Science Advisory Committee

The NSLS Science Advisory Committee (SAC) advises the NSLS Chair and the Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources on scientific, technical, and policy issues related to the optimization of the scientific productivity of the NSLS.

Back row, l to r: Eric Isaacs, Robert Hettel, Simon Bare, James Kaduk, Simon Mochrie, Joel Brock. Front row, l to r: James Penner-Hahn (Chair), Mario Amzel, Daniel Fischer, Edward Kramer, Leemor Joshua-Tor, William Thomlinson.

Scope

• Evaluate new Participating Research Team (PRT) and Contributing User (CU) proposals
• Review the scientific productivity and facility utilization of all NSLS beamlines
• Provide oversight to the NSLS proposal review process
• Provide guidance on the development of strategic plans and the implementation of major scientific initiatives
• Provide guidance to the development of policies relevant to user access and scientific staff development

Membership and Term
The SAC will have ten members. The members will be appointed by the NSLS Chair in consultation with the Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources based on nominations from the user community, facility staff, and BNL management. The membership of the SAC will be balanced to provide expertise in major user scientific programs, technical development, and facility management. Membership on the SAC will be for a three-year term, renewable by mutual consent. To ensure continuity, terms will be staggered. The NSLS chair will appoint the chair of the SAC from among the sitting members, for a three-year term, renewable by mutual consent. The NSLS User Executive Committee chair will be an ex-officio member of the SAC.

Operation
In general, the full SAC will meet twice a year. The NSLS chair, in consultation with the chair of SAC, can call additional SAC meetings as necessary. Deliberations of the SAC will be confidential. A member of the SAC will not take part in deliberations if his/her participation would create or appear to create a conflict of interest. Delegates are not allowed to substitute for SAC members at SAC meetings.

All new PRT proposals will be reviewed and approved by the SAC. All proposals submitted at least one month before a given full SAC meeting will be considered at that meeting. The SAC will also review the tenure of existing PRTs every three years. PRT beamlines will be divided into groups based on experimental techniques and/or scientific themes for the tenure review. Each group of beamlines will be reviewed by an ad-hoc beamline review committee led by at least one member of the SAC, and will include both external reviewers with relevant expertise and the relevant NSLS staff to provide input on user operations and safety. The memoranda of understanding and written progress reports of all PRTs to be reviewed will be made available to the beamline review committee. Spokespersons for PRTs to be reviewed will be invited to appear before the beamline review committee to describe their accomplishments, future scientific program, funding, beamline operation, and safety.

The SAC will also review the NSLS facility beamlines. NSLS management will present a facility beamline progress report to the SAC annually to describe the accomplishments, scientific program development, and operation of the facility beamlines.

All new CU proposals will be reviewed and approved by the SAC. All proposals submitted at least one month before a given full SAC meeting will be considered at that meeting. If necessary, new CU proposals can be reviewed electronically. The SAC will review the progress of existing CUs annually as part of the NSLS facility beamline review. The memoranda of understanding and written progress reports of all CUs to be reviewed will be made available to the SAC.

Meeting Minutes

• October 28, 2005