular Science (Stony Brook Univ.), Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy for co-sponsoring this meeting.

RELATED LINKS: Workshop Website

ARTICLE BY: Antonio Lanzirotti

PHOTO BY: Roger Stoutenburgh