1. LAST CALL: GENERAL SCIENCES PROPOSALS DUE JUNE 1
(Contact: alsproposals@lbl.gov)

Saturday, June 1, 2002, is the deadline for independent investigator proposals in the general sciences for the running period from December 2002 to May 2003. (This information does not apply to protein crystallography proposals, which have a separate process and schedule.) Scientists wishing to renew a previous proposal must fill in a one-page ALS Experiment Report and Request for Beamtime form and submit it to the User Services Office by the June 1 deadline. The User Services Office has sent email confirmations for all proposals received so far. If you submitted a proposal but have not received confirmation, please contact Jeremy Coyne at alsproposals@lbl.gov. The numeric rating for each proposal will be communicated to the investigator along with comments from the Proposal Study Panel, where appropriate. The cutoff rating for each beamline in the previous proposal cycle is published on the Web (see below). The following resources are available for further information:

ALS User Program Administrator

alsuser@lbl.gov

Independent investigator process

http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html

Beamline information

http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/als_users_bl/datasheets.html

http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/als_users_bl/bl_table.html

Proposal Study Panel (PSP) scores

http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/pspscores.html

2. BEAM BACK ON, REALIGNMENT CONTINUES
(Contact: JPHarkins@lbl.gov)

Major improvements were made to the ALS during the last month's shutdown. Several of the installations were completed without issue and have resulted in improved operations. The chicane magnet in Sector 4 was replaced (to minimize beam perturbations resulting from operation of the elliptically polarizing undulator [EPU]) and is currently performing well. The higher-order-mode (HOM) dampers were installed in the storage ring rf cavities and have taken the load off the longitudinal feedback system. These dampers also make the rf system more stable under temperature variations. The controls are also much improved with the installation of the Sector 4 chicane and an increase in the bit resolution. Two continuing issues, however, still need to be resolved before user operation is optimized at all beamlines.

One major task during the shutdown was the survey and alignment of the storage ring. Immediate improvement in the storage ring beam was noticed upon startup. The alignment of the storage ring, in some cases, required the subsequent realignment of front-end and beamline components. Two days at the end of the shutdown were allocated for the alignment of front ends and beamlines with beam. While all requests for alignment time from beamline scientists were granted during this period, several beamlines required a second iteration; these are currently planned for the beamlines' next available beamtime.

A second major task was the installation of a new vacuum chamber and elliptically polarizing undulator (EPU) for the Molecular Environmental Sciences beamline in Sector 11. While care was taken during these activities to protect the cleanliness of the vacuum chamber, some recovery time was expected and planned for in the schedule. Nevertheless, the vacuum recovery time extended into the startup and beyond because of mechanical problems. Although the vacuum is steadily improving, the beam lifetime as of May 17 was only 50% of optimum.

3. RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Bressler, C., M. Saes, M. Chergui, D. Grolimund, R. Abela, and P. Pattison, "Towards structural dynamics in condensed chemical systems exploiting ultrafast time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy," J. Chem. Phys. 116(7), 2955 (February 2002).

Hellwig, O., D.T. Margulies, B. Lengsfield, E.E. Fullerton, and J.B. Kortright, "Role of boron on grain sizes and magnetic correlation lengths in recording media as determined by soft x-ray scattering," Appl. Phys. Lett. 80(7), 1234 (February 2002).

Hlawatsch, S., C.D. Garbe-Schonberg, F.F. Lechtenberg, A. Manceau, N. Tamura, D.A. Kulik, and M. Kersten, "Trace metal fluxes to ferromanganese nodules from the western Baltic Sea as a record for long-term environmental changes," Chem. Geol. 182(2-4), 697 (February 2002).

Holman, H.-Y, K. Nieman, D.L. Sorensen, C.D. Miller, M.C. Martin, T. Borch, W.R. McKinney, and R.C. Sims, "Catalysis of PAH biodegradation by humic acid shown in synchrotron infrared studies," Environ. Sci. Technol. 36(6), 1276 (March 2002).

Omori, S., Y. Nihei, E. Rotenberg, J.D. Denlinger, S. Marchesini, S.E. Kevan, B.P. Tonner, M.A. Van Hove, and C.S. Fadley, "Differential photoelectron holography: A new approach for three-dimensional atomic imaging," Phys. Rev. Lett. 88(5), 055504 (February 2002).

Qiu, Z.Q, and N.V Smith, "Quantum well states and oscillatory magnetic interlayer coupling," J. Phys.-Condens. Mat. 14(8), 169 (March 2002).

Sintchak, M.D., G. Arjara, B.A. Kellogg, J. Stubbe, and C.L. Drennan, "The crystal structure of class II ribonucleotide reductase reveals how an allosterically regulated monomer mimics a dimer," Nat. Struct. Biol. 9(4), 293 (April 2002).

4. JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT THE ALS

Listed below are a few ALS-related positions that are currently available. For more detailed information on a specific job, go to the Berkeley Lab Current Job Opportunities Web page (http://cjo.lbl.gov/), type the Job Requisition Number (shown below in parentheses) into the keyword search box, and click on the "GO" button (do not use the "return" key). For a complete listing of ALS-related openings, search on the keywords "Advanced Light Source."

Scientific Engineering Associate (014643). Provide multifunctional support for the Chemical Dynamics Beamline (9.0.2) and its scientific programs. The incumbent will become proficient in the operation, maintenance, and development of the beamline and its associated experimental endstations in order to provide optimal support of the operation.

Administrative Assistant III (014744). Provide specialized administrative services under general supervision, including drafting correspondence, reports, presentations, and meeting minutes; processing ALS visiting researchers and scholars; coordinating the travel and reimbursement process; allocating office space for guests and visitors; and providing assistance with conferences and workshops.

Beamline 12.0 Scientist (014747). Contribute to the Beamline 12.0 (photoemission branchline) scientific program in collaborations with users as well as through own research. Work closely with users to assess feasibility of experiments, design novel experiments and sample preparation techniques, and assist in data analysis and interpretation of results. Major responsibility for the day-to-day beamline operation, including overseeing an associate beamline scientist, postdocs, graduate students, and technicians, as well as making improvements to the beamline and endstation hardware and software.

Physicist Postdoc Fellow (014748). Develop instrumentation to enable studies of highly correlated electron systems using coherent soft x-ray scattering to probe spatiotemporal fluctuations in candidate thin-film magnetic recording materials. One-year appointment with the possibility of renewal based on performance and availability of funding.

Physicist Postdoc Fellow (014480). Work involves developing a code for computing charge and current density distributions in molecules with core-hole excitations and simulating the optical/x-ray nonlinear response functions. One-year appointment with the possibility of renewal based on performance and the availability of funding.

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.

Beamlines 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3
Vivian Li, Rashid Syed (Amgen)
Mark Knapp, ArmandoVillasenor, Peter Dunten (Roche Bioscience)
Django Sussman, Brett Chevalier, Eric Galburt, Betty Shen, Dave Goetz, Peter Rupert (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Andrea Olland, Joel Bard (Genetics Institute)
Weiru Wang, Dong Hae Shin (Berkeley Structural Genomics Center)
Steve Stayrook (Univ. of Pennsylvania)
Sridhar Prasad, Sheng Ye (Syrrx, Inc.)
Mark Collins, Ian Wilkinson, Joe Garrett, Christine Dunham, Alice Vrielink (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz)

Beamline 6.1.2
Mark Le Gros (Berkeley Lab)
Maria Juenger (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

Beamline 6.3.1
Maurizio Sacchi (Univ. Paris-Sud)
Yasuji Muramatsu (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)

Beamline 7.3.1.1
Christian Stamm (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)
Stephen Urquhart (Univ. of Saskatchewan, Canada)

Beamline 8.0.1
Tony Van Buuren (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Ernst Kurmaev (Russian Academy of Sciences)

Beamlines 8.2.1
Greg Bowman (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

Beamline 8.3.1
Chris Bonagura, Kam Zhang (Plexxikon, Inc.)
Pan Hu, Maia Vinogradova, Adrian Keatinge-Clay, Seth Harris (Univ. of California, San Francisco)
Ernst Bergmann (Univ. of Alberta, Canada)

Beamline 9.3.2
Cheng Huan (National Univ. of Singapore)

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

For the user runs of May 9 - 12 and 15 - 20, the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 94%. Of the scheduled beam, 90% 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-863
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.