Steve Bennett

Steve Bennett began his career at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in 1977 as a technician on the superconducting power transmission project. His primary focus was high-voltage and high-current testing, working on a project funded partially by electric companies to evaluate the feasibility of using superconductors for electricity transmission.  In 1980, Steve transitioned to the proton accelerator, where he contributed to the development of both the single-bunch and fast extraction systems, employing novel kicker designs for high-radiation environments. He specialized in both analog and digital processing techniques, interfacing high-voltage and high-current applications in electrically noisy environments.  In 1983, Steve joined the Exxon/Mobil research team, where he played a key role in designing, developing, and constructing five multi-use beamlines at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). His expertise in control instrumentation, data acquisition, and safety electronics was critical to the success of the project. Steve also operated experiments on behalf of users who could not travel to BNL, utilizing diffraction and scattering techniques, including WAX, SAX, USAX, and GiSAX. He developed a system capable of simultaneous SAX/WAX experiments, enabling faster data collection with background subtraction. In addition, Steve gained valuable experience in computer administration, handling experiments across various operating systems including Windows, Unix/Linux, and VMS. In the late 1990s, he contributed to the development of remote access experimental techniques, allowing users to conduct and observe experiments remotely, independent of the operating system.  In 2013, Steve moved to the NSLS-II, where he was assigned to CSX1 and CSX2 and helped develop the first light beamline. As the manager of a newly formed technical support group, he oversaw the construction and development of five NEXT and six BDN beamlines, in addition to providing support for the seven project beamlines. The BDN beamlines presented significant challenges, but under Steve's leadership, the team successfully repurposed legacy equipment from the NSLS, bringing it up to NSLS-II standards. Currently, Steve is assigned to the Imaging and Microscopy Program at NSLS-II, where he continues to support the technical needs and operations of the program, contributing his extensive experience and expertise to advancing the mission of the facility.