Life Sciences Workshop
January 15-16, 2008
A workshop on strategic planning for Life Sciences at the NSLS and NSLS-II will be held at Brookhaven
National Laboratory on January 15-16, 2008.
Introduction:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is in the advanced stages of planning the design of a third generation
synchrotron light source, NSLS-II. In July of 2007, the first NSLS-II User Workshop
was held and the conceptual design and current status of the new machine were presented. As part of this workshop, breakout
sessions were held in eight scientific areas, including Life Sciences. The Life Sciences breakout session
identified a number of scientific drivers and key tools needed for current and future life sciences-based
research at the NSLS and NSLS-II. A series of white papers
was generated from the breakout session that summarized the discussions. Now, the next step in this process is to identify
specific scientific capabilities and beamlines that are needed and to organize the advisory teams that will lead these efforts.
Goal and Scope:
The goal of this workshop is to generate a detailed white paper that presents a vision of Life Sciences research,
beamlines, and facilities at NSLS-II and describes the path forward and timeline toward achieving this goal.
In preparation for the workshop, the workshop organizers and advisors are charged to use earlier workshop
recommendations and recent technical advances to develop:
- a preliminary-plan for the new NSLS-II beamlines needed as primary resources for each scientific community
- a preliminary-plan of NSLS beamlines and/or endstations that can be upgraded and transitioned
- a preliminary-plan for LOB facilities required by the community
- a scenario for the phased construction of the suite of new and transitioned beamlines that will minimize down-time for the scientific community
- Potential funding strategies and timeline
These initial ideas will be presented at the workshop and evaluated and refined by the Life Sciences community.
The agenda for the workshop will include preliminary-plan presentations, community discussions, and break-out sessions for
beamlines focused on particular techniques. We also anticipate that the nucleus of the Beamline Advisory Teams (BATs)
for the life sciences beamlines will be discussed at this workshop.
Participation:
The workshop is open to all who wish to participate but registration is required. For a list of other registered
participants, click here. In order to serve the broad interests and requirements of
Life Sciences researchers, we need your valuable input on the priority beamlines and their specifications, ideas
for ways to enhance their performance, ideas for research and development projects that will provide unique capabilities
for the beamlines, high-impact science problems where understanding structure and function is crucial, and ideas for new
synchrotron techniques or novel beamline concepts. Thus, we strongly encourage your attendance and suggest that you
email a 1-page abstract to the
workshop organizer describing the nature of your ideas. This is your opportunity to get your agenda heard, written,
and acted upon.
Registration Deadline: Friday, January 11, 2008
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