| 2006 Users'
Meeting: Topping off
an eventful year
In recent months, the ALS has, among
other things, welcomed a new director, mourned the loss of
a dear friend, dealt with safety issues, and celebrated a
user's Nobel Prize. Following such an eventful period, it
is no wonder that the 2006 ALS Users' Meeting, held October
9–11, was filled from beginning to end with well-attended,
wide-ranging sessions reflecting the intensity and diversity
of interests found in the ALS community. As always, science
was the primary focus, with 12 workshops, 6 research highlights,
an evening public science lecture, and a keynote session featuring
talks about the Molecular Foundry, coherent scattering, and
the NASA Stardust project. In addition, organizers this year
included two special sessions: one showcasing talks by the
Halbach, Shirley, and student poster award winners and a second
devoted to remembering ALS Scientific Director Neville Smith.
Congratulations and thanks go to program co-chairs Elke Arenholz
and Hendrik Ohldag for pulling it all together.
Users talk shop and socialize during
the
combination poster session and vendor reception.
Berkeley Lab Deputy Director Graham Fleming
welcomed attendees, giving a quick review of recent events,
including the sudden
loss of Neville Smith and the announcement of user Roger
Kornberg's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Fleming then introduced
Robert Birgeneau, now Chancellor of the Berkeley campus of
the University of California (UC). In 1997, Birgeneau chaired
a Department of Energy (DOE) panel that gave a mixed review
of the ALS. Now, however, Birgeneau proclaimed the ALS to
be the country's "flagship synchrotron" facility,
crediting its management and scientists with an extraordinary
turnaround.
Robert Birgeneau addresses the opening-session
crowd.
ALS Director Roger Falcone then stepped
up to the podium to deliver his first state-of-the-ALS address.
Appointed just a month earlier, he gave a comprehensive overview
of organizational changes, infrastructure developments, operational
and science highlights, and the next steps toward realization
of the ALS Strategic Plan. Pat Dehmer (DOE Associate Director
of Science for Basic Energy Sciences) and Michael Lubell (Director
of Public Affairs, American Physical Society) painted a cautiously
optimistic picture for DOE science in 2007, which they attributed
to many years of planning and preparation, culminating in
the announcement of the President's American Competitiveness
Initiative in the 2006 State of the Union address.
ALS managers David Robin, Ben Feinberg,
and Gary Krebs brought users up to date on operations, safety,
and the construction of the user support building and guest
house. Users' Executive Committee (UEC) chair Clemens Heske
then led a town hall meeting covering topics ranging from
the safety responsibilities of beamline scientists to preferred
floor plans in the user guest house. The first day of the
meeting closed with a session devoted to "Remembering
Neville Smith," with invited speakers Peter Johnson,
Stephen Kevan, Z.Q. Qiu, and Z.X. Shen reflecting on Neville's
contributions to photoemission science. Later, during Tuesday
evening's banquet on the ALS patio, an open microphone provided
the opportunity to hear many funny and moving tributes to
Neville. A champagne toast, led by Peter Johnson, capped the
evening.
Peter Johnson leads a toast to Neville
Smith.
The presentation of UEC awards was another
highlight of the meeting. The Halbach Award for innovative
instrumentation was won by Carl Cork and John Taylor (Physical
Biosciences Div.); Robert Nordmeyer, Earl Cornell, and Jim
O'Neill (Engineering Div.); and Gyorgy Snell (Takeda San Diego)
for the development of automated crystal-mounting robots for
high-throughput macromolecular crystallography. The Shirley
Award for scientific achievement went to Andreas Scholl (ALS)
and Hendrik Ohldag (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
for their outstanding work in using photoemission electron
microscopy in the study of magnetic materials. The Renner
User Service Award went to Warren Byrne for his exceptional
efforts in providing the highest quality beam and assistance
to ALS users. The first-place student poster award went to
Rajesh Chopdekar (Cornell Univ.), second place went to Regan
Wilks (Univ. of Saskatchewan), and third place went to Geza
Szigethy (UC Berkeley). For more about the science presentations
(including slides) and workshops, see the Users'
Meeting Web site.
ALS user Roger
Kornberg
wins Chemistry Nobel
 Proteins
are the nanosized gears and building blocks of life, and to
solve the mystery of how life works, one must first understand
how proteins work. ALS protein crystallography beamlines have
played a major role in fundamental discoveries involving protein
form and function. ALS user Roger Kornberg (Stanford Univ.),
who won this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his
studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription,"
did his prize-winning research at the Stanford Synchrotron
Radiation Laboratory and the ALS. Kornberg used the crystallography
facilities at Beamlines 5.0.2
and 8.2.1
to identify some of the substructures of RNA polymerase in
action, the protein that converts DNA into RNA through the
process known as transcription. Kornberg and his group were
among the first to capitalize on the crystal automounter robots
at Beamline 5.0.2, which enabled them to screen numerous crystals
to find the best. Members of the Kornberg group are still
regular visitors to the beamlines at the ALS. In fact, on
the day of the announcement, Henrik Spahr and Guillermo Calero,
postdocs in the Kornberg group, were back at Beamline 8.2.1,
as scheduled, to continue the group's work on RNA polymerase.
Stanford
press release
Starting
the RNA Assembly Line
Enzyme
Structure Provides Clues to DNA Transcription Details
Users' Executive
Committee
elections begin October 27
It's time again to select new members
for the ALS UEC. This year, three new members will be elected
to replace retiring members Greg Denbeaux, Ed Westbrook, and
Corie Ralston. Nominees for this year's election include Anton
Barty (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Ken Goldberg
[Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO)], Peter Fischer (CXRO), Jay
Nix (Molecular Biology Consortium), Paulo Monteiro (UC Berkeley),
Chang Chang (Drexel Univ.), Marc David Whitlow (Berlex Biosciences),
and Franz Himpsel (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison). To find out
more about the nominees, view their biographies,
research interests, and candidate statements.
The election will be conducted online
beginning Friday, October 27; on or after that date, go to
the log-in
page to vote. Members of the ALS user community must have
a valid email address and Berkeley Lab employee idenification
number. Voters are also asked to consider the proposed changes
to the UEC charter and vote either YES or NO to accepting
all (or none) of the changes. The current and revised versions
of the charter can be viewed on the UEC
voting Web site.
Contact: Clemens Heske, heske@unlv.nevada.edu
National Center
For X-Ray Tomography
beamline dedicated
The National Center for X-Ray Tomography
(NCXT) beamline (Beamline 2.1)
was officially dedicated at the ALS on October 11. A ribbon-cutting
ceremony and tour was held in conjunction with a workshop
on tomography organized as part of the ALS Users' Meeting.
Among those on hand to participate in the ceremonies were
Graham Fleming, Deputy Director of Berkeley Lab; Roger Falcone,
ALS Director; Roland Hirsch, of the Biological and Environmental
Research (BER) program in the DOE Office of Science; Amy Swain
and Barbara Alving, of the National Center for Research Resources
program in the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Allan
Basbaum, chair of the Anatomy Department, Univ. of California,
San Francisco; and Carolyn Larabell and Mark Le Gros, NCXT
principal and co-principal investigators.
Cutting the ribbon that officially
opened the new National Center for X-Ray Tomography were
Roland Hirsch, Allan Basbaum, Carolyn Larabell, Barbara
Alving, Amy Swain, and Roger Falcone.
The new beamline features a state-of-the
art x-ray transmission microscope capable of imaging whole,
hydrated biological cells at resolutions of almost 35 nanometers
and cellular structures at 25 nanometers. Funded by the DOE
and NIH, the NCXT beamline will be available to trained users
from across the country.
Berkeley
Lab press release
Bringing
the Mesoscale Into Focus
NCXT Web site
Contacts: Carolyn Larabell, CALarabell@lbl.gov;
Mark Le Gros, MALeGros@lbl.gov
Protein crystallography
undergoes
cross-cutting review
All eight of the ALS macromolecular crystallography
beamlines underwent a cross-cutting review this month, in
anticipation of the renewal of the beamlines' memoranda of
understanding (MOUs) with the ALS. All of the beamlines are
independently funded, but nevertheless make some use of ALS
local resources. The MOUs spell out terms of operation at
the ALS, the beamtime allocation percentages among the PRT
and general user groups, and fees charged for proprietary
research. The cross-cutting review provided the opportunity
to document macromolecular crystallography activity across
the board and to update MOU language clarifying the roles
and responsibilities of beamline scientists, principal investigators,
and users with respect to safety.
In their charge, the review committee
was asked to provide advice and recommendations on topics
such as beamline productivity, impact and importance of the
work, effectiveness of beamline management, optimization of
beam time, relative funding scenarios, and enhancements required
to maintain competiveness five years into the future. The
review committee was chaired by Keith Moffat (Univ. of Chicago)
and included Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley), Michael Soltis
(Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory), Bob Sweet (Brookhaven
National Laboratory), and John Quintana (Advanced Photon Source).
The beamlines were represented by Paul Adams (5.0.1,
5.0.2,
5.0.3,
8.2.1,
8.2.2),
Tom Alber (8.3.1),
Edwin Westbrook and Jay Nix (4.2.2),
and John Tainer, Greg Hura, and Scott Classen (12.3.1).
Contact: Paul Adams, PDAdams@lbl.gov
Extended Fall
shutdown paves
way for top-off upgrade
 The
ALS Fall 2006 shutdown is now underway. The facility is shut
down for two and a half months, starting October 16, to accommodate
some extensive work required in preparation for the transition
to top-off injection. The main power supplies for the booster
bend and quadrupole magnets are being replaced as well as
the power supplies for the booster-to-storage ring transfer-line
bend magnets. The booster radio frequency (rf) system is also
undergoing major upgrades, with the replacement of the transmitter,
the associated power supply, and a new transmission line into
the booster. Significant changes and upgrades to the control
and timing systems are also being done to ensure that all
the new equipment works together.
Storage-ring work includes a major upgrade
to the the Beamline 5.0 front-end optics, installation of
a high-order-mode damper on rf cavity #1, outfitting all sectors
with new beam-position monitors, installation of an experimental
camshaft bunch kicker, and our annual swap out of the superbend
magnet cold heads. User shifts are scheduled to return during
the first week of January 2007. The plan is to operate the
ALS with full-energy injection shortly after the installation
shutdown. We anticipate slowly migrating to full top-off operation
during the second half of the 2007 calendar year.
Contacts: Steve Rossi, SLRossi@lbl.gov |
