Introduction 1998
Welcome to our third annual Compendium of research abstracts from the Advanced Light Source (ALS). These are intended to convey results and work in progress of many of our user programs. We thank our users for taking time out of their busy schedules to prepare these abstracts.
The last year or so has seen a substantial growth in the number of ALS users: 764 in 1998, up from 387 in 1997. Undulator Beamline 7.0.1 continues as one of the most oversubscribed and prolific beamlines, demonstrating an urgent need for an additional similar beamline. We have also seen significant shifts in user demographics. About 25% of our users are now in the life sciences, a fact attributable to the full operation of our Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (Beamline 5.0.2), which is solving protein structures at a rapid pace. About 10% of our users are now in environmental science thanks largely to the popularity of the microfocus capabilities of Beamlines 10.3.2 (x-ray), 7.0.1 and 6.1 (soft x-ray), and 1.4 (infrared). All this is to the good; it shows that we are adapting to the scientific imperatives that will prevail in the 21st century.
You are most likely reading all this on the Web or from a CD. We are minimizing the number of hard copies to save some trees! I am grateful to Lori Tamura and her colleagues in our Technical Information Section for their professionalism and painstaking efforts in preparing this Compendium for your reading pleasure.
Neville Smith
ALS Division Deputy for Science