ALSNews Vol. 219, April 2, 2003
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your name and complete internet address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.
Previous Issues are available.
Table of Contents
- Microfocus on Nickel Sequestration in Soils
- BESAC Subcommittee Recommendations Available Online
- UEC Corner: Notes from the Users' Executive Committee
- Synchrotron Summer School Returns to Berkeley
- High-Pressure Science Featured on Discovery Channel Canada
- General User Proposal Scores Posted Online
- Operations Update
1. MICROFOCUS ON NICKEL SEQUESTRATION IN SOILS
by Julie McCullough
(Contact: ACManceau@lbl.gov)
In the last two years, an international team comprising researchers from France and the ALS has developed new analytical capabilities that allow them to noninvasively peer into the heterogeneous world of soils and sediments and identify and quantify heavy metal contaminants at micrometer scales of resolution. The synergistic use of three powerful x-ray techniques--x-ray fluorescence (SXRF), diffraction (XRD), and absorption (XAFS)--allows the researchers to identify the molecular nature of the host mineral species and the trace metal's speciation, distribution, and coordination chemistry with micrometer spatial resolution. One of the difficulties in assessing the state of these metals is that the subsurface is extremely heterogeneous and becomes even more so at these scales, where heavy metals can exist as trace and major elements in mineral hosts. The researchers successfully applied their three-pronged approach to the speciation of nickel and zinc in a soil ferromanganese nodule using the microfocus capabilities of Beamlines 7.3.3 and 10.3.2.
Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/62nickel.html.
Publication about this research: A. Manceau, N. Tamura, M.A. Marcus, A.A. MacDowell, R.S. Celestre, R.E. Sublett, G. Sposito, and H.A. Padmore, "Deciphering nickel sequestration in soil ferromanganese nodules by combining x-ray fluorescence, absorption and diffraction at micrometer scales of resolution," American Mineralogist 87, 1494 (2002).
2. BESAC SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS AVAILABLE
ONLINE
(Contact: NVSmith@lbl.gov)
The report of the panel charged with reviewing proposals for future Department of Energy (DOE) science facilities is available online at http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/bes/BESAC/20%20year%20report.pdf. The panel, a subcommittee of the DOE's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC), sought to identify the projects with the highest potential for producing world-class research tools, considering both the importance of the science as well as the readiness of the proposed facilities for construction. The ALS (and Berkeley Lab) proposals include an ALS upgrade, a Coherent Infrared Center (CIRCE), and a Linac-Based Ultrafast X-Ray Source (LUX). More information on these proposals can be found online at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/20/.
The panel strongly recommended that the DOE aggressively pursue funding for needed upgrades at all four DOE light sources. In response, the DOE has asked each of the four light sources to provide input to help BES in planning its response to the BESAC recommendation. Regarding CIRCE (and a similar terahertz/far-infrared facility proposed by the Jefferson Laboratory), the panel encouraged the DOE to organize national workshops exploring the scientific advantages of the proposed facilities and to explore more fully some significant technical hurdles. With respect to LUX, the panel applauded the vision and innovation of the proposal, still in its earliest stages, and suggested the organization of national reviews of the science case, which are necessary before a national competition for such a new facility.
3. UEC CORNER: NOTES FROM THE USERS' EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
by Jennifer Doudna
(Contact: doudna@uclink.berkeley.edu)
The UEC met on March 18-19 to discuss issues relevant to ALS users, particularly with regard to the planned upgrades to the ring and insertion devices. A brief summary of the key agenda items at the meeting are included here, and, as always, user feedback and input to ongoing discussions are requested.
- Proposed ALS upgrades (see ALSNews Item 2 above): Proposals pending at the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) office of the DOE include a change to "top-off" injection of the ring and a corresponding upgrade of insertion devices to keep the United States at the international cutting edge. UEC member Keith Jackson (kjackson@nafeo.org) is soliciting comments and input regarding the effects of these upgrades on users and will be convening a subcommittee to discuss upgrade impact and ways to minimize interference with experiments. Please forward questions and ideas about the proposed upgrades to Keith.
- Planned user support building and on-site housing facilities: The new user support building will replace the current Building 10 adjacent to the ALS and will provide much-needed experimental and office space as well as seminar and meeting rooms. Plans are also in the works for new user housing adjacent to the ALS to provide low-cost short- and medium-term housing for users. UEC member Dan Dessau (dessau@spot.colorado.edu) is the chair of a subcommittee to provide input on the design of these facilities to ALS management.
- Users' Meeting 2003: Eli Rotenberg (ERotenberg@lbl.gov) and Gerry McDermott (GMcDermott@lbl.gov) are the co-chairs of this year's meeting, which is scheduled for October 6-8. The theme for the meeting is "Looking back and ahead 10 years," featuring a retrospective of the past 10 years of ALS operation and a vision for the future of this world-class facility. Users are requested to provide ideas for workshops for the meeting, as well as possible workshop organizers.
- UEC lobbying efforts in Washington: Greg Denbeaux (GPDenbeaux@lbl.gov) will be representing the ALS UEC during a lobbying trip to Washington on April 7-8 to raise awareness of the need for DOE support for synchrotron research. More about these efforts will be reported in a future ALS UEC Corner, so stay tuned.
Thanks for your support of the ALS, and, as always, please contact me or any UEC member with your ideas for the ALS.
4. SYNCHROTRON SUMMER SCHOOL RETURNS TO BERKELEY
(Contacts: nilsson@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu, attwood@eecs.berkeley.edu)
The third Berkeley-Stanford Synchrotron Summer School, to be held at Berkeley June 9-13, 2003, will provide basic lectures on the synchrotron radiation process, requisite technologies, and a broad range of scientific applications. Visits to both the ALS and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) will be included, with opportunities to interact with the professional staff and graduate students at both facilities. The summer school will be limited to approximately 40 graduate students, with a preference for those pursuing doctoral research in the physical sciences in which synchrotron radiation is expected to play a significant role. The summer school is jointly sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Lectures will be presented by professors and scientists from these four organizations and their user communities. The summer school will be housed at Berkeley's Clark Kerr campus. Co-chairs of the summer school are David Attwood (attwood@eecs.berkeley.edu) and Anders Nilsson (nilsson@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu).
Details describing the summer school, planned lectures, housing, and costs are posted at the Web site (http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/eng/synchrotron). Cost of attendance will be $625 for the one-week course (Sunday afternoon through Saturday morning), including lectures, a shared room, breakfast and lunch, and local transportation from the lecture site to the two synchrotron radiation facilities. Applications should include a brief academic record, a statement describing the intended research area and how a knowledge of synchrotron radiation would enhance those studies, a list of publications (if any), and information on how to reach the applicant by email and phone through the period extending to the time of the summer school. Applications are due by May 1, 2003, and can be sent electronically to Course6@unx.berkeley.edu.
5. HIGH-PRESSURE SCIENCE FEATURED ON DISCOVERY
CHANNEL CANADA
(Contact: SMClark@lbl.gov)
High-pressure science at Beamline 7.3.3 received some popular international exposure last week as a featured segment on "Daily Planet," an hour-long science program that airs every week day on the Discovery Channel in Canada. A recent talk about studying phenomena at the pressures and temperatures in the Earth's core, given in Toronto by geophysicist and ALS user Raymond Jeanloz (Univ. of California, Berkeley), caught the imagination of Daily Planet segment producer Ivan Semeniuk, who arranged to have a film crew spend a few hours at the beamline with Jeanloz and beamline scientist Simon Clark. The finished segment, called "Journey to the Core," aired on March 27, 2003, and can be viewed online at http://www.exn.ca/dailyplanet/ (requires Windows Media Player). The segment explains how diamond-anvil cells, such as those used at Beamline 7.3.3, can produce pressures as high as 5.5 Mbar, nearly twice the pressure in the Earth's core. With laser heating, samples in the cell can also reach temperatures of over 5000 K. X rays from the ALS are then used to produce diffraction patterns that reveal the physical and chemical properties of the sample under investigation. The high-pressure work will eventually be moved to Beamline 12.2.2, which is currently under construction and is scheduled for commissioning later this summer.
6. GENERAL USER PROPOSAL SCORES POSTED ONLINE
(Contact: GFKrebs@lbl.gov)
The general user beam time allocation process for the running period from June through November 2003 is complete for the general sciences. The number of proposals for the cycle was 222, up from 197 in the previous period. The number of eight-hour shift requests increased from 3440 to 3932, an increase of about 15%. A total of 1981 shifts, equal to only 50% of the total time requested in the proposals, will be allocated. We will be unable to grant beam time to many excellent proposals. Competition for beam time on insertion-device beamlines was especially keen--for these beamlines, the ALS was able to grant only about 36% of the beam time requested. Requests for the insertion device beamlines will continue to find the proposal process for general users extremely competitive. For more detailed results, including beamline score distributions and cutoff scores, go to http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/pspscores.html.
Beam-time requests for general users experiments are reviewed twice each year. A Proposal Study Panel (PSP) evaluates each proposal, providing the basis for granting beam time. The PSP is made up of eight scientists from a variety of synchrotron scientific disciplines. There is a separate PSP that reviews the crystallography proposals six times each year, allowing for a more rapid access. More information on the PSP and the general user proposal review process is available on the ALS web site http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html.
7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: Lampo@lbl.gov)
For the user run of March 19 - 23 (two-bunch mode), the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 96%. Of the scheduled beam, 95% was delivered to completion without interruption. For the user run of March 25 - 31, the beam reliability was 97%. Of the scheduled beam, 88% was delivered to completion without interruption. There were no significant outages. The ALS shut down at 8:00 A.M. on Monday, March 31, 2003, for planned installations and maintenance. User operations will resume at 8:00 A.M. on Wednesday, April 30, 2003.
Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/schedules/index.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (ALS-CR@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. A Web page showing the ring status in real time can be found at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/status/.
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your email address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content. Submissions are due the Friday before the issue date.
LBNL/PUB-875
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.