April 24-25, 2008

Annual NUFO Meeting Concentrates on Future Challenges, Group Charter

The annual meeting of the National User Facility Organization (NUFO) was held at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (ESML) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on April 24-25, 2008. Close to 50 people attended from nationally funded user facilities across the United States, including light sources, neutron sources, and nanoscale centers. On the agenda were several presentations related to challenges for all national user facilities. Among many others, presenters included Pedro Montano, Program Manager for X-Ray and Neutron Scattering facilities at the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) and Jack Bagley, Vice President of External Relations at Battelle. To view the full agenda and the presentations, click here.

The first day concentrated on issues for the future, and started with Montano’s talk, which pointed out the challenge of how to maintain a high quality of science and still address the diverse needs of many users. In particular, he said that user facilities need to focus on counting remote users, as there is an increasing need for this type of access. A remote user is defined as someone who operates an instrument from off site (sends in samples and analyzes his/her own data). Montano showed a graph that detailed how, from 2005 to the present, there is a flattening of the number of unique users at all facilities. He stated that the psychology of different scientific groups needs to be considered, and that user facilities need to attract other scientific groups. He also talked about how this year will be the first time that there will be a reduction in the number of users due to decreased operating hours. As we know, he said, budgets now are very lean. Montano pointed out that user communities must inform the public of the tremendous impact that the BES facilities have on scientific and technological advances. The budget needs to be a priority, he said.

Bagley discussed where user facilities stand in terms of budgets for the remainder of the year. At the time of the meeting, it was hoped that supplemental monies available could be freed up for science. Bagley discussed the fiscal year 2009 strategy, and pointed out that the path forward will be uncertain due to it being an election year. Bagley stressed the fact that continued communication by users to their local officials is important, and it should be done frequently (each month). All forms of communication is important, he said, including personal and group-generated letters, group visits, and personal visits. Bagley stated that educating local officials about science in general (not for individual fields) helps to keep science as a priority.

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing: issues about how scientists might best make contacts with local officials, and tips for doing so; the NUFO mission, role, and steering committee as had been started last year; new user agreements that will be mandated in the next few months; how the nanoscale science research centers are attempting to standardize some of their policies and procedures; and how users and staff might help to better educate the community about the important research that goes on at user facilities.

Representatives from all three of the Brookhaven user organizations were in attendance at this meeting, including: Brant Johnson (RHIC & AGS), Grace Webster (Center for Functional Nanomaterials), Kathy Nasta (NSLS), and Susan White-DePace (BNL Guest, Users, and Visitors Center and RHIC & AGS Users' Center).