Chi-Chang's Corner

Scientific Strategic Planning Workshops, Beamline Transfer Group Established

November 2, 2007

Chi-Chang Kao
NSLS Department Chair
kao@bnl.gov

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The Department of Energy's (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences (BES) report for fiscal year 2007 was recently submitted. We recorded 2,219 individual users, about 100 more than last year, and another record-high 986 publications. These metrics are a clear indication that the NSLS continues to be one of the world's most productive and cost-effective scientific user facilities.

Within the next four months, together with the NSLS user community, we'll conduct a series of scientific strategic planning workshops to discuss what areas within our research fields are most exciting to pursue at the NSLS and NSLS-II, what synchrotron resources are required to pursue them, and how the build-out of synchrotron resources can be coordinated to minimize disruption to our on-going scientific programs. These workshops will cover six scientific communities and whenever feasible, they will be coordinated with the upcoming NSLS-II project beamline workshops. I hope you'll all attend these sessions, as they should greatly help us in updating the NSLS Five-Year Plan and in transitioning to the new facility. More details are coming soon. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact NSLS Deputy Chair for Science Ron Pindak.

In addition, we're establishing a beamline transfer working group to handle the issues associated with transitioning from the NSLS to NSLS-II. This group, headed by Steve Hulbert, will assist participating research teams by evaluating the performance of the beamlines considered for transfer, determining the needed upgrades and costs, and helping them draft letters of interest to NSLS-II.

Laboratory management has issued a clarification about personal protective equipment requirements in the workplace. As a result, long-sleeve shirts are no longer required for just entering or walking through the experiment floor, set-up laboratories, tech areas, and the mechanical equipment rooms. However, long pants or a long skirt/dress, and closed shoes are still required for entry to these areas. You can read more in this month's eNews.

I'm pleased with the outcome of this year's evacuation drill, during which we simulated a fire near the control room. The evacuation was fast and orderly and everyone gathered at the front as expected. One focus of this exercise was to determine if we could account for people in the building when forced to evacuate, which we tested by having someone hide when the alarm sounded. Indeed, that absence was noticed. Thanks to everyone for a cooperative and efficient response.

On the science front, NSLS scientist Larry Carr recently participated in a DOE-sponsored "Ultrafast Materials Science" workshop along with about 25 other participants from the United States and abroad. The workshop focused on defining the interesting science that can be explored under a new BES program on ultrafast research. This new materials science program could present exciting research opportunities for NSLS users and staff, in particular at the Source Development Laboratory.

Also last month, representatives from the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy visited the NSLS to review a research program led by General Electric Research Lab. The goal of the program is to develop gas sensors for harsh environments, and the project team includes scientists from GE, the University of Florida, U.S. Steel, and the NSLS. They were very impressed with the capabilities provided by the NSLS and CFN and I hope the success of this multi-institutional program will stimulate more research linking basic science to industrial applications at the NSLS.

A team of researchers led by NSLS scientist Ken Evans-Lutterodt overcame a major obstacle – a limit called the critical angle – for using refractive lenses to focus x-rays. Their method will allow the efficient focusing of x-rays down to extremely small spots and is an important breakthrough in the development of NSLS-II, which will require an x-ray resolution of one nanometer. Read more about their research in this issue of eNews.

Finally, congratulations to Light Source Directorate scientists Vivian Stojanoff and Timur Shaftan, who were two of six scientists to receive tenure at the Lab this year. We're glad to have you both on our team.