July 19-20, 2007

NSLS Hosts Historically Black Colleges and Universities Professors' Workshop

A Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Professors' Workshop was held at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) on July 19-20, 2007, linking 11 professors from nine institutions with the tools to become successful synchrotron users.

The workshop, organized by the NSLS and Brookhaven's Office of Educational Programs (OEP), resulted in the formation of an HBCU User Consortium that will encourage further HBCU faculty and student involvement at the NSLS and Brookhaven at large. Tennessee State University physics professor Orville Bignall was elected as its Chair.

OEP Manager Ken White welcomed the HBCU faculty and acknowledged OEP Administrator Noel Blackburn, who conceived and coordinated the workshop, and NSLS scientists Ron Pindak and Lisa Miller, who developed the technical program. The workshop is expected to be the beginning of a long-term relationship between the HBCU community and the user facilities and staff at the Lab, White said, starting with the NSLS. As a catalyst to move the program forward, White also outlined how OEP can assist in building these relationships. One example: bringing faculty members and their students to Brookhaven under the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty and Student Team (FaST) program, which, at BNL, develops collaborative relationships between university and Lab researchers.

Participants in the NSLS HBCU Workshop

Laboratory Director Sam Aronson then addressed the participants, saying that he'd like the group to grow in size, both in the number of professors and in the number of their students introduced to the NSLS and the National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II). "This will help us grow the user community for light source science at Brookhaven, which already is very large, but isn't addressing the full potential of the U.S. scientific community," Aronson said. "By inviting you here, we're trying to address what I see as a gap in our service and our country's utilization of scientific talent."

During the first day's session, the professors received an overview of the facility, synchrotron techniques, and user statistics and access from NSLS Chair Chi-Chang Kao. Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources Steve Dierker then discussed plans for NSLS-II, stressing that, in addition to a diverse user base, the state-of-the-art light source also will need new technicians, engineers, and administrative staff to keep it running.

"I would really like to see connections made in these next two days that go beyond your immediate participation," Dierker said. "I ask that you act as ambassadors to your institutions and talk to your colleagues who might not have had the opportunity to attend this workshop. Spread the word about the exciting scientific opportunities here as well as the opportunities in these other areas."

Brookhaven's Diversity Office Manager Shirley Kendall told the participants that because the idea for the workshop came from Brookhaven scientists and staff, she's confident that the Lab is on the right track to enhance its future talent pool and strengthen its alliance with HBCUs.

NSLS accelerator physicist Boris Podobedov gave a basic overview of synchrotron radiation and the inner workings of the NSLS machine. OEP Administrators Scott Bronson and Jen Clodius followed with a demonstration on how remote beamline access can bring large facilities, like the NSLS, into the classroom. Using the Virtual Room Videoconferencing System, Bronson linked the participants with live video and screen shots taken from beamline X26A, where University of Chicago researcher Tony Lanzirotti answered questions about his research and videoconferencing technology.

Next, NSLS scientists Paul Northrup, Elaine DiMasi, and Lisa Miller presented introductory talks on x-ray absorption spectroscopy, diffraction/scattering, and imaging, respectively.

The professors then gave 10-minute presentations about their areas of research interest, spanning from environmental studies of river water to DNA methylation in cancers. They were later matched up with Brookhaven scientists with similar research backgrounds who gave focused tours of the experimental floor and helped the participants identify what beamlines and techniques would best fit their research needs.

On the second day, a videoconference was held with six NSF program directors, who outlined scientific program information, NSF administration, and the grants, awards, postdoctoral fellowships, and undergraduate research opportunities available to the professors and their students.

The last segment of the workshop included a writing tutorial, led by NSLS scientist Ron Pindak and User Administrator Kathy Nasta, which focused on the development of competitive beam time proposals for independent research at the NSLS. Afterward, the professors each met with one or more BNL scientists to work on a draft version of an NSLS proposal.

"Overall, the program was great and very well put together," said Alabama State University microbiology professor Boakai Robertson, who plans to return to the NSLS to work on an experiment detecting heavy metals in microorganisms. "I was very impressed with the NSLS staff: how they received us, and how they answered our questions."

During the closeout session, the professors chose to continue their collective involvement at the Laboratory with the formation of an HBCU User Consortium.

"The opportunity to interact with researchers of like interests and share ideas for collaboration was very good," said Oakwood College chemistry professor Kenneth LaiHing. "I am very optimistic about having faculty from minority-serving institutions work with scientists from BNL and the NSLS."

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ARTICLE BY: Kendra Snyder