Chi-Chang’s Corner

Department Reorganization for a Stronger NSLS, Future NSLS-II

April 3, 2007

Chi-Chang Kao
NSLS Department Chair
kao@bnl.gov

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I have decided to reorganize the department in order to execute the NSLS Five-Year Strategic Plan and ensure a smooth transition of the department into NSLS-II. The new organization chart is effective as of April 1. At the all-hands meeting on March 23, I detailed the reasons and principles of the reorganization and the major changes it involves. Last week, I also briefed the NSLS Users’ Executive Committee Chair, Stony Brook University professor Chris Jacobsen, of the changes. I expect that these changes will be transparent to users in the short term, and will enable us to serve the user community better in the long run. To the NSLS staff, I understand that the next few weeks might pose some transition difficulties as you adjust to your new roles and working relationships. However, I believe these changes will bring about new opportunities for growth for all of you as well as for the organization. I look forward to discussions about your ideas and suggestions, and working with you to realize these opportunities.

As some of you know, Erik Johnson has accepted a position in the NSLS-II project and the Light Sources Associate Laboratory Director’s office. I would like to thank Erik for his numerous contributions to the NSLS, in particular his leadership in managing the Operations and Engineering Division for the last five years. I also look forward to working closely with him in his new roles.

On the safety front, John Aloi has been named the NSLS Safety Officer, replacing Andrew Ackerman. John is a valuable member of the NSLS safety organization, and I am confident that he will excel in his new role. John is also now the primary contact for experiment safety reviews, beamline configuration control, and radiation safety at the NSLS. He will be busy, so please help him out when you can.

A major safety initiative for the Laboratory is the implementation of the Electrical Equipment Inspection (EEI) program, which is meant to ensure that equipment is free from reasonably foreseeable risk due to electrical hazards. By the end of FY09, all electrical equipment that operates at a voltage greater than 50 volts (this includes all items that are plugged into the wall) must be cataloged and inspected. In the next six months, our effort will be focused on equipment assembled at BNL or brought to the Laboratory from other non-commercial suppliers because inspections on these items are more likely to uncover deficiencies in meeting code requirements. We ask for the cooperation of Participating Research Team (PRT) staff and all of our users as these inspections will include beamline and visiting user equipment. Much of the equipment to be inspected requires that the storage rings and injection systems be shut down, so expect to see personnel working on these inspections during the upcoming May shutdown.

The X25 beamline upgrade is now complete, signaling an end to the X25 overhaul, which began with the installation of the in-vacuum mini-gap undulator in January 2006. After commissioning, X25 will once again be the brightest beamline for macromolecular crystallography at the NSLS across the hard x-ray spectrum. In tandem with the X29 undulator beamline, it will keep us at the cutting edge, providing high-brightness beam for this important class of experiments.

As part of our outreach program, we are targeting universities and institutions around New York State. Even though about a third of our users currently come from New York institutions, there’s still plenty of room for expansion. Recently, Jean Jordan-Sweet from IBM, Ken Evans-Lutterodt, and I visited the Albany Nanotech complex at the University of Albany. Jean and Ken gave an overview of the wide range of microelectronic research at the NSLS to an audience consisting of faculties and students from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, as well as staff from the industrial partners of the Nanotech complex. The talk and subsequent discussions generated much interest in using synchrotron techniques, and have already resulted in several potential collaborations.

Finally, among the many interesting papers produced at the NSLS lately is research led by NSLS physicist Peter Siddons and Chris Ryan, a physicist from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. Combining a large, high-resolution detector array with an advanced analysis technique, the scientists developed an x-ray fluorescence microprobe setup that is more precise and could be more than 1,000 times faster than the traditional setup. You can read the Feature Highlight about their research in this issue of eNews.