Updates for the User Community

inputs from the CFN User Office

May 17, 2023

Grace Webster

Grace Webster

Happy Spring! We hope that you are enjoying the nice weather. With the warmer temperatures, we just want to remind everyone that proper attire is required when working in the CFN labs. Shorts and open-toed shoes (such as sandals or flip flops) are not allowed.

Events

We want to thank you all for participating in this year’s NSLS-II, CFN, & LBMS Users’ Meeting that was held on April 24-28. There were over 750 registered attendees that attended 16 workshops held throughout the week.

Four new members of the Users’ Executive Committee were elected—congratulations to Laiba Bilal, Manuel Lozano-Arroyo, Wencan Jin, and Chunyang Wang. Welcome to the CFN UEC!

CFN user Ankita Mohanty was one of four poster winners for her poster entitled “Chemical and Morphological Evolution of Hybrid Conversion Coatings in Low-Earth Orbit Space Environment.” Congratulations Ankita!

This fall, the Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) will be exhibiting at the 2023 Fall Materials Research Society Meeting in Boston, MA. It will be held from November 26-December 1. CFN will be organizing a dinner for their staff and users, so stay tuned for more information.

User Proposal Deadline

The CFN is currently accepting new proposals and additional time requests for the September-December 2023 cycle by the submission deadline of Wednesday, May 31, 2023.

  • Users who already have an active project must submit an additional time request for access to the CFN.
  • For General User and Rapid Access projects that are expiring after the May to August 2023 cycle, PIs must submit a new General User proposal by the upcoming deadline for work to continue.

Safety Approval Forms

All user projects must have an approved Safety Approval Form (SAF). SAFs must be submitted through the CFN Proposal Portal and approved two weeks prior to the start of an experiment, whether the work is onsite or remote. We are seeing a large number of user projects without a valid SAF, which is causing a delay or cancellation of experiments.

If you are allocated beamtime at one of CFN's Partner User Beamlines (11-BM, 12-ID, 21-ID), select NSLS-II as the user facility when creating the SAF. If you are allocated time for both beamlines and CFN tools, you will have to create two SAFs (one each for NSLS-II and CFN).

User Survey

Don’t forget to complete the 2023 Annual User Satisfaction Survey. Your feedback is very important to us. We rely on your input to improve our performance and processes.

On-site or Remore Access to CFN

  • Before starting your experiment at CFN, users must complete the following steps:
  • Registration: Every experimenter listed on the proposal, participating onsite or remotely, must have a valid BNL appointment. To obtain or renew a guest appointment, go to https://guest.bnl.gov. Users who mail in or receive samples from CFN must also have a valid guest appointment.
  • Submit a Safety Approval Form.
  • Training: All experimenters must complete online training prior to a scheduled experiment. For a list of training requirements, please go to https://training.bnl.gov.
  • CFN’s Facility Online Management System (FOM) is not available outside the BNL firewall. To access FOM, you need BNL’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) and DUO Two Factor Authentication. To apply, please submit an account request form. Once you have your BNL domain account, you can follow these instructions to use the VPN. If you need to create a new FOM account or experience any other FOM-related issues, contact the User Office.

CFN will continue to support user projects remotely by assisting with data analysis and other activities that can be done away from the lab. For more information, contact the User Office at cfnuser@bnl.gov or at 631-344-NANO (6266).

Publications and Awards

  • Send us high-resolution copies of publication covers that feature your papers or articles so that we can display them at the CFN.
  • Keep us informed of your awards, honors, and publications. Publicizing your discoveries and professional achievements helps us raise the profile of the CFN, attract top scientists from around the world, and secure ongoing funding.
  • The following acknowledgement must be used in publications when referencing work performed in whole or in part at the CFN: “This research used resources* of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.”

    • * Please specify which CFN resource(s) were used. For example: “This research used the Theory and Computation facility of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.” DOE is also asking us to include sponsor contributions delineated by research (vs individuals) and to list sponsors based on their contribution (i.e., the leading funding source should be listed first).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the CFN User Office or any of the CFN staff. We are here to help and ensure you are safe when conducting your work.

On behalf of the entire CFN family, we thank you for your continued support of and engagement with the CFN. We hope to see you all soon!

— Grace Webster
User Program Administrator and Outreach Coordinator

2023-21273  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom