Events and E-News

Newsletter

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CLS E-News                          Vol. 7  No. 3
www.lightsource.ca           January 29, 2010
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  1. Call for Proposals Opens February 2, 2010
  2. BMIT- BM Accepting Letters of Intent
  3. Annual Users Meeting, June 17  18, 2010
  4. Summer School Online Application Now Open
  5. Congratulations: T.K. Sham to Receive 2010 John C. Polanyi Award
  6. Research Highlight: Structural and electronic properties of protein/thiolate-protected gold nanocluster
  7. CIM2010 Pre-conference Workshop: New Approaches to Greener Mining
  8. Pacifichem 2010: Synchrotron Radiation - Emerging Techniques and Applications
  9. New Staff and Now Hiring

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1. CALL FOR PROPOSALS OPENS FEBRUARY 2, 2010
Contact: mailto:clsuo@lightsource.ca

The Call for Proposals opens February 2 for General User Proposals. Research time allocated through the General User mechanism is via competitive peer review, emphasizing the excellence of science where there is intent to publish scientific results.

PLEASE NOTE: DEADLINES for crystallography are different than other beamlines:

MACROMOLECULAR CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

ALL OTHER BEAMLINES

In addition to normal mode operations at 250 mA, four shifts are available for Single Bunch Mode and four for Coherent Synchrotron Radiation studies.  These shifts must be applied for through the General User program.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.lightsource.ca/uso/call_proposals.php.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our office at mailto:clsuo@lightsource.ca or 306-657-3700.
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2. BMIT- BM ACCEPTING LETTER S OF INTENT
Contact: mailto:clsuo@lightsource.ca

The Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamline (BMIT-BM 05B1-1) is now accepting Letters of Intent for the scheduling of beamtime for the May  December, 2010 period. Letters of Intent must be received by February 25, 2010 to be considered for this period.
Letters of Intent provide the opportunity to perform some exploratory experiments as the beamline is being commissioned. Research must be discussed with the beamline scientist prior to submitting an application.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.lightsource.ca/experimental/intent_letter.php  and http://www.lightsource.ca/experimental/bmit.php  

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our office at mailto:clsuo@lightsource.ca or 306-657-3700.
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3. ANNUAL CLS USERS' MEETING (AUM), JUNE 17-18, 2010
Contact: mailto:smcintyr@uwo.ca    

The Canadian Light Source Annual Users' Meeting will be held in Saskatoon June 17-18, 2010. The meeting is a great opportunity to learn about the progress of the Canadian Light Source, present your recent synchrotron work and meet fellow users.

Workshops covering a wide range of topics will be held on Thursday, June 17:

More information will be posted soon on http://www.lightsource.ca/uac/meeting2010/
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4. SUMMER SCHOOL (S4V 2010) ONLINE APPLICATION NOW OPEN
Contact: mailto:tracy.walker@lightsource.ca

The fifth annual CLS Saskatoon Synchrotron Summer School (S4V June 13-18th , 2010) will focus on life sciences. In addition to an introduction to synchrotrons, this year we are pleased to offer two concurrent streams. Participants may choose either a multifaceted approach to synchrotron research in life sciences or a dedicated macromolecular crystallography stream.

The multi-technique life sciences stream will provide case study examples followed by experience in data collection and analysis for a number of synchrotron experiments. It is appropriate for any inexperienced synchrotron users interested in utilizing synchrotron-based medical imaging, X-ray mapping, and mid-infrared mapping techniques.

The crystallography stream will cover all aspects of the structure solution process in macromolecular crystallography, beginning with synchrotron data collection and processing, through phasing and refinement, and ending with structure validation. It is intended for those with biochemical and biological backgrounds.

Apply online at http://www.lightsource.ca/education/summerschool/ . The early deadline is March 30th, 2010. The fee of $375 includes attendance to the CLS Annual Users Meeting and its associated workshops.
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5. CONGRATULATIONS: T.K. SHAM TO RECEIVE 2010 JOHN C. POLANYI AWARD

Professor Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham, Canada Research Chair in Materials and Synchrotron Radiation at The University of Western Ontario and a driving force behind the development of the CLS, is the recipient of the Canadian Society for Chemistry John C. Polanyi Award.

Professor Sham is being recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of physical chemistry, using synchrotron light and other advanced spectroscopic techniques to study the chemical structure of nanomaterials. He has had a leadership role in the development of the CLS, having served on the Board of Directors and is beamteam leader on the VLS-PGM, SGM and SXRMB beamlines.

Read the news release at: http://www.lightsource.ca/media/media_release_20100121.php
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6. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT: Structural and electronic properties of protein/thiolate-protected gold nanocluster with staple motif: A XAS, L-DOS, and XPS study
Contact: mailto:peng.zhang@dal.ca

Following the recent breakthrough of total structural determination of a Au-thiolate nanocluster [P. Jadzinsky et al., Science 318, 430 (2007)], extensive interest has been stimulated to unveil (or revisit) the structure-property relationship of various thiolate-Au nanostructures in light of the new finding of SR(AuSR)x staple motif. Here, we present experimental X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results on the local structure and electronic properties of thiolate-protected Au nanoclusters encapsulated in bovine serum albumin (Au-BSA) together with theoretical calculation of projected local density of states (l-DOS) of Au25(SR)18 model cluster. Analysis of the Au L3-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of Au-BSA suggested that the nanocluster is Au25 with Au-thiolate staple motif. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and Au 4f XPS were used to probe the electronic behavior of Au-BSA.

The Au d-electron density of Au-BSA was found to decrease by 0.047  e- relative to that of the bulk. A self-consistent real space Green's function approach implemented in ab initio FEFF8 program was used to calculate the l-DOS of Au25(SR)18 and other model clusters from a site-specific perspective. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental d-DOS data of Au-BSA and, importantly, systematically illustrate the effect of Au-thiolate staple motif on the electronic behavior of Au25(SR)18. The present work sheds light on the structure-property relationship of thiolate-protected Au25 from both experimental and theoretical perspectives and illustrates the usefulness of XAS/l-DOS method in such studies.

G.A. Simms, J.D. Padmos, P. Zhang. Structural and electronic properties of protein/thiolate-protected gold nanocluster with staple motif: A XAS, L-DOS, and XPS study. J. Chem. Phys. 131, 214703 (2009), doi: 10.1063/1.3268782.
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7. CIM2010 PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP: NEW APPROACHES TO GREENER MINING
Contact: mailto:jeffrey.cutler@lightsource.ca

The CLS is organizing a pre-conference workshop entitled New Approaches to Greener Mining prior to the start of the 2010 meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining in Vancouver on Sunday, May 9.

The aim of this full-day workshop is to explore the concept of green mining and it implications from both policy and technical perspectives, including regulatory issues and examples of advanced analytical techniques to characterize and manage tailings, remediate and reclaim mine sites, and develop sustainable processing and recovery methods. For more information visit: http://www.cim.org/vancouver2010/conference/Workshops.cfm.
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8. PACIFICHEM 2010: SYNCHROTRON RADIATION - EMERGING TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS
Contact: mailto:tsham@uwo.ca

The objective of this symposium is to facilitate information exchange among researchers in the Pacific Rim countries and to discuss future development and applications of synchrotron radiation. We will organize a symposium in three half-day sessions with invited and contributed oral presentations and one poster session.  The three oral sessions are:

  1. New Synchrotron Radiation Facilities/Research in the Pacific Rim
  2. Emerging Synchrotron Techniques and Applications
  3. Materials, Industrial and Environmental Applications

Abstract submission for invited and contributed presentation to the Pacifichem 2010 Congress is now open and closes April 5, 2010 (see: www.pacifichem.org/abstracts). Selected contributed abstracts will be scheduled for oral presentation; all other contributed abstracts will be scheduled for poster presentations.
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9. NEW STAFF AND NOW HIRING
Contact: mailto:jobs@lightsource.ca

We would like to welcome the following new students who started with us recently:

A number of internal changes have recently taken place:

In December we said goodbye and happy retirement to a dear colleague:

We are currently accepting applications for the following positions:

For the complete postings please go to: http://www.lightsource.ca/careers/

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CLS E-News is an electronic newsletter designed to keep users and stakeholders informed about developments at the Canadian Light Source, the national synchrotron research facility located at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Current and past issues of CLS E-News are available on the CLS web site: http://www.lightsource.ca/enews/archives.php
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Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:10