Newsletter
===========================================================
CLS-News Vol. 3 No. 5 June 30, 2005
www.lightsource.ca University of Saskatchewan, Canada
====================================================================
- Bill Thomlinson joins board of CIHR
- Experimental Facilities Progress
- CLS Activity Report Released
- Notes from the UAC - 2005 Annual User's Meeting, November 18-20
- Storage Ring Update
- First Synchrotron Summer School for Teachers
- New web seminars calendar
- CLS & ELETTRA sign MOU
- CANDLE petition
- New Staff
***************************************************************************
1. Bill Thomlinson Joins Board of CIHR
CLS Executive Director Bill Thomlinson is one of three new appointees to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
"The broad experience that these new members will bring to CIHR's Governing Council table will contribute greatly to ensuring that CIHR achieves its mandate to support the creation of new knowledge to improve the health of Canadians," said The Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh, Minister of Health.
For the news release please go to: http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/28336.html
***************************************************************************
2. Experimental Facilities Progress
Contact: tom.ellis@lightsource.ca
As one would expect during this phase in our development, each month brings a series of “firsts”. The Far-IR beamline has just seen “first synchrotron light” through the FT spectrometer to the detector. The SGM beamline hosted its “first scheduled” users: Jeff Cutler (CLSI) and John Neville and 2 members of his group (UNB). The protein crystallography endstation was delivered and installed, marking a significant mile”stone” for that beamline.
The close of this month also marks an important “end”: we officially close out the project phase of the CLS. As we continue to grow into our operation phase, we look forward to welcoming more and more researchers to the CLS. The recent experiences with our first users have been very helpful to our continued development. I am particularly interested in talking to those of you who may be able to devote an extended period of time at the CLS to help us with beamline commissioning.
By the way, I am hereby publicly promising to provide a bottle of Champagne to the group that produces the first scientific publication using CLS photons (conditions and restrictions may apply!).
Tom Ellis
Director of Research
***************************************************************************
3. CLS Activity Report Released
Contact: matthew.dalzell@lightsource.ca
The second CLS Activity Report, covering the period from 2001 to 2004 is now available and represents the completion of the initial construction phase of the facility.
To request a copy or download an electronic version of the report please visit: http://www.lightsource.ca/brochures/activities_report_2004.php
***************************************************************************
4. Notes from the UAC - 2005 Annual User's Meeting, November 18-20
Contact: michele.loewen@nrc.ca
The 2005 Annual Users' Meeting website is now posted at http://www.lightsource.ca/uac/meeting2005/.
Online registration for the 2005 Annual User's Meeting will be opening August 2, 2005. Mark your calendar today and get working on that poster abstract! Sponsorship and Exhibitor opportunities are still available - check the site for more information.
November 19th may still be a few months off, but planning for the 2005 Annual Users' Meeting is well underway. Visit the main meeting Webpage link above to see this years exciting line up of speakers and workshops.
A reminder to the user community: Please visit the UAC pages on the CLS web site http://www.lightsource.ca/uac/ to learn about our current membership and keep informed on current events, carried motions, and UAC activities. As always, all users are encouraged to contact the UAC to ask questions or to voice their concerns regarding user issues.
***************************************************************************
5. Storage Ring Update
Contact: les.dallin@lightsource.ca
The storage ring is now operating with a reduced vertical beam size in the straight sections. This “low ßy” mode of operation is described in CLS technical document 5.2.69.2 Rev3 “The CLS Main Ring Lattice” which can be found at http://www.lightsource.ca/machine/techdocuments.php
Improvements to the lattice were achieved by doing a “LOCO” analysis of the linear optics. The analysis determined an adjustment of all the storage ring quadrupoles and resulted in a significant reduction of cell to cell asymmetries in the beam machine functions.
Improvements to the storage ring RF cavity are ongoing. The cavity is now operating very near the design voltage of 2.4 MV. In the near future the orbit correction software will be upgraded to include automatic dispersion suppression. This will be achieved by adjusting the RF frequency as required. (At this time the dispersion is adjusted by operator control.)
The storage ring vacuum steadily improved over the last several months. This was accomplished by detecting and repairing several small leaks and by improvements in the operations of the ion pumps, the titanium sublimation pumps and the NEG strips. As well, many Amp-hours of vacuuming conditioning were accumulated. A total of nearly 100 Amp-hours of beam has been achieved since commissioning began.
The above improvements have resulted in a much improved beam lifetime which has increased from 4.4 in January to the present 13.5 hours (1/e) with 100 mA of stored beam. Beam currents up to 175 mA are available with a lifetime of 8.3 hours.
The storage ring is now routinely and reliably delivering light to the beamlines. Beam stability is about ± 5 microns in both the horizontal and vertical planes. Improvements to the position monitor electronics will have to be implemented to determine if this “motion” is electronic noise or real beam motion. Beam orbit reproducibility is achieved by cycling storage ring magnets prior to each run.
***************************************************************************
6. First Synchrotron Summer Workshop for Teachers
Contact: tracy.walker@lightsource.ca
CLS Educational Outreach is preparing to present the first Synchrotron Summer Workshop for Teachers featuring presentations by several CLS staff and Users, as well as providing lessons and activities to make synchrotron science accessible in the classroom.
More details, including registration information, can be found at http://www.lightsource.ca/education.
***************************************************************************
7. New web seminars calendar
Wondering when the next CLS seminar will take place? All on-site CLS seminars and talks are now listed on the CLS web calendar - check it regularly to find out what is scheduled: http://www.lightsource.ca/calendar/
***************************************************************************
8. CLS & ELETTRA sign MOU
A Memorandum of Understanding on Collaborative Research between Sincrotrone Trieste (ELETTRA) and the Canadian Light Source was signed in Ottawa on June 6, 2005. The first Statement of Work is for a Life Science Imaging Project. The CLS was represented by Executive Director Bill Thomlinson and ELETTRA was represented by Prof. Maria Cristina Pedicchio, the President of the AREA Science Park and principal owner of ELETTRA.
The occasion took place during the visit by the Italian Minister of Education, University and Research, Mrs. Letizia Morattti, to Canada. The concept of the project, to be co-managed by Giorgio Paolucci from ELETTRA and Bill Thomlinson, is to use the various beamline resources at the two facilities to address life science imaging problems that can be solved by use of more than one technique and/or energy range of photons. The two facilities will share personnel and laboratory resources, and jointly seek the necessary funding.
***************************************************************************
9. CANDLE Petition
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The National Academy of Science of Armenia, Yerevan State University and Armenian Physical Society have forwarded a Petition on CANDLE Synchrotron Light Source Project for the International scientific community. We feel that the CANDLE project reached the top of its recognition and the voice and support of the international scientific community at this stage is extremely important to turn the project to the construction stage.
Please take a minute to visit http://www.lightsources.org (CANDLE petition) or http://www.candle.am/petition
We will be really excited if you join the petition. Your comments and the encouragement to colleagues to join the petition are highly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your support!
Sincerely,
Vassili Tsakanov and CANDLE team
***************************************************************************
10. New Staff
Contact: nancy.fetch@lightsource.ca
CLS would like to welcome Dr. Feizhou He from the University of Connecticut. Feizhou is the Staff Scientist for the Resonant Elastic and Inelastic Soft x-ray Scattering (REIXS) experimental facility.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran is the Staff Scientist for the Soft X-ray Spectromicroscopy experimental facility and started with CLS on June 1st. Chithra was previously with the University of Manitoba in the Biosystems Engineering Department.
Carmen Britton joined the Controls and Instrumentation group as a Research Technologist on June 1st. Carmen is a journeyman electrician as well as a journeyman instrumentation mechanic and previously was working for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.
Michael Sigrist has returned to the CLS as the Insertion Device Science Associate. He was previously working in New York for Advanced Design Consulting and we are pleased to welcome him back to CLS.
To check on future CLS job openings please go to: http://www.lightsource.ca/careers
====================================================================
CLS E-News is an electronic newsletter designed to keep users informed about developments at the Canadian Light Source, the national synchrotron user facility located at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK. Current and past issues of CLS E-News are available on the CLS web site: http://www.lightsource.ca/enews/archives.php
To unsubscribe please go to http://www.lightsource.ca/enews/signup.php. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.Contact us at clsi@lightsource.ca
===========================================================
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:06