From SSRL Director Chi-Chang Kao: Increasing Catalysis Capabilities at SSRL With each passing week, SSRL's five-to-ten year strategic goals are becoming increasingly well defined. Previous columns have presented our plans for Materials Science and Outreach and Support Efforts; in this column, we cover our goals for catalysis research at the light source. Catalysis is the essential mechanism for directing and accelerating chemical reactions. The development of efficient and selective catalysts is key to enabling use of alternative sources of fuels and chemicals, directly or indirectly based on renewable resources, to meet the growing energy needs, while reducing environmental impact. Read more...

Feature SSRL Symposium Pays Tribute to Pioneering Scientist In early February, more than 70 scientists from around the world came to SLAC for a symposium celebrating the life and work of Hirotsugu Tsuruta, a senior scientist at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource who passed away last August at the age of 49. Tsuruta, who joined SSRL in 1991, was a driving force behind the development of Beam Line 4-2 into a state-of-the-art facility specializing in biological small angle x-ray scattering. Read more... Events NUFO to Host Exhibit in D.C., March 28-29 The National User Facility Organization (NUFO) has again been invited to showcase user facility science at an outreach event on Capitol Hill. This event will highlight the significant and important role that scientific user facilities play in science education, economic competitiveness, fundamental knowledge, and scientific achievements. We invite all interested parties to join us on March 28 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building (Room SD-G50) and on March 29 in the Cannon Caucus Room in the Cannon House Building. Learn more... USA Science and Engineering Festival, April 28-29 Join us in Washington D.C. for the second annual USA Science and Engineering Festival. This year's event will feature over 2000 fun, interactive exhibits and 100 stage shows. Plan to stop by the SLAC and National User Facility Organization (NUFO) booths or volunteer to help by contacting Cathy Knotts. Learn more... Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation, July 9-13 The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Synchrotron SOLEIL will jointly host the 11th International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI 2012). This event will take place July 9-13, 2012 in the Lyon Convention Centre. SRI is the largest international forum for exchange and collaboration among scientists involved in development of new concepts, technologies and instruments related to synchrotron radiation research. Learn more... Save the Date: LCLS/SSRL Users' Meeting, October 3-6 In response to user feedback, the 2012 Users’ Meeting—scheduled for October 3-6, 2012—will include joint SSRL/LCLS parallel science sessions and many opportunities for students to present their work through contributed talks and posters. The organizers encourage your suggestions for workshop topics and keynote speakers who would draw in the larger photon science community to explore new opportunities for SSRL and LCLS. Send an e-mail to share your ideas and tell us about us what would make this meeting a great one for you. Announcements Beam Time Request Deadlines March 1 is the deadline for submitting new X-ray/VUV Beam Time Requests for the scheduling period May through July 2012; April 20 is the deadline for submitting new Macromolecular Crystallography Beam Time Requests for the scheduling period June through July 2012. For the full list of 2012 deadlines, please see the SSRL deadlines webpage.

SSRL Headlines is published electronically monthly to inform SSRL users, sponsors and other interested people about happenings at SSRL. SSRL is a national synchrotron user facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences by Stanford University. Additional support for the structural biology program is provided by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the NIH National Center for Research Resources and the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Additional information about SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL website.

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Questions? Comments? Contact Kelen Tuttle