Fall 2010—Aladdin Newsletter No. 48

Synchrotron Radiation Center

In this issue:

SRC Aladdin Newsletter – Fall 2010

1. Tai-Chang Chiang Appointed as Research Director
2. IR Workshop
3. Summer Education
4. Comings and Goings
5. Awards
6. Call for Pubs

1. Tai-Chang Chiang Appointed as Research Director

SRC has named Tai-Chang Chiang as Scientific Director. Dr. Chiang is a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a long-time researcher and principal investigator conducting research using the Aladdin storage ring at SRC.

“I am a strong believer of the outstanding value of SRC as a user facility that has served the scientific community well with a great track record,” Chiang notes.

Chiang takes over the research development reigns at SRC at an exciting time. The facility just received news from the Department of Energy of a $4.5-million award for the research and development of a “superconducting electron source” for the next generation of light sources, known as free electron lasers. SRC also has submitted to NSF proposals for extended operations of the Aladdin ring and for a comprehensive research and development project for free electron lasers—all of which are part of the comprehensive WiFEL Program.

“With Tai’s deep knowledge of the research that can be enabled with electron beam light sources, he will ensure that the paths we take to the future will produce the most transforming and valuable science for the nation,” adds Joe Bisognano, Director of SRC.

2. IR Workshop

During the days preceding the October SRC Users Meeting, an Infrared Workshop was held at SRC. Co-chaired by Carol Hirschmugl (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee) and Kathy Gough (University of Manitoba), the three-day "Status and Future of Synchrotron Based FTIR Imaging Workshop” allowed participants to take part in any or all days and flowed from a daylong introduction to IR-enabled research to a hands-on experience taking data using the IRENI beamline. In addition, there was a daylong seminar about latest results from the beamline, and from other synchrotron facilities. An article will be published in SRN News.

Plans are also in the works for a second such workshop to be held on January 11-13, 2011. Check the SRC website for information about this workshop and to register starting in December.

And, to learn more about bioscience research at SRC—including a slide show for users interested in working with the IRENI beamline—please click here.

3. Summer Education

Last summer was yet another successful summer for education programs at SRC. Five undergraduate students from around the country took part in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, SRC also led a three-week-long course for high school students focused on the science of light as part of the UW-Madison PEOPLE program, and the facility also hosted over 100 middle school students as part of the UW-Madison College of Engineering, “Camp Badger” program, which offers soon-to-be eighth graders the opportunity to learn about careers in science and engineering.

And, while the summer may not be on many minds right now, planning has already begun for Summer 2011. The call for applications for the 2011 SRC-REU is open and any users with undergraduates interested in a summer research opportunity are encouraged to pass the information along. The website for the program can be found here.

Also of note is a new program to be launched in 2011 known as the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program. RETs allow for high school teachers to take part in a summer research experience with the idea of weaving this experience into their classroom teaching. Again, a website is already available for this new program and applications will be accepted starting December 15. For more information on the 2011 SRC-RET, please click here.

4. Comings and Goings

• John Kulpin has joined SRC as Lead Electrical Engineer. John is working on the above-mentioned superconducting RF gun project, FEL development, and general electrical engineering support. John previously worked on the Madison Symmetric Torus plasma physics experiment located on the UW-Madison campus. In his spare time he enjoys playing guitar.

• The Instrumentation Group currently has two students, Tina Ocepek and Melanie Vils, helping provide support for SRC beamlines, chambers, and new initiatives.  Tina is a senior at UW-Madison in Physics, and Melanie has a degree in Astrophysics from UW-Madison and is currently pursuing a second degree in Computer Science, also at UW-Madison.

• Mikaela Mullady’s (Admin Office) last day was Wednesday, November 3.  She left to take a Supervisor position at the Hilton – Monona Terrace.

• Georgette Paxton has accepted a position in the SRC Admin Office and began on Monday, November 1.

• Hattie Williams started a part-time position as an IT Assistant and Webmaster on October 11. 

• Jessica Larson, a nursing student from UW-Madison, accepted the Safety Intern position and began on Thursday, October 28.

• Eric Verbeten, a former SRC intern and REU student, has returned to SRC as a graduate student. He has started a master’s degree program in journalism at UW-Madison and is working with the Education and Outreach Group on various writing projects.

5. Awards

• Longtime user and friend of SRC, Juan Carlos Campuzano, was named a 2011 recipient of the Buckley Prize, awarded by the American Physical Society to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics. Campuzano was recognized for his innovations in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which advanced the understanding of the cuprate superconductors, and transformed the study of strongly-correlated electronic systems.
• Congratulations also to longtime user Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham, who was awarded the John C. Polanyi Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry, 2010.
  
  Professor Sham, Canada Research Chair in Materials and Synchrotron Radiation at the University of Western Ontario (Western) and a driving force behind the development of the Canadian Light Source (CLS), is the recipient of the Canadian Society for Chemistry John C. Polanyi Award. Dr. 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.

Sham is one of the founders of synchrotron science in Canada, having worked with other Western researchers at the Canadian Synchrotron Research Facility beamlines at the Synchrotron Radiation Center in Madison, Wisconsin.  He took on a leadership role in the development of the CLS, is principal investigator on three of the beamlines at Canada’s synchrotron, and has served on the CLS Board of Directors.

• Award winners from this year's Users Meeting include the winner of the Aladdin Lamp Award, Guang Bian (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
  The winners of the meeting's Best Poster Award were Anna Clausen (UW-Madison) and He Ren (UW-Madison).

• Recent PhD Theses: 

"X-ray Absorption Fine Structure and X-ray Excited Optical Luminescence Studies of Calcium Compounds". Completed by Peter J.Y. Ko, Department of Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, 2010.

“X-ray Absorption Fine Structure and X-Ray Excited Optical Luminescence of II-VI Semiconducting Nanostructures”. Michael Murphy, Department of Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, 2010.

Both were students of T.C. Sham and both conducted a significant amount of their work at SRC.

6. Call for Pubs

SRC strives to maintain as up-to-date a list of user publications representing research conducted using Aladdin. This information is of paramount importance in demonstrating the breadth of work done at SRC as well as the number of research projects and graduate students trained, and more. NSF requires this information from SRC and it is often the case that a mid-year or quarterly report be submitted—not simply an annual one. SRC Director Joe Bisognano and Research Director T.C. Chiang strongly urge Users to please help this cause by sending notification of your publications (upcoming or recently published) to srcadmin@src.wisc.edu on a regular basis.