Updates for the User Community
inputs from the CFN User Office
September 27, 2023
Grace Webster
Greetings from the User Office! We hope that you had a great summer. Fall is approaching and we’re looking forward to the cooler weather. With the change of seasons, we have several exciting fall events to look forward to.
Events
- Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting: The DOE Nanoscale Research Centers (NSRCs) will be exhibiting at the 2023 Fall MRS Meeting in Boston, MA. It will be held Nov. 26 through Dec. 1. CFN will be organizing a dinner for their staff and users. The User Office will be sending an email to all users with details as soon as they become available.
- Society for Science at User Research Facilities (SSURF) Annual Meeting: SSURF’s Annual Meeting will be held on Oct. 19, 2023, at the Marriot Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, MD. The keynote speaker is Ian Wilson, Ph.D., Chair and Hansen Professor of Structural Biology in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research Institute.
- The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) will hold a symposium on Oct. 10, 2023, in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the law that authorized the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The one-day symposium, titled Enabling the Nanotechnology Revolution: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, will be held at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC.
User Awards
Congratulations to Professor Brian Gleeson and his student, Rafael Rodriguez De Vecchis, CFN users who won 2nd place in the poster competition at the 2023 Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on High Temperature Corrosion. The poster was titled “Assessment of the Role of Minor Refractory Alloying Additions in Affecting Alumina-Scale Formation During High-Temperature Oxidation.”
User Proposal Deadline
The CFN is currently accepting new proposals and additional time requests for the Jan. to Apr. 2024 Cycle. The submission deadline is Saturday, Sept. 30, 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 Sept. to Dec. 2023 Cycle, PIs must submit a new General User proposal by the upcoming deadline for work to continue.
Export Control
Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) is actively implementing controls to ensure compliance with U.S. export regulations. In support of these compliance activities, all new CFN proposal types must answer research screening questions (copied below) to ensure that the research conducted at the CFN complies with applicable export control regulations. These screening questions have been incorporated into the proposal process in the CFN Proposal Portal (CPP). If you are unsure how to answer these questions, please contact your home institution’s Export Control Office.
- Are there any restrictions, contractually or otherwise, on public dissemination of the work (e.g., research, experiment) described in this proposal? Public dissemination includes presenting at conferences or open meetings, publications, or web source information.
- Are you bringing any items (including specimens/samples), technical data, software, or services owned or funded by a nuclear, defense, military, space, intelligence agency, or a defense contractor of the United States or of another country?
- For work (e.g., research, experiment) conducted at the user facility, are any items, technical data, software or services designed, developed, or modified exclusively for military applications, military training, spacecraft, launch vehicles, or national security or intelligence collection and analysis?
- Would the research results be directly useful for- or would the research involve- a nuclear reactor application (e.g., commercial nuclear fuel, other nuclear reactors, nuclear grade graphite, uranium enrichment)?
- Are you bringing any items (including specimens/samples), technical data, or software to the user facility that requires access controls?
- For DOE National Lab PIs or employees only: The research has been screened by the associated National Lab against the DOE “Science and Technology Risk Matrix” critical and emerging research areas and technologies.
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
Remember to complete the 2023 User Satisfaction Survey. Your feedback is very important to us. We rely on your input to improve our performance and processes.
On-site or Remote 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 (and proposals) at https://cpp.bnl.gov.
- 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 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).
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, follow the instructions on how to use VPN. If you need to create a new FOM account or experience any other FOM-related issues, contact the User Office.
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
2023-21478 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
