We Are Still Here for You and Your Science
May 15, 2020
Dear Everyone,
When I last wrote to you in January, I was looking forward to a new year full of exciting science and seeing many of you at our annual Users’ Meeting. Now, of course, everything has changed due to COVID-19. We are all moving through uncertain times, facing similar difficulties and concerns in our lives. At NSLS-II, we are presently carrying out COVID-19-related research but no users are coming on site. Most of our staff is working from home. However, we are actively developing a plan for restarting the user program again when conditions will allow us to do so. We will take a slow, carefully phased approach that will involve the new lifestyle changes we are all now so familiar with: social distancing, face coverings, and hygiene plans. It is also clear that tele-experimenting will be a big part of our future and NSLS-II is gearing up to support this to the greatest extent possible.
Your science continues, and so does our support
Even in the present situation, I would like to let you know that science at NSLS-II continues. NSLS-II staff are working on analyzing data, improving software, and writing papers. If you have collected data at one of our beamlines, please reach out to the beamline scientists and ask how you can work together on your scientific problem and advance the work to a publication. This may be an ideal opportunity to do so without some of the usual distractions.
Minimal operations and changes in the shutdown schedule
As I mentioned, NSLS-II is currently running in a minimal operations mode to offer rapid access for COVID-19-related research. Normally, we would be in our regular May shutdown right now; however, due the urgent nature of the research being carried out at NSLS-II, we decided to postpone and shorten our shutdown, which will now run from June 16 to July 4. We made this decision in coordination with the other U.S. Department of Energy light sources to ensure that at least one light source is available for research at any given time. The fall shutdown will now run from September 14 through October 19. We will continue to update you on any additional changes through our user mailing list and the NSLS-II website. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please email our user office at nsls2user@bnl.gov.
Proposal call and beam time
Even though we are presently running in a minimal operations mode, we are expecting to be able return to limited user operations in the fall. Therefore, we are still holding our usual call for beam time proposals, with a deadline May 31. We are actively looking into how we can facilitate various forms of remote access. The possibilities will vary between different techniques and beamlines, so I strongly encourage you to work closely with our beamline scientists when writing your proposal during this time. They best understand the beamline’s capabilities and what is feasible. You should understand that, while we will do our best, we will not be able to accommodate a full user program under such circumstances.
The virtual users’ meeting
We made the decision to hold the NSLS-II & CFN Users’ Meeting on May 18-20 virtually this year, understanding that your science still continues to move forward. We don’t want to miss the opportunity to hear from you, our user community, showcasing your latest result. Especially now, we believe this meeting is the perfect venue to hear about what is happening and how we are moving forward. This has proven to be an incredibly popular decision and we are on track to double our highest attendance record! The meeting is free of charge; however, registration is required. So, if you have not already done so, please consider registering. We have an exciting program of workshops and plenary talks for you to enjoy.
In the rest of this newsletter, you can read about our lab-wide COVID-19 efforts, meet NSLS-II chemical engineer Christine Ali, learn more exciting updates about ongoing science at NSLS-II, and find a link to submit your beam time proposals.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and I hope you are all safe and well in these uncertain times.
John Hill, NSLS-II Director
