Record Attendance for Annual Users' Meeting

A record 380 participants attended the 2002 Annual NSLS Users' Meeting, held May 20-22, 2002 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Coming from all over the world, the participants attended a one-day plenary session and eight one-day-long workshops on the latest scientific results achieved at the NSLS in the physical, biomedical, environmental and instrumentation sciences.

During the plenary session, NSLS chairman Steven Dierker presented recent upgrades and future projects at the NSLS, and Richard Osgood, Associate Laboratory Director for Basic Energy Sciences, showed how the future Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven would serve the NSLS user community as well as other potential users.

John Marburger III, President George W. Bush's Science Advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology, was the meeting's Keynote Speaker. He described how the current and future scientific capabilities will shape science and technology in the 21st century, and how the NSLS will play a role in this endeavor.

During the workshops and part of the plenary session, scientists presented their current research as well as future light source projects. The workshops addressed topics as diverse as the use of synchrotrons in the environmental sciences, the study of ultrafast processes with x-rays, nanoscale materials, membrane protein crystallography, catalysis, materials processing, synchrotron micro-spectroscopy and imaging, and the development of more advanced light source detectors.

The future of the NSLS and the proposed Nanocenter at Brookhaven

With more than 2,500 scientists from over 400 institutions per year coming from academic, industrial, and government institutions, the NSLS is a widely used facility making a "great scientific impact," announced NSLS chairman Steven Dierker. "Not only do we have a large contingent of users," he said, "but last year we had more than 800 publications coming out of research performed at the light source, 150 of which occur in premiere, forefront science journals."

One of the significant changes at the NSLS during the past year has been a reorganization of its internal structure, which will help "to have better project management and better coordination among NSLS activities, and better support of NSLS users," Dierker said.

In the near future, the traditional Participating Research Team (PRT) structure will be replaced by a more flexible approach, the "approved program" model for some beamlines. "An approved program might have time allocated on multiple beamlines, which would get us away from tying the program to the limited capabilities of just a single beamline," Dierker said.

Future plans also include upgrades of beamlines on the VUV and X-ray rings. The upgrades include an increase of insertion devices, the redesign of radio-frequency cavities and end stations, and development of new beamline scientific programs

"We really would like to free up our users to spend more of their time and energy and resources focusing on doing their science," Dierker added. "Flexibility is what will lead to state-of-the-art beamlines, higher productivity and better research results."

Dierker also announced the longer-term plans at the NSLS. He first hailed the recent achievement of one of the near-term future light sources, the deep ultraviolet free electron laser (DUV-FEL). Last February, the facility produced radiation at 400 nanometers by the self-amplified spontaneous emission process (SASE), a "notable success," according to Dierker, who announced that, by fall, the facility is expected to provide radiation at 88 nanometers, to be used in pioneering chemistry experiments.

To improve the current performances of the NSLS, namely to increase the beam's brightness while reducing its pulse length, Dierker announced two approaches for a new facility. The first approach is based on an ultra-low emittance storage-ring, and would provide about a factor of 10,000-increase in brightness. The second approach, called Photoinjected Energy Recovery Linac (PERL), would produce high brightness (on the order of 10²¹), about a factor of 100 better for coherence, and very short (sub-picosecond) pulse lengths.

Because of technical challenges facing the construction of PERL, Dierker suggested that an intermediate approach between a storage ring and PERL would be the most reasonable design for a future light source at BNL. "The design would start with an ultra-low emittance storage ring, and evolve toward a PERL-approach as that technology develops," he said. "This new ring, which would take at least two years to build, would be located adjacent to the x-ray ring."

Patricia Dehmer, Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences (BES) at DOE, who gave a presentation on the current programs managed by DOE-BES, showed a lot of enthusiasm for the current and future projects at the NSLS. "I am delighted by the way Steve Dierker has done a tremendous job at the NSLS over the past year in rethinking the challenges that face the National Synchrotron Light Source," she said.

Representative Felix Grucci (R-New York, First District), who was detained in Washington for votes and could not attend the meeting, also praised the current and future scientific programs at the NSLS and their role in the current war against terrorism. "[The] War on Terrorism is a war of new threats, including biological and chemical weapons," he said in a message read by Leemor Joshua-Tor, Chair of the meeting. "It is the research and effort of facilities such as the NSLS and cutting edge science of our national laboratories that will lead the charge against these terrible weapons."

Whereas the design of a future light source is just starting, another project, at the design stage a year ago, and now close to becoming a reality, is a center dedicated to the study of the infinitesimally small. Called the Center for Functional Nanomaterials - or Nanocenter for short - this new BNL facility, which will investigate materials a billionth of a meter in size, has received a "very strong thumbs up," according to Satoshi Ozaki, acting deputy laboratory director for science and technology, who gave the meeting's welcoming address.

"The Nanocenter will be organized in a way very familiar to that of the NSLS," said Richard Osgood, Associate Laboratory Director or Basic Energy Sciences. "The center will include laboratory clusters, user and visitor laboratories, and training and seminar facilities. Each of the lab clusters will work like a beamline, with scientists performing various functions, such as growing materials, patterning materials, and looking at them with electron microscopes."

Now in its latest stages of approval by DOE, the Nanocenter is expected to be built close to the NSLS and the Instrumentation Division. "The NSLS and the Nanocenter will be portals to each other," says Osgood, who masterminded the Nanocenter project since its inception. "We envision both of these facilities as helping each other in maintaining a strong and vigorous user base."

"Brookhaven's Nanocenter will be a very bold departure from business-as-usual in the research communities of materials sciences and chemistry," Dehmer said. "We are trying to change the face of small science by co-locating a lot of disciplines in one place, so that if scientists want to pursue a research program that mixes chemistry, biology and materials science, they can do it all in one place."

In his keynote address, Marburger described the new changes facing science in the 21st century. "Scientists are opening the doors to a new kind of science," he said." "Never before had we been able to relate properties of large-scale matter and big things made of atoms to the detailed atomic structure. Now, we can, and the prospects are truly exhilarating. A wide landscape of opportunity has opened before us, promising unprecedented richness of discovery."

Among the numerous scientific and technological achievements of the past century, Marburger defined instrumentation and computing as the "foundations of contemporary science, earning them top priority for support." The NSLS, he said, is one of the key representatives of the current instrumentation capabilities.

"Some of the most exciting progress that we will be making in the next decade will occur at facilities like the National Synchrotron Light Source," Marburger said. "For at least the first half of this century, the progress of science is going to be brightest at these types of facilities and at university laboratories where instrumentation and computing power is available to make these discoveries."

" It is a very exciting time to be alive and a scientist," he added, "and I look forward to seeing what comes out of this laboratory as well as the others that I fully expect society to continue to support."

Latest results from light source research and future applications

During the plenary session on Tuesday, light source scientists presented some of the latest results in condensed-matter, structural biology and biomedical research, as well as future x-ray applications. Chemist Jan Genzer, of North Carolina State University, presented his latest results on the chemistry and molecular orientation in gradient surfaces with soft x-rays. His primary interest in preparing theses structures and studying their properties is motivated by the ability of these gradients to form continuous molecular templates for assembly of polymers and non-polymer clusters, studying the mechanism of formation of self-assembled monolayers, and using the gradient substrates in studies of polymer interfacial behavior.

NSLS scientist Ron Pindak showed how resonant x-ray scattering could be a unique probe of the changing orientational order that underlies the morphology of phases exhibited by rod-shaped and banana-shaped liquid crystal molecules.

Physicist Kart Ludwig, of Boston University, presented in situ x-ray studies of materials processing.

Judith Vaitukaitis, director of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health, made a presentation on NCRR.

Neurobiologist Roderick MacKinnon, of Rockefeller University in New York, presented the structure and function of ion channels and associated regulatory proteins. His research is directed at understanding the molecular mechanisms of ion channels, which are involved the pace of the heart, hormonal secretion, and the electrical impulses of neurons. The ultimate goal of his research effort is to solve the complete structure of the ion channels under study.

Physicist Joachim Stohr, of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, presented a history and his vision of x-ray free electron lasers.

Richard Swaja, Senior Advisor for Biomedical Engineering in the NIH's Office of Extramural Research, presented the current biomedical research opportunities at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), the newest of the research institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), signed by President Bill Clinton on December 29, 2000.

NSLS chemist Lisa Miller showed how imaging tissue composition with synchrotron infrared micro-spectroscopy could be applied to bone disease, Alzheimer's disease, and prion-protein diseases.

NSLS physicist Zhong Zhong presented the principle of diffraction-enhanced imaging and its applications to breast cancer and osteo-arthritis research.

Workshop Summaries

In addition to a full Main Meeting schedule, eight workshops were also held during the Users' Meeting.  See the links below for highlights and photos from these workshops.

• The Environmental Sciences: Synchrotrons Providing Powerful Tools for a New Science, Douglas Hunter (Savannah River Ecology Laboratory)

• X-Ray Sources for Studies of Ultrafast Processes, John Sutherland, (BNL)

• EXAFS Studies of Nanoscale and Nanostructured Materials, Vincent Harris (Naval Res. Lab.)

• Practical Aspects of Membrane Protein Crystallography: From Overexpression to Crystallization, Larry Shapiro, (Columbia University) and Filippo Mancia, (Columbia University)

• Recent Advances in the Application of Synchrotron Radiation to Catalysis, Simon Bare (UOP)

• Combining Synchrotron Infrared and X-Ray Micro-Spectroscopy and Imaging, Lisa Miller (BNL) and Antonio Lanzirotti (U. of Chicago)

• In-Situ Studies of Materials Processing, Karl Ludwig (Boston U.), Randy Headrick (University of Vermont), and Chi-Chang Kao (BNL)

• Advanced Detectors Development, D. Peter Siddons (BNL)

Users' Meeting Banquet

The Users' Meeting banquet was held on the evening of May 21.  This year, the users were treated to a spectacular performance by comedians, Chicago City Limits.  Great fun was had by all.  Click here to view photos of the festivites.

SCIENCE WRITER: Patrice Pages

Photo by: Roger Stoutenburgh