1. NEW BEAMLINES READIED IN ANTICIPATION OF SUPERBENDS
(Contact: HAPadmore@lbl.gov)

Construction of the first "superbend" beamline (8.3.1) at the ALS has been completed and a preliminary data set has been obtained, several weeks before installation of the actual superbend magnets. This beamline is one of three new protein crystallography beamlines being added to Sector 8, where the existing bend magnet will soon be replaced by a superconducting bend magnet. A total of three superbends (the other two will be in Sectors 4 and 12) are scheduled for installation later this month, during the shutdown beginning August 20.

Superbends are an optimal x-ray source for most protein crystallography projects, providing an adequate amount of flux for a typical protein crystal (about 0.1 mm in size) at photon energies of interest (2.4 to 17 keV). Funded jointly by groups from the University of California's Berkeley (UCB) and San Francisco (UCSF) campuses, Beamline 8.3.1 will allow both multiple-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) and monochromatic protein crystallography. The system is currently being commissioned with a preliminary data collection scheme, and an initial data set for myoglobin was successfully recorded on July 5. The development team consists of Alastair MacDowell, Dave Plate, Carl Cork, and James Holton. The team plans to finish basic commissioning and to take a substantial amount of data before the superbend installation shutdown. Tom Alber and Jim Berger (UCB) are the beamline spokespersons, and James Holton is the beamline contact.

Two other protein crystallography beamlines (8.2.1 and 8.2.2), funded through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, are also under construction in Sector 8. Beamline 8.2.1 has been completed to the point where light has been delivered to the sample position. The endstation hutch is currently being assembled. Beamline 8.2.2 has been assembled up to the monochromator; the rest of the beamline will be installed this summer.

2. SYNCHROTRON SUMMER SCHOOL A SUCCESS
(Contacts: attwood@eecs.berkeley.edu, nilsson@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)

A full roster of 36 graduate students from diverse fields (reflecting a typical synchrotron user community) spent a week's worth of cold, foggy mornings and bright, spectacular afternoons in a Berkeley classroom this summer studying what might be called "Synchrotron Radiation 101." This first-ever Berkeley-Stanford Summer School in Synchrotron Radiation was designed to introduce prospective synchrotron users to the fundamentals of synchrotron radiation, its requisite technologies, and a broad range of scientific applications.

The week-long residential program was held at UCB's Clark Kerr Campus and was sponsored by Stanford University, Berkeley Lab, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), and the UCB Division of Continuing Education in Engineering. The course was coordinated by Anders Nilsson (SSRL/Stanford/Uppsala University) and David Attwood (Berkeley Lab/UCB). This first class of students was drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, from environmental science to applied chemistry and basic physics, and from as far away as Sweden, Germany, and Japan. Applicants were admitted based on their academic records, written statements describing how a knowledge of synchrotron radiation would enhance their intended research, and publications lists.

A review of the course syllabus reveals topics tailored to the interests of the group, including "X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy: Applications in Magnetism" (Jo Stohr, SSRL), "X-Ray Speckle and Dynamic Scattering" (Steve Kevan, Univ. of Oregon Physics Dept.), and "XAFS Applications to Environmental Science" (Gordon Brown, Stanford Univ. School of Earth Sciences). Other invited instructors included Harald Ade (North Carolina State Univ. Dept. of Physics), Sean Brennan (SSRL), and Eli Rotenberg (ALS).

In addition to the lectures, the program featured extended visits to both the ALS and SSRL, where the students had the opportunity to view first-hand the technologies discussed in class and to interact with scientists actively engaged in synchrotron research. (Photos of the ALS visit can be viewed online at http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/eng/synchrotron/photos.html.)

As part of the course materials, each student received a copy of Attwood's textbook, "Soft X-Rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation," and the recently updated "X-Ray Data Booklet," a popular pocket-sized reference book published by the Center for X-Ray Optics at Berkeley Lab. Each participant also received not one, but two Synchrotron Summer School t-shirts--one in Berkeley colors (blue with "Berkeley-Stanford Synchrotron Summer School" in gold lettering) and one in Stanford colors (red with "Stanford-Berkeley Synchrotron Summer School" in white lettering). Next year, the summer school will be hosted by Stanford, and organizers hope it will become an annual event, alternating between the two sites.

3. REMINDER: DEADLINE FOR USERS' MEETING ABSTRACTS IS SEPT. 10
(Contact: alsabstract@lbl.gov)

All ALS users, including students and postdocs, are invited to submit abstracts for oral or poster presentations to be presented at the annual Users' Meeting at Berkeley Lab on October 15-17, 2001. Oral presentations for the "junior researchers" and "science highlights" sessions will be selected by the committee from the abstracts received; other submissions will be presented as posters. The online submission form can be found at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/abstracts.html. Submission deadlines are as follows:

• September 10, 2001
  - to be considered for an oral presentation and/or the student poster competition
• October 3, 2001
  - to guarantee a space in the poster session and be included in the program booklet
• October 10, 2001
  - for space in the poster session on an "as available" basis

Information about the meeting program, speakers, registration, and accommodations will be posted at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/ as soon as it becomes available. Information about the SSRL Users' Meeting (being held the same week from Oct 17-19) can also be found online at http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/conferences/ssrl28/.

4. BEAMLINE COMMISSIONING MAY AFFECT USER SHIFTS
(Contact: GFKrebs@lbl.gov)

The introduction of superbend magnets into the ALS storage ring later this month is comparable to major surgery and may require a more extended recovery period than was initially allowed for in the schedule. Although user operations are expected to resume on October 2, users should be advised that additional beamline commissioning activities may extend through October 3. During this time, our beamline scientists will be working with the accelerator physics group to optimize beamline performance under the new conditions. Beamlines with users scheduled for the first week of operations after the shutdown will be commissioned first. In the future, we will schedule this as a routine part of commissioning following a major shutdown. Any users who miss shifts due to commissioning should rest assured that those shifts will be made up during the next running period.

5. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS

Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next two weeks at the ALS.

Beamline 1.4.3
Liane Benning (Univ. of Leeds, UK)
Mary Kauffman (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
Tom Breunig and Dan Fried (Univ. of California, San Francisco)

Beamline 5.0.2
Glen Spraggon, Andreas Kreusch, and Kenneth Ng (Novartis Research Foundation)
Xueyong Zhu, Sumit Khurana, Yan Zhang, and John Luz (The Scripps Research Institute)
Huiying Li and Edward Z. Wen (Univ. of California, Irvine)
Hans Parge, Dan Knighton (Pfizer, Inc.)

Beamline 7.0.1
Z.Q. Qiu (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
Steve Kevan (Univ. of Oregon)
Shirley Chiang (Univ. of California, Davis)
Anders Nilsson (Uppsala Univ., Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Brian Tonner (Univ. of Central Florida)

Beamline 8.0.1
Maria Novella Piancastelli (Univ. of Rome "Tor Vergata")
Marcelo Sant Anna (Univ. Federal Fluminense, Brazil)

Beamline 9.0.1
Larry Sorensen (Univ. of Washington)

Beamline 9.0.2
Andrew Yencha (State Univ. of New York at Albany)

Beamline 10.0.1
Atsushi Fujimori (Univ. of Tokyo)
Ron Phaneuf (Univ. of Nevada, Reno)

6. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: Lampo@lbl.gov)

For the user runs of July 18 - 23 and 24 - 29, the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 99%. Of the scheduled beam, 98% was delivered to completion without interruption. There were no significant outages.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (BCSamuelson@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.

LBNL/PUB-848
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.