December 14, 2007
Participants (via conference call):Katherine Kantardjieff, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Karen McFarlane Holman, Art Nelson, Riti Sarangi, Jo Stöhr, Robert Szilagyi.
Robert Szilagyi, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the participants and began the meeting. Notes follow.
Charter: Robert encouraged feedback on the draft charter which was circulated by email before the meeting. It was suggested that the first paragraph be modified to include a comment that the 'SSRLUO shall advise the Director and Scientific Advisory Committee on matters of concern to users.' It was suggested that award descriptions be added to Section E. Awards. ACTION: Robert will revise the draft and resend it to the committee before it is posted on the website.
2008 User Survey: Jo Stöhr participated in the discussion, reiterated his appreciation for the advisory role served by the SSRLUOEC, and encouraged additional input into future strategic planning for SSRL. He plans to meet with the SSRLUOEC in early 2008 to further discuss long-term future plans and opportunities to better serve the synchrotron user committee. Jo challenged the SSRLUOEC to think about ways to inform/engage more of the entire user community in these plans.
Specific changes to the draft survey which we plan to have ready for users to complete ~January 15-31, 2008 were discussed. These included inelastic x-ray scattering and advanced spectroscopy as well as X-ray microscopy beam lines 200-1500 ev and 1.5-15 KeV on the list of proposed scientific facilities/initiatives. The User Experience question on 'Availability of Lab Prep Space' will be changed to just 'Lab Prep Space' to encourage an overall satisfaction rating. For ratings less than satisfactory, users will be asked to provide additional comments. Several users requested that information on oversubscription and average rating or cut-off rating per beam line be made available to users.
ACTION: Robert will incorporate comments and circulate revise survey for the committee to review. Cathy Knotts will work with SLAC Info Media to develop a website to implement the survey (e.g, Surveymonkey).
2008 SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting: The committee encourages LCLS/LUSI/PULSE to appoint a scientist to serve as a co-chair along with Wayne Lukens (LBNL/SSRLUOEC) and Riti Sarangi (SSRL) to help to plan the scientific program. Some people noted that the last ultrafast sessions on instrumentation and science were redundant, while others found this led to a better understanding. Wayne suggested that for next year, it may be advisable to plan parallel sessions on SSRL and LCLS accelerator and beam line developments. The 2008 survey will encourage users to provide feedback on the last users' conference and to suggest topics for workshops. Katherine Kantardjieff suggested that a crystallography workshop related to recent structure issues might be useful. ACTION: The committee was asked to talk to their colleagues and begin to suggest potential speakers, session topics, and workshop topics for the 2008 SSRL/LCLS Users' Conference.
Outreach/Activism: Robert reported that he sent out over two thousand emails to the SSRL user community to encourage user advocacy to favorably affect the DOE BES funding situation. He sent these out 20 at a time using the account to avoid being rejected as spam. Robert encourages SSRLUOEC suggestions on to further outreach/activism.
Next meeting Thursday, January 31st: Robert will be at SSRL to participate in a discussion as part of the DOE BES program review January 29-31, 2008. It was suggested that the SSRLUOEC convene again on January 31st to continue these discussions and begin to review results from the user survey. Please circulate your availability for a conference call on this date. ACTION: SSRLUOEC members to send email noting available times on January 31st for a conference call. As soon as a time is determined, Robert Szilagyi and Cathy Knotts will make arrangements for the next meeting.
July 20, 2007
Participants:
Rebecca Fenn, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Karen McFarlane Holman, Apurva Mehta, Hiro Ogasawara, Hendrik Ohldag, Stephane Richard, Monika Sommerhalter, Jo Stöhr, Robert Szilagyi.
Chris Kim, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the meeting participants and began the conference call. Notes follow.
SSRL34 Users' Meeting: Robert Szilagyi (SSRLUOEC Vice Chair; Montana State University) and Hiro Ogasawara (SSRL) provided an update on plans for the annual users' meeting which will be a joint SSRL and LCLS meeting. Postcards advertising the meeting have been sent to everyone on the SSRL mailing list, and registration is now open on the meeting website: http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/ssrl-lcls/2007 An email was sent recently to all users on active proposals for the last five years to encourage users to submit abstracts for oral presentations or poster presentations and to consider nominating their colleagues for either the Spicer Young Investigator Award (due August 1), the Klein Professional Development Award (due August 1), or the Lytle Award (due August 15). http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/ssrl-lcls/2007/awards.htm Committee members were confirmed for most of the committees. Spicer Committee: Becky Fenn. Glenn Waychunas; Klein Committee: Becky Fenn, Dick Lee, Bill Schlotter; Lytle Award: All SSRL-UOEC members.
Karen McFarlane Holman agreed to be the MC for the poster data blitz on October 1st during lunch. The plan is for Cathy to contact people who submit an abstract for a poster presentation to ask if they are willing to give a 2-3 minute summary during lunch to "advertise" their poster. Robert anticipates that this will generate interest and enthusiasm for the poster session and would be particularly helpful for students interested in participating in the outstanding poster competition. Users are needed to serve as poster judges as well as on the selection committees for the Spicer and Klein awards. Nominations for the Lytle Award will be circulated to the committee by email in mid August.
There will be an SSRLUOEC meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 2 ~1-5 pm, and exciting topics are needed to encourage people to stay after the conference to participate in the meeting as well as to attend the keynote presentation by Roger Kornberg later that evening (5:45-6:30 pm). Suggestions included: the top 5 things you need to know to be a SR user; a mini advocacy workshop; a discussion of 500mA plans and top off injection and what it means for user experiments; feedback from the January 2007 user survey and what issues people want feedback on for the 2008 survey.
SSRL User Feedback: The user survey conducted in January 2007 has been reactivated on the web so that committee members can review the questions and consider what issues should be surveyed next year. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=684163096333 It was noted that maintaining a similar structure on future surveys will make it easier to monitor feedback and trends over time. A summary of the 2007 survey results will be posted to the SSRL website. Discussions included:
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Jo Stöhr participated in this meeting and encouraged users to provide feedback on management and operations as part of the current review underway by the external consulting group, McCallum Turner. Specifically, users are asked to consider what types of central services might be utilized by users, and if there are critical services that users would want to continue to be provided by SSRL. Wayne Lukens reported that the current process with OHP works well for actinides. Monika Sommerhalter reported that there are continuing problems with dry dewars being sent by Federal Express as hazardous. There was concern that rather than bother with SLAC shipping, users would drive their dewars directly to a FedEx store for shipping. Several users also noted that they appreciated that data remained available to users for a very long time, and they wanted to ensure that this continued (assuming that long-term data storage space is not an issue).
Undergraduate Research Initiatives: Chris Kim summarized the points made in a letter to Jo Stöhr regarding undergraduate research. Since the last meeting, it was determined that it was unlikely that funds could be used to support student travel to conduct experiments (this is not allowed with DOE funds). Chris will contact the Stanford Guest House to inquire if they have any flexibility to provide housing subsidies or to reduce the rates for students.
Several users suggested that SSRL consider extending the run year by several weeks and shifting the summer shutdown for upgrades and maintenance until later August. This would allow users who have heavy teaching obligations during the school year to conduct experiments as well as encourage undergraduate students who are working at various facilities over the summer (e.g., NSF REU) to participate in experiments and gain practical experience. Jo Stöhr reported that this idea could be pursued further to determine how many users would use the extra beam time in August and if it is feasible from an operations perspective.
Robert Szilagyi expressed interest in writing an NSF REU proposal to support undergraduate research, and he also reported that at MSU NSF funds ($5K) could be requested specifically to support students during the summer. Several users expressed interest in working together and they will investigate whether multiple universities could apply for NSF funds to support undergraduate research at their respective institutions.
STXM Workshop: Hendrik Ohldag summarized the STXM workshop held at Stanford on July 9-10 (full workshop summary is being prepared). The SSRL BL13 STXM presents a unique chance to study forefront proteins in the bulk and at surfaces of thin films, multilayers and nanoparticles. There is a large demand for nanospectroscopy and imaging probes, which is not satisfied currently. While the spatial resolution will improve the currently 20-50nm down below 10 nm in the future, the more important aspects of a new facility would be the possibility to cover a wide energy range (e.g., 200eV-10keV). SSRL is very strong in this energy range and has a strong user community. Working groups convened during the workshop to identify challenges, roadblocks, and needs for STXM based science in bio-, geo- and environmental sciences. Two identical STXM microscopes at different beam lines (each optimized for the soft and "harder" x-ray range so that samples can be taken from one beam line to another) are proposed. Sources can be undulator magnets. This plan would require some administration in terms of scheduling.
New Directions in X-ray Scattering: Apurva Mehta summarized the workshop held in December 2006 to solicit user input on the new directions that the SSRL materials science scattering program should take to better meet the needs of materials and chemical sciences, upgrade beam lines to take advantage of modern instrumentation and maximally utilize the improved source characteristics that the SPEAR3 upgrade provides. The workshop concluded that most of the needs can be met by two wiggler and one bend magnet beam lines (upgraded or rebuilt BLs, 10-2, 7-2 and 2-1). A detailed summary of the workshop and copies of the presentations can be found at http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/conferences
Next meeting: Chris suggested scheduling the next SSRLUOEC meeting in late August.
June 8, 2007
Participants Joy Andrews, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Art Nelson, Stephane Richard, Robert Szilagyi, Glenn Waychunas.
Chris Kim, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the meeting participants and began the conference call. Notes follow.
National User Facilities Organization (NUFO): ALS hosted a meeting of user facility representatives, user administrators, and interested parties at LBNL on June 4-5. Joy Andrews, Chris Kim, and Cathy Knotts participated in the meeting to represent SSRL. Information related the meeting, including a list of participants, agenda and links to several of the presentations can be found at the meeting website: http://www-als.lbl.gov/nufo/agenda.htm A steering committee was formed at the meeting to work on developing a NUFO mission statement and beginning to determine how the group would organize future activities. It was suggested that the UEC's designate a advocacy representative to NUFO, and that this individual be someone who is interested in advocacy and in establishing long-term relationships with Congressional representatives and staffers in DC and/or in their home district. One goal of NUFO might be to better coordinate advocacy activities so that the SNUG folks know when HEP plans trips to DC and vice versa so that meetings could be scheduled for maximum coverage and impact.
User Advocacy: SNUG Chair Joy Andrews gave a summary of recent Synchrotron and Neutron Users Group (SNUG) activities which include plans for another trip to DC in June. Joy raised the issue of establishing a more formal structure for the SNUG along the lines of the proposed structure for NUFO. It was suggested that a vice chair could be elected and member terms could be staggered for approximately 3 years to ensure that the committee maintains continuity and gets the benefit of members' experience and guidance. There was also a suggestion to have an advocacy subcommittee to the SSRLUOEC in order to coordinate activities with SNUG and NUFO as well as to quickly mobilize users for various activities as opportunities arise (letter writing campaigns, thank you letters, visits to DC, local congressional visits, talking points/handouts for meetings, etc.).
SSRL User Survey:: Chris Kim drafted a letter to SSRL Director Jo Stöhr summarizing the results of the user survey conducted in January (results were also shared with the SSRL Scientific Advisory Committee at their February meeting). Results have been posted to the SSRL website.
A suggestion was made to ask SSRL to consider shifting the summer shutdown for upgrades and maintenance until later August. This would allow users who have heavy teaching obligations during the school year to conduct experiments, and this may also facilitate more participation in beam time by undergraduate students who have time in the summer.
Undergraduate Research Initiatives:: Chris Kim shared a draft of his letter to Jo Stöhr regarding undergraduate research. The SSRL-UOEC plans to propose several initiatives to facilitate the participation of undergraduate students in conducting research at SSRL, with the following rationale: Providing undergraduate students with greater opportunities to conduct scientific research at a top-level facility will help encourage them to continue their studies in graduate science programs;
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The SSRL-UOEC would like to work with SSRL administration to consider different methods of facilitating undergraduate research. This includes but is not limited to:
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Annual Users' Meeting: Robert Szilagyi (SSRLUOEC Vice Chair; Montana State University) provided a update on plans the annual users' meeting which will be a joint SSRL and LCLS meeting. There will be an SSRLUOEC meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 2 ~1-5 pm, and we need exciting topics to encourage people to stay after the conference to participate in the meeting as well as to attend the keynote presentation by Roger Kornberg later that evening (5:45-6:30 pm). Suggestions included: the top 5 things you need to know to be a SR user; a mini advocacy workshop; a discussion of 500mA plans and top off injection and what it means for user experiments; feedback from the January 2007 user survey and what issues people want feedback on for the 2008 survey.
EnviroSync Workshop: Chris announced that in mid July, there will an environmental science workshop in DC - EnviroSync. Chris will forward additional information to interested users. User input is requested.
Next meeting:: Chris suggested scheduling the next SSRLUOEC meeting be held on July 20th.
April 23, 2007
Participants Joy Andrews, Persis Drell, Jonathan Faulkner, Jesse Guzman, Bob Hettel, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Karen Holman MacFarlane (by phone), Art Nelson, Kristi Nelson, Hirohito Ogasawara, Stephane Richard, James Safranek, Monika Sommerhalter, Robert Szilagyi, Jo Stöhr, Glenn Waychunas.
Chris Kim, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the meeting participants and began the meeting. Notes follow.
SSRL User Administration Discussion: Some users asked whether they could request multiple beam time allocations on different beam lines under the same proposal during a scheduling period; it was confirmed that these types of requests for shorter, more frequent allocations of beam time are allowed and would be scheduled as long as there was time available on the requested beam line. However, users need to submit separate requests for each allocation so that the equipment set up and safety issues are addressed for each experiment (even if these do not change). As much as possible, users with similar set ups are scheduled back-to-back to minimize the number of equipment changeovers and most efficiently utilize available beam time and staff resources.
SSRL User Survey:: Chris Kim summarized the results of the user survey conducted in January (results were also shared with the SSRL Scientific Advisory Committee at their February meeting). We received 370 unique responses to the comprehensive survey which queried users on a wide variety of categories related to their SSRL user experience. In general, a high degree of satisfaction was expressed by users with nearly all of the resources available to aid them in their research. Specifically, they emphasized the strong support for the excellent SSRL beam line staff, whose dedication to user support was noted many times throughout the survey and led one user to refer to them as the "jewels of SSRL". The SSRL-UOEC recommended that the survey be repeated annually. Chris will formally summarize the results in a letter to Jo Stohr
SLAC Director Search:: Persis Drell joined the meeting to summarize the broad-based search underway for someone to lead SLAC when Director Jonathan Dorfan steps down later this year. On behalf of the search committee, she requested SSRL user input during the information phase of the search process. Specifically, the committee seeks user input to identify the opportunities and challenges facing the lab in the next decade as well as the attributes of the next director. Users suggested that several characteristics would be important for the SLAC Director, including: strong management skills, political savvy, good communication skills, public relations minded, and experience with managing change. The SSRL Users Organization Executive Committee (SSRL-UOEC), in conjunction with the SLAC Director Search Committee, developed and distributed a brief web based survey for the SSRL user community to assist in identifying issues, characteristics and names of potential candidates.
User Advocacy: Joy Andrews gave a summary of recent Synchrotron and Neutron Users Group (SNUG) activities which included a meeting in conjunction with the San Francisco Materials Research Society meeting on April 10th. User representatives have made several trips to DC during this year (January, March), and another trip was recommended in June to meet with new members of Congress to raise awareness about synchrotron and neutron facilities, what these machines do, examples of research made possible by the facilities, why the research is important to national competitiveness, why the FY07 continuing resolution was a problem, and why FY08 funding is needed. Joy mentioned that slides of user research highlights and a one-page summary were being updated, and she invited users to review/edit existing slides and to suggest other examples to feature (particularly those involving industrial applications). She also suggested that the facilities compile more information on industrial users and the types of applications they are working on at the various facilities as this was a frequently asked question during advocacy discussions. Chris Kim and Joy Andrews mentioned that user advocacy will be one of the topics discussed at the National Users Facility Organization (NUFO) meeting which will be hosted by ALS at LBNL in June 2007.
Annual Users' Meeting: Robert Szilagyi (SSRLUOEC Vice Chair; Montana State University) and Hiro Ogasawara (SSRL) are organizing the program for the annual users' meeting which will be a joint SSRL and LCLS meeting. Robert gave an update on planned activities, including several workshops.
Accelerator Development Update: Bob Hettel and James Safranek joined the meeting and gave an update on lower emittance optics (lower emittance=brighter beam). The SSRL Accelerator Physics group used recent machine physics time to test injection and stored current operations of the SPEAR3 accelerator in a low emittance mode. Tests of this new magnetic lattice, which lowers the SPEAR3 emittance from 15nm rad to 9.75nm rad, proved highly successful. Consequently, initial low emittance user operations will commence in early May. In this mode of operations the electron beam horizontal size shrinks approximately 20%, resulting in a commensurate reduction in the horizontal spot size on most focused end stations. To preserve the stored electron beam lifetime, the ring vertical coupling is increased somewhat. This results in slightly larger electron beam vertical size, but the increase is sufficiently small that the effect on focused beam vertical size is not observable. Regarding 500mA operations or top-off injection, further preliminary tests have been put on hold pending additional readiness reviews and safety approvals which are needed in order to proceed. SSRL is working with other facilities to share their experiences, including the ALS who is going through a similar validation process.
Undergraduate Research Initiatives: Several SSRLUOEC members represent undergraduate universities, and they are very interested in exploring mechanisms to stimulate and facilitate undergraduate research. It was suggested that the SSRLUOEC send a letter to the SSRL Director to explore opportunities related undergraduate research. Another suggestion was to consider ways to promote/incorporate undergraduate research in the proposal process and to discuss this with the SSRL Proposal Review Panel at a future meeting.
Housing Issues: John Faulkner and Kristi Nelson ( , 650-926-5193) from the Stanford Guest House participated in the meeting to discuss utilization, changes in room configuration and rates. The Guest House utilization statistics follow: 30% SLAC, 22% Stanford, 11% Medical Center, 37% vacant. Bunk bed rooms have been the least utilized and will be replaced with a standard bed in May (an additional rollaway bed can also be requested for queen size rooms). SSRL/SLAC users receive a discount on rooms over the rack rate ($75/105 single/queen vs. $89/119). Payment is needed to hold rooms (including group blocks). Users should identify their affiliation with SSRL in case a block of rooms are being held when the rest of the Guest House is sold out (this is likely during major Stanford events such as graduation week in June). Bikes are available for loan to registered guests. Users who have any questions or problems can contact Kristi Nelson directly.
Next meeting:: Chris suggested scheduling the next SSRLUOEC meeting be held by conference call on June 8th.
February 15, 2007
Conference Call Participants Joy Andrews, Jesse Guzman, Bob Hettel, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Art Nelson, Hirohito Ogasawara, Stephane Richard, James Safranek, Monica Sommerhalter, Jo Stöhr, Robert Szilagyi, Glenn Waychunas.
Chris Kim, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the meeting participants and began the meeting. Notes and action items (in bold) follow.
SSRL User Administration Update: Cathy Knotts presented several slides including safety, communications, access by foreign users, user operations, and an update on active proposals. Copies of an SSRL brochure prepared for the AAAS meeting in San Francisco were also distributed. Cathy encouraged users to inform SSRL whenever research is about to be published so that SSRL can work with users and their home institution to more broadly disseminate user research.
SSRL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) Meeting: Chris Kim, Robert Szilagyi and Stephane Richard summarized their discussion with the SAC which had a concurrent meeting in the Redwood Rooms. An SSRL user survey was conducted via the web during the month of January. Results of the user survey were shared with the SAC and SSRLUOEC. Chris mentioned that the results could be further processed, and that a similar survey could be done in the future (perhaps annually) to poll users for feedback and also to solicit their ideas for new developments for SSRL. There was a suggestion to tie the survey into the proposal process to increase the response rate and to correlate the questions to the users' scientific field or technique.
A number of users expressed interest in detector development; the SSRLUOEC recommended that users be included and/or informed of developments in this area.
A problem with dry dewars being shipped back to user institutions as "hazardous" shipments was discussed. When this happens, users are charged a much higher rate for shipments, and consequently, users request the ability to ship dry dewars as non-hazardous in order to save on shipping costs.
A few other suggestions were discussed: 1) add more high back chairs to the beam lines to allow users to rest more comfortably when collecting data; 2) problem.
User Advocacy: In the survey, users were specifically asked about their willingness to participate in advocacy activities. As might be expected a significant number of users expressed interest in sending emails, and fewer expressed a willingness to participate in meetings with Congressional representatives (in DC or locally). Joy Andrews gave an update on joint advocacy activities of the Synchrotron and Neutron Users Group (SNUG) who visited Washington in October and January (another visit was scheduled for March 2007). Chris Kim gave an update on the National Users Facility Organization (NUFO); the next NUFO meeting will be hosted by ALS at LBNL in June 2007.
SSRL34 Users' Meeting: Robert Szilagyi (SSRLUOEC Vice Chair; Montana State University) will co-chair the next annual users' meeting along with Hiro Ogasawara (SSRL); they shared preliminary plans for the meeting and workshops to be held in conjunction with the annual meeting (October 1-3, 2007). Questions related to areas of interest and potential topics were included in the user survey; Robert and Hiro were working to incorporate these suggestions into the program. A suggestion was made to invite a speaker to give a keynote address, perhaps during the banquet. As much as possible, presentation of awards will be incorporated into the user meeting program to coincide with presentations from the individuals being recognized (e.g., Spicer Young Investigator Award, Klein Scientific Development Award).
Undergraduate Research Initiatives: Several SSRLUOEC members represent undergraduate universities, and they are very interested in exploring mechanisms to stimulate and facilitate undergraduate research. Potential funding for undergraduate outreach was discussed, possibly including NSF or industrial sponsorship of summer internships? Several potential options to promote undergraduate research were discussed including:
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500 mA/Top Off Update: Bob Hettel and James Safranek joined the meeting and gave an update of plans for 500 mA operation and top off injection. James shared data from preliminary tests of top off conducted during the January 23, 2007 accelerator physics period. Further preliminary tests are anticipated later in the year. However, before SSRL can proceed several reviews and approvals will need to be completed. SSRL is working with other facilities to share their experiences, including the ALS who is going through a similar validation process with top off injection. The latest target is to be able to inject with stoppers open by the end of 2007.
Next meeting:: Chris' suggested scheduling the next SSRLUOEC meeting when he would be in town for beam time, Friday 4/20-Thursday 4/26; afternoon seems to work well for many people (~1-5 pm). The committee adjourned to Vino Locale at 431 Kipling St in Palo Alto for refreshments.
Cathy Knotts
SSRL Liaison to SSRL Users' Organization Executive Committee
