1. ALS MOURNS LOSS OF WERNER MEYER-ILSE

ALSNews is saddened to report that Werner Meyer-Ilse, prominent ALS scientist and former Users' Executive Committee (UEC) Chair, died last Wednesday as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident in his native Germany. Werner had just delivered a talk on x-ray microscopy and, at the time of the accident, was visiting family members in his home town of Gottingen, where he was born on August 18, 1954. Werner grew up on a farm and attended the famous University of Gottingen's Third Physical Institute. He and his wife, Andrea, also from Gottingen, were high school sweethearts.

Werner first came to Berkeley Lab in 1989 to work as a physicist with the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division for a few months before going back to Germany. He returned permanently in February 1992 to become a staff scientist at the Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO) in Berkeley Lab's Materials Science Division. There, he directed the design and construction of a direct-imaging x-ray microscope at ALS Beamline 6.1.2. Known as the XM-1, this x-ray microscope is acknowledged by experts to be one of the finest instruments of its kind in the world. Once it was built, Werner oversaw all the research conducted with it.

"Werner thought of the Lab as a very special place and he was here to stay," said CXRO head David Attwood. "He wanted to do every aspect of the microscope and every application. It was, he said, the only way to ensure excellence." In an interview, Werner once said, "My personal interest is to develop x-ray microscopy and I am only able to do this in a collaborative manner. Therefore all of the users of this beamline, from all their different scientific fields, become my collaborators in developing the technology."

In addition to his work on Beamline 6.1.2, Werner also served as Chair of the UEC last year. "Members of the UEC are deeply shaken by the tragic news of Werner's death," writes Stephen Kevan, current UEC Chair. "He was a world-class scientist and devoted member of the CXRO and the ALS communities. We already deeply miss his gentle yet persuasive and thoughtful presence. His death represents a terrible loss for the CXRO, the ALS, and for the scientific community at large."

The focus of Werner's recent work was the cryogenic freezing of initially live, whole hydrated cells that could then be imaged in the transmission x-ray microscope. "We had just collected our first images of cryofixed cells and they were remarkable," said Carolyn Larabell, a close friend and colleague. "It saddens me that he will not be here to experience our continued progress in this area. His joy and delight in imaging cells made our work even more rewarding." It was Werner's goal to present results from this work at the upcoming VIth International Conference on X-Ray Microscopy (XRM 99) meeting next month in Berkeley, of which he was a local co-chair.

"We at his beamline hope to carry out his vision and continue along as best we can," said another friend and colleague, Deborah Yager. "The hole he has left is immense. He was more than an extraordinarily gifted scientific leader. He was a person of vision and integrity, whose gentle acts of kindness touched us all. It was a privilege to know him and to work with him. I still expect to see him sitting at his microscope."

The time of death was approximately 8:00 a.m., PDT, on Wednesday, July 14, 1999. The funeral and burial will take place in Germany. Werner is survived by his wife and his daughters Eva, a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, and Julia, a high school student. A local memorial service will be arranged after his wife returns from Germany.

2. UEC CORNER
(Contact: kevan@oregon.uoregon.edu)

In a continuing effort to broaden its channels of communication, the ALS Users' Executive Committee (UEC) is initiating a new feature in this issue of ALSNews: the UEC Corner. This new feature is written by the UEC Chair and Vice Chair, and will provide brief updates on UEC business and activities. Because this is the first such column, we want to take a little time to highlight some of our ongoing activities as well as to comment specifically on some recent and future events.

We start by stating the obvious: the UEC is a conduit for communication between ALS users and ALS management. While we are confident that our communication with the management is complete and open (see below), we sense that we should be hearing more from the users. We are happy to receive input--positive or negative--about any aspect of ALS operation and encourage you to contact any member of the UEC whenever you are inclined to do so (contact information can be found on the Web at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/uec/). It is remarkable how even fairly minor misunderstandings can lead to major problems in running a facility such as the ALS. A bit of communication can often lead to markedly more positive outcomes. The UEC can and does play a key role in facilitating this communication.

The post-Birgeneau era has seen increased interaction between the UEC and ALS management on several different levels. The UEC has been very busy since it assumed this more engaged role at the facility. We have input on a variety of different issues, ranging from long-range planning to weekly scheduling. The avenues for these inputs are quite diverse. For the past several months, we have had a representative (presently Chuck Fadley) at the weekly ALS management meetings. Having continuous input into these meetings has been very useful in several instances. The UEC has also been represented at two biannual off-site planning retreats, and we have thus had input into resource allocation in the medium- and long-term. The UEC meets, normally through a conference call, every few weeks, often with ALS management present. Finally, rest assured that the Chair and often also the Vice Chair are contacted regularly by the ALS management--several times in some weeks--for input on user-related issues.

Now let us describe a few recent and near-future UEC activities:

(1) On June 10-11, the ALS underwent its first formal annual review as a Berkeley Lab division. While such reviews ought to be and often are routine, this one was the first review of the scientific program since the Birgeneau review. At a minimum, the review should provide a report card that indicates the first derivative of the health of the facility and also possibly indicate the path toward the next major DOE review. The UEC was included in the planning of this review, and many users were invited to highlight their work. The UEC Chair and Vice Chair both thought the review went quite well. The formal written report from the review committee is expected soon.

(2) The UEC has had input into a strategic planning process that was initiated by Daniel Chemla shortly after his appointment as ALS Director. The goal was to produce a roadmap to guide the continued development of the facility over the next 5 years. This process is nearly complete, and a written document will be available soon.

(3) The UEC is actively planning the 1999 ALS Users' Meeting, scheduled for October 18-20, 1999. We anticipate an excellent meeting with many new research highlights to be presented. Suggestions for speakers, from inside or outside the ALS community, will be considered for the next 1-2 weeks. We also plan to continue the "Young Researchers Session," wherein graduate students and postdocs can present new results, as well as the "ALS Highlights Session," focused on the best contributed abstracts. The final day of the meeting is reserved for specialized workshops, and once again suggestions for topics to be covered in these workshops are currently being considered. Finally, we have scheduled an informal meeting with Pat Dehmer, DOE's Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences, and others from the DOE to discuss avenues for procuring funding for the ALS. Final decisions on the rest of the program are being made over the next couple of weeks, and a program will be posted in the near future.

3. MACROMOLECULAR CRYSTALLOGRAPHY BEAM TIME PROPOSALS DUE SEPTEMBER 15

The User Services Office is accepting proposals from scientists who wish to conduct research as independent investigators at the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (Beamline 5.0) between January and June 2000. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 1999. There will be no automatic rollover of proposals from the previous proposal cycle (July to December 1999). Scientists wishing to renew a previous proposal should notify the ALS User Administrator, Ruth Pepe (contact information below).

The proposal form for independent investigators is available in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html). Information on the proposal process is available at the same location. A data sheet on the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility provides information that may be useful to prospective users. It is available on the Web as a PDF file at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/als_users_bl/5.0-Datasheet.pdf. If you do not have Web access and would like to request a data sheet, send an email request to alsuser@lbl.gov. Beamline information is also available on the Web in HTML format at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/als_users_bl/bl_table.html.

To request a proposal form by mail, contact:
Ruth Pepe, ALS User ServicesAdministrator
Tel: (510) 486-5268
Fax: (510) 486-4773
Email: alsuser@lbl.gov

For information on beamlines available to independent investigators, contact:
Gary Krebs, ALS User Services Group Leader
Tel: (510) 486-7727
Fax: (510) 486-4102
Email: g_krebs@lbl.gov

4. RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Bilwes, A., L.A. Alex, B. Crane, and M. Simon, "Structure of cheA, a signal-transducing histidine kinase," Cell 96, 131-141 (1999).

Harris, S.F., and M. Botchan, "Crystal structure of the human papillomavirus type 18 E2 activation domain," Science 284, 1673-1677 (1999).

Iverson, T.M., C. Luna-Chavez, G. Cecchini, and D.C. Rees, "Structure of the E. Coli fumarate reductase respiratory complex," Science 284, 1-6 (1999).

Kawakami, R.W., E. Rotenberg, E.J. Escorcia-Aparicio, H.-J. Choi, J.H. Wolfe, N.V. Smith, and Z.Q. Qiu, "Determination of the magnetic coupling in the Co/Cu/Co(100) system with momentum-resolved quantum well states," Phys. Rev. Lett. 82(20), 4098-4101 (1999).

Meyer-Ilse, W., "X-ray Microscopy and Analysis," in Encyclopedia of Applied Physics, G.L. Trigg, Ed. (VCH, Weinheim, 1999), pp. 673-691.

Rotenberg, E., J.W. Chung, and S.D. Kevan, "Spin-orbit coupling induced surface band splitting in Li/W(110) and Li/Mo(110)," Phys. Rev. Lett. 82(20), 4066-4069 (1999).

Thomas, T.D., N. Berrah, J. Bozek, T.X. Carroll, J. Hahne, T. Karlsen, E. Kukk, and L.J. Saethre, "Photon energy dependence of the 1sigma[u]/1sigma[g] intensity ratio in carbon 1s photoelectron spectroscopy of ethyne," Phys. Rev. Lett. 82(6), 1120-1123 (1999).

Yeom, H.W., S. Takeda, E. Rotenberg, I. Matsuda, C.M. Lee, J. Schaefer, K. Horikoshi, S.D. Kevan, T. Ohta, and T. Nagao, "Instability and charge density wave of metallic quantum chains on a silicon surface," Phys. Rev. Lett. 82(24), 4898-4901 (1999).

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

Beamline 1.4.3: Hanna Rappaport (Cal Tech) will be studying Beta sheet monolayers on water surfaces with infrared (IR) reflection spectroscopy. Karl Neiman and Ron Simms (Utah State Univ.) will be using IR microscopy to investigate pyrene degradation and bound residue formation in contaminated soils. Marni Goldman and Eduardo Saiz (Berkeley Lab) will be investigating bioactive glass layers on metal implants. Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab) will monitor cellular changes due to exposure to heavy metals. Mary Kauffman (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory) will be investigating the spatial distribution of Burkholderia cepacia G4 attached to basalt and exposed to chemicals. Don Young (Chevron) will try using FTIR spectromicroscopy to identify deposits on auto fuel system components.

Beamline 7.3.1.1: Harald Ade (North Carolina State Univ.) will study polymer phase separation, and Jan Luening (IBM Almaden) will investigate magnetic multilayer structures using PEEM2.

Beamline 9.3.1: Jean-Pierre Briand, Giani Giardino, Nicolas Bechu, Olivier Tuske (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris), Brigitte d'Etat-Ban (CIRIL, Caen, France), Marcelo Sant'Anna (CNPq-Brazil and Berkeley Lab), Fred Schlachter, Wayne Stolte, and Mike Prior (Berkeley Lab) will be studying the coupling of the outermost shells of implanted atoms inside various solids (insulators, semiconductors, and metals) by looking at fluorescence x rays for the K shell of the implanted atoms, measured at high spectral resolution.

Beamline 10.0.1: Orhan Yenen, Duane Jaecks (Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln), and Kenneth McLaughlin (Loras College) will study angular momentum sharing in atoms. Scott Kellar, Z.X. Shen, and coworkers (Stanford University) will be studying high-Tc materials with high momentum resolution using the HERS endstation.

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

Beam reliability for the last quarter (April-June) was 98.5% for user shifts. 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 Bob Miller (RMMiller@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.