Acting Director's
update:
Through a difficult transition
 It
is hard to believe that it has only been a few months since
my previous report in ALSNews. There is much that has happened,
and if I had any hair left, there would be a lot more gray…
Based on the budget projections we were
facing in April, I decided that we had to reduce the payroll
by 7%, or 15 full-time employees, to balance the budget for
the upcoming fiscal year. Going through the reduction-in-force
(RIF) process was the most painful activity I have been involved
in as an administrator—acting or not. We were fortunate
in that we had significant attrition, and we also had several
members of the ALS staff who volunteered to resign in order
to save the jobs of others. Nevertheless, we could not avoid
having to lay off staff and to return to the Engineering Division
a number of people who played an important role in bringing
the ALS to its current level of excellence. Throughout, ALS
management aimed to keep our mission front and center: the
ALS is here to support users in doing outstanding science
in a safe environment.
With the RIF behind us, there is good
news to report on several fronts:
The annual shutdown involved the installation
of the first in-vacuum undulator (to serve the slicing source
in straight section 6), the installation of higher-order dampers
in one of the rf cavities, upgrades to the optics of several
beamlines, and a variety of maintenance activities. It all
went well, and the storage ring came back to user operations
on schedule.
Preparations for the top-off upgrade
are in full swing. Installation of the hardware for full-energy
injection is planned for next year's shutdown. Implementation
of top-off will proceed after that in stages over the better
part of a year.
The PEEM-3 beamline (11.0.1) is being
commissioned, and the first insertion-device beamline for
the slicing source is close to being commissioned.
We just received the report on the Department
of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences (BES) review of the ALS
that took place in February. Each reviewer commented enthusiastically
on the quality of the science and the productivity of the
facility. In his cover letter, Pedro Montano, Director of
the BES Scientific User Facilities Division, stated that the
ALS "is in the forefront of soft X-ray and VUV source(s)
in the United States" and that "Daniel Chemla is
to be praised for transforming ALS into a world-class facility..."
In his conclusion, Montano emphasized that "BES feels
ALS serves as a model for how a user facility should operate."
It would be hard to ask for a better report! Yet, there were
three concerns expressed in the BES report:
- The general-user proposal review
system is overloaded and needs to be overhauled. This is
something we have been planning to do, and the new system
will be announced shortly.
- Our beamline staff is spread too
thin. We are aware of this problem and hope to alleviate
it as the budget permits.
- While "recognizing the enormous
contributions of Daniel Chemla," it is very important
to begin a search for a full-time Division Director. In
response to this concern, Berkeley Lab Director Chu went
to see Daniel. Daniel agreed with the need expressed in
the report. A search committee for a permanent director
is being assembled.
Congressional action to date indicates
that our fiscal year 2006 budget may be better than had been
indicated by the President's budget proposal. Efforts by the
Users' Executive Committee (UEC) and our users, as well as
the users of other facilities, have been important in getting
us to this point. Clearly, if we do receive a more adequate
budget, we will be in a position to add beamline staff, as
recommended. We will have to be careful, though, not to get
into the situation where, in the following year (which is
expected to be a difficult one), the budget cannot cover the
payroll. If we are in a position to add staff, we will be
looking for excellent candidates, especially women and members
of other underrepresented groups. Please send applications
and/or recommendations. I hope to have a good collection of
files when the opportunity arises.
There are several important issues facing
us. We need to secure funding for the Guest House and for
the User Support Building and we need to implement the ALS
Strategic Plan. I hope to give you a progress report on each
of these at the time of the Users' Meeting, October 20–22.
UEC representatives Simon Morton and Jinghua Guo have put
together an exciting program, including 10 workshops. Please
plan to attend!
Contact: Janos Kirz, JKirz@lbl.gov
Enol intermediates
unexpectedly
found in flames
For those studying flame chemistry and
the properties of combustion intermediates by means of molecular
beam mass spectrometry, the addition of tunable vacuum ultraviolet
(VUV) from a synchrotron to photoionize the beam for mass
spectrometry makes for powerful technique capable of differentiating
between isomers with the same molecular weight and composition.
With the help of a unique experimental apparatus, an international
team of American, Chinese, and German researchers has exploited
this selectivity to identify chemical compounds known as enols
as apparently ubiquitous intermediates in flames burning a
variety of fuels. This surprising observation will require
combustion modelers to revise their models to account for
the presence of these compounds. Full
story.
Publication about this research: C.A.
Taatjes, N. Hansen, A. McIlroy, J.A. Miller, J.P. Senosiain,
S.J. Klippenstein, F. Qi, L. Sheng, Y. Zhang, T.A. Cool, J.
Wang, P.R. Westmoreland, M.E. Law, T. Kasper, and K. Kohse-Höinghaus,
"Enols are common intermediates in hydrocarbon oxidation,"
Science 308, 1887 (2005).
Contact: Craig Taatjes, cataatj@sandia.gov
Terrill Cool, tac13@cornell.edu
Fadley wins highly
prestigious
Welch Award
 Longtime
ALS user Charles S. Fadley has been awarded the highest honor
bestowed by the American Vacuum Society (AVS), the Medard
W. Welch Award. The citation reads: "For the development
of novel techniques based on photoelectron spectroscopy and
synchrotron radiation, and their application to the study
of the atomic, electronic, and magnetic structure of surfaces
and buried interfaces." The award confers $10,000, a
gold medal, a certificate, and an honorary lectureship at
a regular session of the society's International Symposium.
The award was established in 1969 in honor of M.W. Welch,
founder of the AVS, to recognize and encourage outstanding
research in the fields of interest to the society.
Fadley received his Ph.D. in Chemical
Physics from UC Berkeley in 1979 under the guidance of former
Berkeley Lab Director David A. Shirley. He is currently a
Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC Davis and a Senior
Faculty Scientist in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division,
holding one of three joint UC–Berkeley Lab ALS Professorship
appointments. Recent projects undertaken by his research group
include the use of standing x-ray waves to probe the properties
of buried interfaces [Synchrotron Radiation News
17, 24 (2004)], the analysis of photoelectron
diffraction patterns as holograms for depicting atomic or
magnetic structure [J. Phys. Cond. Mat. 13,
10517 (2001)], and the spectroscopy of strongly correlated
spintronic materials (Polaron
Behavior of CMR Manganites). Fadley is the author or co-author
of over 250 journal articles and over 30 review articles of
book chapters, has served on numerous national and international
scientific committees, and has mentored scores of students
and young scientists over the course of his career. Congratulations
to Chuck; the ALS is proud to count him among its many distinguished
users!
Users' Meeting:
Call for abstracts
and nominations
 ABSTRACTS.
All ALS users, including students and postdocs, are invited
to submit abstracts describing research they've done at the
ALS over the past year. From these abstracts, the Users' Meeting
program committee will select oral presentations for the science
highlights sessions; other submissions will be presented as
posters. A special student poster competition will be held
in conjunction with a reception for exhibitors on Thursday,
October 20. To be considered for an oral presentation and/or
the student poster competition, you must submit an abstract
by Monday, August 15.
AWARDS. Each year, the
ALS UEC presents awards to scientists and staff who have made
significant contributions to the ALS scientific and user support
programs. Nominations may be for an individual or a group,
and a brief rationale for each nomination is required. The
nominations can be submitted online via the Users' Meeting
Web site (see below), and are requested by Friday, September
30.
If you haven't done so already, check
out the 2005
ALS Users' Meeting Web site for the latest program and
registration information as well as important upcoming deadlines.
In addition, a 2005
UEC Election Web site has been set up to provide information
about the UEC election process and schedule. Voting will take
place online via this site later this year.
Contact: alsum@lbl.gov
Scientific Advisory
Committee
convenes at ALS
Members of the ALS Scientific Advisory
Committee (SAC) met at Berkeley Lab on Monday, July 11, to
discuss a wide array of issues concerning the ALS. The committee
has been consistent in providing ALS and Berkeley Lab management
with sage advice on a range of critical issues, from the allocation
of beamlines and approved programs to strategic planning,
and from organizational and budgetary issues to broad policy
matters. Berkeley Lab Director Steven Chu and Deputy Director
Graham Fleming were on hand to welcome the attendees. Acting
ALS Director Janos Kirz then brought the committee up to date
on recent developments, reporting on, among other things,
the BES review of the ALS that took place in February and
on progress being made toward the transition to top-off operation.
Ben Feinberg gave a short talk about the budget outlook and
Gary Krebs briefed the members on plans for a Berkeley Lab
Guest House.
Sunil Sinha, Sam Bader, Jennifer
Doudna, Yves Idzerda, Neil Ashcroft, Phil Bucksbaum, John
Spence, Steve Kevan, Tony Starace, Don Sparks, Pascal Elleaume,
and Greg Denbeaux.
Zahid Hussain provided a brief report
on a recent nanoscience workshop in Washington, and this served
as an introduction to a report by Chris Jacobsen (Stony Brook
University) on the workshop that he and Steve Kevan (University
of Oregon) had organized to specify a new beamline dedicated
to coherent diffraction imaging and scattering. Following
the lunch and tour, Stephen Cramer (Physical Biosciences Division)
described his approved program in biological spectroscopy,
and SAC member Yves Idzerda then led a general discussion
of other approved-program matters. Gary Krebs took the floor
once more to discuss upcoming changes to the general-user
proposal review process, and Neville Smith wrapped up the
open-session agenda with a short talk about SAC terms and
responsibilities. Current
members of the advisory committee are listed online.
Contact: Neville Smith, NVSmith@lbl.gov
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