A Note from Steve Dierker
August 7, 2012
From July 30-August 1, Brookhaven Lab hosted the 2012 annual meeting of the Office of Science Graduate Fellowship Program. William Brinkman, Director of the Department of Energy Office of Science, and Pat Dehmer, Deputy Director for Science Programs in the Office of Science, addressed the conference participants on separate days. I had the opportunity to take each for a personal tour of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, where construction is now over 80 percent complete.
Steve Dierker (left) and Pat Dehmer in NSLS-II storage ring
Both were pleased to see the progress we have made and enthusiastic about the early science to come.
The 200 students in the Graduate Fellowship Program also had tours of NSLS and NSLS-II. In addition, their three days at Brookhaven were packed with science lectures, poster sessions, peer networking and panel discussions.
DOE established the Graduate Fellowship Program in 2009 to support outstanding graduate students in physics, biology (non-medical), chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computer and computational sciences, and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science. The program aims to encourage the development of the next generation of scientific and technical talent in the U.S who will pursue careers in research critical to the Office of Science mission at DOE laboratories and in academia.
The first annual meeting of this program took place in 2010, at Argonne National Laboratory. Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the host in 2011. With NSLS-II construction so far along, this was a particularly exciting time for the students to visit Brookhaven.
Of course, we are always proud to showcase our facilities. Recently, I gave a tour of NSLS-II to New York State Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy, who was very impressed. He was accompanied by Brian Quiara, Policy Director to the Lieutenant Governor; and Andrea Lohneiss, Long Island Regional Director of the NYS Empire State Development.
We also opened our doors to the general public during the NSLS/NSLS-II Summer Sunday tour on July 22. Close to 1,300 visitors enjoyed interactive displays, tours and science talks. Read more about the day in this issue of eNews.
If you are not in the local area for a visit, here is a time-lapse movie of NSLS-II under construction. This is made of stills from one of the construction cams that we link to on the Photon Sciences homepage. Just click on the camera icon a few inches below the DOE logo. You can get a live daytime view of the facility.
The stills in the movie start in 2009, when we broke ground, and extend to this July. You will be amazed at the pace of progress in just three years. What the movie does not show is movement inside the building over the past year, with the magnet girders marching around the storage ring and the hutches taking shape.
In fact, we installed the 75th magnet girder last week. With another 75 girders to go, for a total of 150, we are now at the halfway point for installation of the storage ring. See photos later in this issue.
2012-3284 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
