From Director Chi-Chang Kao: Structural Molecular Biology at SSRL The goal of understanding biological structure and function, and applying this knowledge to address a wide range of issues with broad societal importance, has evolved into a large multidisciplinary effort. It engages researchers whose goals range from innovative, discovery-based science through applied uses like the acceleration of drug discovery. Knowledge in this field has relevance to solving grand challenge problems related to medicine, energy, and the environment. Within this context, the SSRL Structural Molecular Biology (SMB) program is focused on obtaining and utilizing biomolecular structural information on the nano-to-atomic scale to understand function (and malfunction) of biological processes relevant to human health, sustainable energy, and other areas. The SMB program will continue to develop and provide state-of-the-art facilities and methodologies to study the most challenging biological macromolecular systems, using a combination of macromolecular x-ray crystallography, biological small angle x-ray scattering/diffraction, x-ray imaging, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Read more...

Features Exotic Material Shows Promise as Flexible, Transparent Electrode An international team of scientists with roots at SLAC and Stanford has shown that ultra-thin sheets of an exotic material remain transparent and highly conductive even after being deeply flexed 1,000 times and folded and creased like a piece of paper. The result could open this class of unusual materials, called topological insulators, to its first practical applications: flexible, transparent electrodes for solar cells, sensors and optical communications devices. Read more... Obama to Nominate Bienenstock to National Science Board Arthur Bienenstock, special assistant to President John Hennessy for federal research policy and former Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory director, will be nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Science Board, the White House announced March 9. 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... Synchrotron Radiation in Polymer Science Conference, March 30-April 2 The Synchrotron Radiation in Polymer Science V conference, organized by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will cover the use of synchrotrons in ordering phenomena, spectroscopy, microscopy, and energy applications in polymer sciences. In addition to invited and contributed lectures, poster contributions and presentations are more than welcome and will be highlighted during the poster sessions. Visits to SSRL and the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC as well as to the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley Lab will be organized. Learn more... USA Science and Engineering Festival, April 27-29 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... SSRL School on Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Techniques in Materials and Environmental Sciences, May 29-31 The 2012 SSRL SRXRS (Synchrotron Radiation-based X-Ray Scattering techniques) School will provide a practical users' guide to planning and conducting scattering measurements at SSRL beam lines, and will cover important techniques including thin-film scattering, powder diffraction, in-situ x-ray scattering, and amorphous materials. The school will address topics that are not commonly included in text books or class lectures, and typically obtained only through on-the-experiment training. Good planning and a working knowledge of beam lines, in addition to techniques, are key to conducting successful SRXRS measurements. The school will also cover new instrumentation at SSRL scattering beam lines. 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 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 will include joint SSRL/LCLS parallel science sessions and many opportunities for students to present their work. The organizers encourage your suggestions for workshop topics and speakers who would draw in the larger photon science community to explore new opportunities for SSRL and the Linac Coherent Light Source. Tell us what would make this meeting a great one by e-mailing Cathy Knotts. In addition, we encourage and will reserve slots for student talks; start planning your talk today. Stay tuned for registration details. Announcements Beam Time Request Deadlines April 20 is the deadline for submitting new Macromolecular Crystallography beam time requests for the scheduling period June through August 2012. New crystallography proposals can be submitted by April 1, July 1, or December 1. New X-ray/VUV proposals can be submitted by June 1, September 1, or December 1. A few slots may be available for rapid access to several beam lines; rapid access proposals can be submitted at any time. For the full list of 2012 deadlines, please see the SSRL deadlines webpage. Selected Users' Meeting Talks Now Online Selected talks from the 2011 SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting—including those from the Demystifying the Light Source Experience workshop—can now be found on Stanford iTunes U.

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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