Updates for the User Community

inside the CFN User Office

December 11, 2013

First, I want to quickly echo CFN Director Emilio Mendez’s message and thank you all for your contributions to the recent DOE review. We received valuable feedback, and my office is newly committed to helping improve operations here at CFN. The User Office has been hard at work over the past several months, and I am excited to share the strides we’ve taken and the opportunities ahead.

A quick, friendly reminder to our entire scientific community: Please keep us informed of your awards, honors, and publications. When we celebrate and publicize your discoveries and professional achievements, it raises the profile of CFN and helps us attract top scientists and secure ongoing funding. 

Upcoming CFN Deadlines

• Submission of New Proposals for 2014 Cycle 2: January 31, 2014

2014 Users’ Meeting

The next Joint NSLS/CFN Users’ Meeting will be held May 19-21, 2014, with a theme of Science and Industry.

The planning committee for the 2014 Users' Meeting is requesting proposals for workshops. Workshops for the meeting are designed to showcase the current work of NSLS and CFN users, as well as the new techniques and scientific areas that we plan to explore in the future.  Submit your workshop proposal by Dec. 8, 2013 at http://usersmeeting.ps.bnl.gov/workshops/proposal.aspx?year=2014.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the 2014 Users’ Meeting Co-chairs: John Smedley, smedley@bnl.gov, and Stanislaus Wong, sswong@bnl.gov.

NUFO Symposium at AAAS

The National Facilities User Organization (NUFO) is partnering with the DOE Office of Science and the National Science Foundation to sponsor a symposium at the 2014 AAAS meeting in Chicago, IL. The symposium, U.S. National User Facilities, a Major Force for Discovery and Innovation, will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2014, from 8:30 to 11:30 AM, in the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

The United States’ national scientific user facilities provide unique capabilities, instrumentation, and expertise annually to approximately 50,000 scientists and engineers from academia, government, and industry. This symposium will provide an overview of the capabilities offered by these national facilities and will highlight outstanding recent examples of discovery and innovation stemming from work at them, including the development of energy-harvesting “solar shingles,” the discovery of the structure of key biological molecules, the development of new drugs, and the contributions to our understanding of fundamental science.

The symposium will conclude with presentations by the major federal sponsors of the user facilities with reserved time for discussion on the policy challenges facing this key facet of the U.S. scientific enterprise. The speakers are Eric Isaacs (Director of Argonne National Laboratory and soon-to-be Provost of The University of Chicago), Roger Falcone (Director of the Advanced Light Source at LBNL), Stephen Wasserman (Senior Research Fellow, Eli Lilly and Company), Eric Gawiser (Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University), Patricia Dehmer (Deputy Director for Science Programs, Office of Science, DOE), and F. Fleming Crim (Assistant Director for Mathematics and Physical Sciences, NSF).

Reminders

• All CFN users and staff members who have authored any publication in which research was performed in part or in whole at the CFN must submit the publication reference at http://pubs.cfn.bnl.gov/.  The CFN compiles a list of all of these publications, and makes it available in various reports. The list includes published work only.
• The following acknowledgment is be used when referencing work performed at the CFN:  "Research carried out (in whole or in part) at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886."
• Users are required to submit a Report of Research Results of 2-4 pages within 30 days of completion of their project.  The Report will include a non-proprietary, brief description of the goals of the project, a summary of the main results and their relevance in addressing important scientific questions or technical problems.  If applicable, a list of resulting publications and/or patents is also required.  Reports may also be necessary for any subsequent proposals to be considered.  Please note that the Report is a deliverable specified in the Non-Proprietary User Agreement, Article IX.C.2./Proprietary User Agreement, Article IX.E.
  Submit your project report to cfnuser@bnl.gov.

CFN Changes

• New Proposal Countdown: As part of an effort to facilitate and expedite the proposal process, CFN launched a new countdown clock this summer. We hope this helps keep everyone aware of approaching deadlines, which will become more strictly enforced moving forward.
• Users of either the Corrosive or Piranha Etch must complete new required training called Corrosive Etch Solutions (TQ-CORETCH).  Present staff and users should have completed this course by Oct. 31, 2013.  If not completed by Dec. 31, 2013, users will lose access to the lab.

CFN on Social Media

• Twitter: You can now follow CFN on Twitter under the handle @FunctionalNano, where we will share news, updates, and reminders. 
• LinkedIn: CFN now has a LinkedIn group, which I hope you will all join and use as an opportunity to grow and maintain your professional research networks.

If you have any questions or concerns, please stop by my office, send an email, or give me a call. Enjoy your holidays and have a great winter!

— Grace Webster
User Administration and Outreach

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