May 16, 2006

Bob Sweet, the 2006 UEC Community Service Award Recipient

For his extraordinary service, the User Executive Committee has chosen Robert M. Sweet for the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) Community Service Award.

Bob Sweet

Biological crystallography has emerged as an extremely high profile research area with synchrotron radiation, and Bob has made numerous contributions to create and sustain a vibrant community of users at the NSLS. Bob is the Principal Investigator of the Macromolecular Crystallography Research Resource (PXRR), which provides facilities and support at the NSLS for the benefit of outside and in-house investigators. The PXRR is supported by the NIH's National Center for Research Resource and the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research in its mission to create optimal facilities and environments for macromolecular structure determination by synchrotron x-ray diffraction. With a staff of about 24, the PXRR innovates new access modes such as FedEx crystallography, builds new facilities, develops remote participation software, collaborates with outside groups, teaches novice users, and supports visiting investigators with seven-day, 20-hour staff coverage.

The PXRR now includes six beamlines at X8C, X12B, X12C, X25, X26C, and X29. Bob's work on developing macromolecular crystallography at the NSLS helped in a continual push toward improved performance for NSLS beamlines. The X25 wiggler provided an early demonstration of the potential for insertion devices at NSLS, and the minigap undulator at X29 has added to that innovation, and inspired upgrades to minigap undulators for other beamlines, notably X25.

Bob's efforts have led to the development of sample loading automation techniques at NSLS, software that enables easy user experimental interaction, and the scope of the PXRR has established standardization across many NSLS beamlines, enabling users to move easily from one beamline to the next.

Bob is warm, easy to talk to and accessible to regular users in the community. Through all his efforts, Bob has likely been the single most important factor in keeping the NSLS on the cutting edge of macromolecular synchrotron crystallography.

It is thus with great pleasure that we give Bob Sweet the NSLS Community Service Award for 2006.

PHOTO BY: Roger Stoutenburgh