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SSRLUO-EC
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SSRLUO Minutes
Welcome/Introductions
SSRLUOEC Chair Joy Andrews began the meeting by asking everyone to introduce
themselves. Attendees included: Joy Andrews, Linda Brinen, Lisa Downward, Ian
Evans, Zsu Zsa Hamburger, Britt Hedman, Bob Hettel, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts,
Aaron Lindenberg, Piero Pianetta, Stephane Richard, Bill Schlotter, Robert
Scott, Abner Souffer, Jo Stöhr, Glenn Waychunas.
Safety Update
Ian Evans gave a presentation on safety, including suggestions for both work
and home. In reply to a question about the machine shop at SSRL, users were
discouraged from using this shop without specific authorization. They can,
however, contact SSRL staff or the Duty Operator to find out if someone can
help them to get parts machined. Users are encouraged to stay informed and
follow policies as they relate to safety and to ask if they have any questions.
SSRL Director's Update
SSRL Director Jo Stöhr introduced the SSRL Deputy Directors Britt Hedman and
Piero Pianetta. He emphasized the need to continue to focus on safety in all
activities. Jo reviewed the status of the various beam lines and focus areas
for SSRL (areas where SSRL is or can establish a center of excellence to
conduct forefront science to attract and retain key scientists and faculty,
such as ultrafast science). He mentioned that we have the opportunity to
explore different fill patterns and timing experiments. Jo and Piero also
encouraged users to provide input into user needs and desires for future
capabilities, for example, would users desire better detectors for materials
scattering/diffraction beam lines like BL2-1 and 7-2? There are many scientific
opportunities but in order to pursue these, a strong scientific case would be
needed.
Top-Off Injection
Bob Hettel summarized the status of SPEAR, including recent events related to
approval for 500mA operations (expected shortly for the ring, approval for beam
line operations at 500mA will require additional radiation protection review).
As planning for top off injection continues, Bob is interested in working with
users to identify issues related to various types of experiments, tolerable
modes, and degree of interruption.
PRP Encourages User Feedback
At their February 6th meeting, the PRP indicated their desire to have more
interaction with users. Prior to the SSRLUOEC meeting, a list of questions
from the PRP was circulated to encourage feedback and discussion:
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What are your issues and how can the PRP help?
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Any questions about the PRP review process? Is it working well?
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Would a proposal writing workshop be helpful to you?
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Any issues particular to young scientists? female scientists?
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Any suggestions for attracting more users?
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Any suggestions for helping new users get acquainted with the facility and/or
started with their experiments?
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Robert Scott, PRP member and SSRL user, participated in this meeting to
facilitate user feedback on these topics and any other issues important to
users. Several suggestions were made including, surveying spokespersons to
determine if they want to raise any issues (perhaps incorporating this question
as part of a new proposal submission or user meeting registration process);
arranging a focus session with users and PRP members; arranging a proposal
writing workshop at the next Users' Meeting; and designating resources to
update mailing list capabilities in the user database (contact specific groups
of users by technique, discipline, geographic designation, etc.). Specific
recommendations were made to encourage the PRP to give more consideration in
determining a proposal's rating to the efficient use of past beam time
(comparing previous shifts allocated to publications, etc.), and users request
that the PRP include a paragraph along with ratings so that they better
understand any issues related to their proposal and why a specific rating was
given. A recommendation was made to consider a more formal program of peer
mentoring where staff scientists and other experienced investigators would help
new investigators (perhaps initially as part of a collaboration) in writing
proposals, experimental set up, collecting and analyzing data, etc., in order to
help new users get the most out of their beam time. A similar suggestion was
made to more widely disseminate PRP contact information and to post the
best/highest rated proposals (spokesperson name, institution, title of
proposal) on the website in order to assist new users in contacting experienced
users for advice. Another suggestion was made to expand the list of peer
reviewers (concern that using the same reviewers created "an old boy network"
where new investigators may not be rated as highly as more well known and
established investigators).
Update of User Activities and Activism
SSLRUOEC Chair Joy Andrews gave a presentation on the many recent activities
related to user activism, including the formation of a joint Synchrotron and
Neutron Users Group (SNUG) and an advocacy committee comprised of user
representatives. Joy also shared news about budgets and new initiatives related
to science, technology innovation, and the President's American Competitiveness
Initiative. In preparation for meetings in Washington in April, Lisa Downward
is compiling a briefing document of research highlights from the various
facilities, statistics to demonstrate the need to support basic sciences and
why user facilities are important. Joy also shared excerpts from the last
briefing document prepared by Glenn Waychunas for the trip to DC in April 2005.
33rd Annual SSRL Users' Meeting
Chris Kim (Chapman University) and Aaron Lindenberg (SSRL) will co-chair the
next Annual SSRL Users' Meeting on October 12-13, 2006. They have already begun
to outline the program and begin work on details for the meeting. They
encourage user suggestions on topics for sessions and workshops, speakers, etc.
Possible topics might include: microfocusing (STXM, TXM); young investigators;
ultrafast science; industrial applications; applications for art/archeology;
biology (nanotechnology, SAXS, spectroscopy, cyro EM); and perhaps talks
related to the science featured as an SSRL scientific highlight within the last
year. There was also discussion about having workshops on: introduction to SSRL
for new users (aimed at students), proposal writing (aimed at new
investigators), crystallography, and MEIS. There was a discussion about the
potential for joint workshops with ALS on microfocusing. A suggestion was made
to try to incorporate hands-on sample preparation, data collection (with a
sample data set), and data analysis (e.g., how should data be processed? what
is usable data?); users would need to bring their own laptop computer.
SSRL Workshop on Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Techniques (SR-XRS) in
Materials and Environmental Sciences: Theory and Application
On May 16-17, 2006, SSRL will host an SR-XRS workshop on techniques which offer
the ability to probe nano- and atomic-scale structures and order/disorder
relationships that critically govern the properties of advanced technological
and environmental materials. The high collimation, intensity, and tunability of
SR allow the investigation of a wide range of materials, including thin films
and interfaces, nanoparticles, amorphous materials, solutions, hydrated and
disordered bacteriogenic minerals and highly crystalline materials. Good
planning and a working knowledge of beam lines, in addition to technique, are
keys to conducting successful SR-XRS measurements. This workshop will provide a
practical users' guide to planning and conducting scattering measurements and
will emphasize topics that can best be obtained only through on-the-experiment
training. Space is limited; register at:
http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/conferences/workshops/scatter2006/index.php
SLUO Update
Abner Souffer, Chair of the SLAC Users' Organization (SLUO), participated in
this meeting to encourage SSRL users to think about ways to increase
interactions between SLAC and SSRL users. There have been some recent meetings
related to user activism. It was suggested that SSRL scientists might consider
giving a talk to SLUO users about the types of experiments conducted
at SSRL.
Outreach, Communications, User Administration
Cathy Knotts gave a presentation and reminded users about several upcoming
events and deadlines:
The next SSRLUOEC meeting will be arranged on Monday, April 17, 2006, 10 am - 3
pm, in the SSRL Building 137 3rd floor conference room.
The meeting adjourned around 4:00 pm.
Cathy Knotts
SSRL Liaison to SSRL Users' Organization Executive Committee
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