1. AUSTRALIAN GOVERNOR AND LIGHT SOURCE ADVISORS VISIT
(Contacts: NVSmith@lbl.gov, AJackson@lbl.gov)

John Landy, Governor of the State of Victoria, Australia, recently visited the ALS to get an overview of ongoing research and development projects here. The Victorian government is planning to build its own synchrotron, the Australian Synchrotron Light Source (ASLS), at Monash University in Melbourne. This area is home to a wealth of Australia's foremost manufacturing, materials, and high-tech companies as well as five key divisions of Australia's preeminent research vehicle, the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation. The region also houses the highly acclaimed Monash medical precinct, which has a close collaborative link to the Parkville biotechnology precinct at Melbourne University, a major player in biomedical research.

Governor Landy was accompanied by Jane Niall and Andrea Huggins of the Victorian Department of State and Regional Development, secretary Charles Curwen, and biotechnology advisor Stan Yakatan. The entourage was welcomed by ALS Scientific Director Neville Smith and given a history of ALS construction and development by Alan Jackson of the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division (AFRD). The visitors then toured the experiment floor and listened to presentations about environmental science from Alain Manceau of the ALS and about protein crystallography from Thomas Earnest of the Physical Biosciences Division.

In addition, a small number of accelerator experts from the US, Europe, and Australia met at Berkeley Lab last month for the first meeting of the ASLS International Machine Advisory Committee (IMAC), chaired by Alan Jackson. The other committee members were Jeff Corbett (SSRL), Dieter Einfeld (ANKA, Germany), Dieter Kraemer (BESSY, Germany), Stephen Milton (APS), and Annick Ropert (ESRF, France). The ASLS was represented by Acting Project Director Max Roger, Acting Technical Director John Boldemen, and Technical Consultant Erhard Huttle. The two-and-a-half-day meeting began with a welcome by AFRD Division Director William Barletta, followed by technical discussions that ranged over design choices for the full gamut of accelerator systems. The group was given a tour of the ALS accelerators by David Robin, ALS Accelerator Physics Group Leader. The advisory committee will convene again in Melbourne in late June.

2. JAMES W. ALLEN TO RECEIVE APS ISAKSON PRIZE

ALS user James W. Allen, who is working at the ALS on a one-year sabbatical from the University of Michigan, has been named a co-recipient of the 2002 Frank Isakson Prize by the American Physical Society (APS). The prize recognizes Jim "for his outstanding contributions to the field of spectroscopy in strongly corrrelated electron systems leading to elucidation of many-body physics." The Isakson prize was established in 1979 to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to the field of optical effects in solids. While this award generally goes to an optical spectroscopist, this is the first time for it to be awarded to a scientist who primarily uses soft x-rays to perform electron spectroscopy. The other recipient this year, Thomas Timusk (McMaster Univ.), is an infrared spectroscopist.

According to the biography on the APS Web site (http://www.aps.org/praw/isakson/02allen.html), Jim and his collaborators have employed resonant and inverse photoemission and x-ray and optical spectroscopies to study the electronic structure of solids, especially aspects intrinsic to strong electron correlations (mixed valence, the Kondo resonance, and Mott-Hubbard and non-Fermi-liquid physics) in rare-earth, transition-metal, and actinide materials. Their most recent focus is on the use of angle-resolved and resonant photoemission spectroscopy to elucidate quasiparticle phenomena and to identify generalized signatures of electron fractionalization in various strongly correlated and low-dimensional materials. The Isakson prize, which has the flavor of a lifetime achievement award, covers not only recent ALS research but also current and past research at other synchrotrons, as well as early work using optical spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the ALS is particularly delighted to host such a distinguished researcher during his year of recognition through such a prestigious award. Congratulations, Jim!

3. APPLY NOW FOR 2002-2003 DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
(Contact: KGreen@lbl.gov)

The ALS is again offering several doctoral fellowships in residence for the 2002-2003 academic year. Through these fellowships, qualified graduate students will gain hands-on experience using synchrotron radiation by performing a major part of their thesis work at the ALS. Applicants must be full-time Ph.D. students pursuing synchrotron-radiation-based research in the physical or biological sciences and have passed all qualifying or comprehensive verbal and written examinations (generally third-year students). The deadline for applying is May 1, 2002.

The fellowships include a one-year appointment (with the possibility of renewal) and a $15,000 annual stipend. Fellows will be matched with an on-site mentor (generally a beamline scientist) and have access to ALS resources, including beamtime. Fellows are expected to present their results at a meeting or as a seminar at the end of the fellowship year. More detailed information, along with links to frequently asked questions and the application form, can be found at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/fellowships/index.html.

4. PLANS FOR APRIL SHUTDOWN SET
(Contact: JPHarkins@lbl.gov)

The ALS will shut down for approximately one month, from April 3 to May 8, for maintenance and installation activities. While it has not received the attention of the superbend shutdown last August, this shutdown is going to be just as busy, with many major activities scheduled.

Installation of the insertion device for the Molecular Environmental Sciences beamline under construction in Sector 11 will be a primary task. This will involve replacement of the vacuum chamber, installation of three newly designed chicane magnets, and installation of a new elliptically polarizing undulator.

Another major activity will be the survey and alignment of the storage ring. This will involve disconnecting many of the bellows and flex bands (the flexible connections between major storage ring components) to avoid damaging these components. The front ends will also be surveyed and, with this data in hand, a plan will be developed for any needed front-end and beamline alignment. Terry Byrne of the Accelerator Physics Group is working with the beamline scientists to coordinate this effort with the engineering staff. Two days of beamline alignment with beam have been scheduled during the start-up period in early May.

Higher-order mode dampers will be installed in the storage ring rf cavities to improve the reliability of this system. While the installation will be relatively simple, the commissioning of this system can be very tricky. High-power testing is now being performed on these dampers to reduce the probability of problems during commissioning of these dampers in the storage ring.

The shutdown will also include activities such as relocation of electronic racks in Sectors 1 and 3, moving the modular clean room and installation of a platform in Sector 12, and replacement of the chicane magnets in Sector 4.

If you have any questions regarding the shutdown activities, please contact Joe Harkins at 510-486-7486.

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
Felicia Betancourt (Berkeley Lab)
Kelly Knutsen (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
T.J. Wilkinson (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 4.0.2
Chuck Fadley (Univ. of California, Davis)
Dan Waddill (Univ. of Missouri-Rolla)
Boris Sinkovic (Univ. of Connecticut)

Beamlines 5.0.1, 5.0.2, and 5.0.3
Ed Berry, David Cobessi (Berkeley Lab)
Brigitte Schobert, Janos Lanyi (Univ. of California, Irvine)
Stewart Turley, Paulene Quigley Sheldon, Dan Mitchell, Claire O'Neal, George Waisedchaisri (Univ. of Washington)
Cliff Mol, Dave Hosfield (Syrrx, Inc.)
Evette Radisky, Seok-Yong Lee, Seth Rubin, Annie Roberts (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

Beamline 6.3.1
Krystyna Jablonska (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Yasuji Muramatsu (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)

Beamline 7.0.1
Steve Kevan (Univ. of Oregon)
Gary Mitchell (The Dow Chemical Company)
Dan Dessau (Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)
Adam Hitchcock (McMaster Univ., Canada)
Karsten Horn (Fritz-Haber-Institute, Germany)

Beamline 7.3.1.1
Andrew Smith (Daresbury Laboratory, UK)
Simone Anders (IBM Almaden Research Center)

Beamline 8.0.1
Eberhard Umbach (Univ. of Wuerzburg, Germany)

Beamline 9.3.2
Glenn Waychunas (Berkeley Lab)
Frank Ogletree (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 10.0.1
Dan Dessau (Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)
Joseph Nordgren (Uppsala Univ., Sweden)
Duane Jaecks (Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Beamline 10.3.1
Peter Weber (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

Beamline 10.3.2
Alain Manceau (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

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

For the recent runs in two-bunch mode (February 13 - 17 and 20 - 25), the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 91%. Of the scheduled two-bunch beam, 84% was delivered to completion without interruption. For the normal user runs of February 26 - March 3 and March 5 - 10, the beam reliability was 83%. Of the scheduled beam, 78% was delivered to completion without interruption. On March 7 there was a major power outage affecting the entire UC Berkeley campus that disrupted beam delivery for almost one day.

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-863
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov, ejmoxon@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.