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Last Updated: | 30 NOV 2000 |
| Content Owner: | L. Dunn | |
| Page Editor: | L. Dunn |
**** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** * * **** HEADLINES - a digital monthly publication
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Contents of This Issue:
Greetings from the SSRL Director:
Dear Users, Colleagues and Friends of SSRL - as we near the end of 2000, I would like to take a moment to reflect back on the past year. We hope that the quantity (a record 96.7% of scheduled up time), quality (further improved stability) and new resources (Beam Line 11) of synchrotron beam time served your needs well and contributed to outstanding science. We are very grateful to our funding agencies - the Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences for providing the core operations funding and support for materials research and the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research and the National Institutes of Health NIGMS and NCRR Programs for support of the structural biology program - for enabling us to push the technological forefront and serve such a large and growing number of users. I especially thank you the Users for your tireless support of the budgets of these agencies, often with response needed on very short notice.
Our 2001 run cycle is already off to a great start and we look forward to serving your needs as best we can during this coming year. In this regard I want to echo the thoughts in the message below from Paul Foster, Chairperson of the SSRLUO - please let us know your opinions and ideas - it helps us serve you better and improve our operations. As we look beyond the ongoing run, SPEAR3 is on the near horizon. The construction project being funded by DOE and NIH is going very well and the shutdown of SPEAR2 and installation of SPEAR3 is on track to begin in the spring of 2003. When operational in early 2004, SPEAR3 will provide world class performance for many of your experiments. In the more distant future, planning and R&D for what could be the world's first x-ray laser (LCLS) is moving forward and we expect that this 4th generation light source will provide remarkable new opportunities for discovery. In closing, let me extend our very best wishes to all of you for the holiday season and for a great new year!
- Keith Hodgson
Greetings from the Chairperson, SSRL Users Organization Executive Committee:
I would like to take a moment to extend to all SSRL users my holiday greetings and best wishes for the coming year. As you know, every SSRL user is by definition a part of the SSRL Users' Organization (SSRLUO) and as Chair of SSRLUO's Executive Committee, I look forward to representing the interests and concerns of all SSRL users. I also encourage each of you to provide feedback on your SSRL experiences as well as any comments or suggestions regarding the current design or operation of the beam lines. This can be accomplished easily by completing the End-of-Run Summary Form immediately after your SSRL experiments and submitting them by hand to the SSRL staff or via the web form (http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/users/user_admin/form_ers.html). Also, please feel free to contact me directly to discuss any issues or suggestions which may arise (foster@msg.ucsf.edu).
Several recent advancements in science and technology were highlighted at the SSRLUO 27th Annual Meeting in October 2000. In addition to this forum, users are asked to keep SSRL informed whenever they have information to share. This can be in the form of research findings, recent or upcoming presentations, publications or other meetings or events which may of interest to other SSRL users. With your input we look forward to including more information on user activities and news in future additions of the SSRL Headline News. These can be forwarded to Cathy Knotts (knotts@slac.stanford.edu) or Lisa Dunn (lisa@slac.stanford.edu) in the User Research Administration Office.
- Paul Foster
The normal format of short news items will resume with the January, 2001 issue of SSRL Headline News.
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 by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences. 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 Institute for General Medical Sciences. Additional information about SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL WWW site: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/
You can subscribe or remove your name from the distribution list by sending a brief email with your request to Lisa Dunn, editor, at lisa@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu.