Headline News

Contents of this Issue:

Director's Column: LCLS Looks to the Future Science Update: LCLS Shines at International Workshop on Science with FELs Instrument Update: XCS to Begin Commissioning; MEC Readies Upcoming Events: New Scientific Computing Series; Annual Users' Conference Announcements: Energy Secretary Lauds LCLS Construction; Stöhr Wins Davisson-Germer Prize; Brunger Receives DeLano Award; LCLS Goes to Washington User Administration Update: Inform Us of Publications and News Seen at LCLS: Lu Yongxiang; Leland Cogliani LCLS in the News: Laser Focus World, Physics Today, DOE Pulse, The Scientist

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1. Director's Column: LCLS Looks to the Future

In February of this year, the fourth LCLS instrument, Coherent X-Ray Imaging or CXI, started to take data; the first user shifts were a great success, producing single shot images of submicron sized crystals with near atomic resolution. We are now looking forward to the commissioning of the fifth instrument, X-Ray Correlation Spectroscopy or XCS, in the upcoming summer run.

This run, which starts on June 9, will proceed as planned thanks to the FY 2011 LCLS budget, which was determined a few weeks ago. We are grateful to the Office of Basic Energy Sciences for providing us with a budget that allows us to continue our aggressive schedule in commissioning instruments, operating them for users with adequate scientific and support staff, and improving our ability to characterize and improve the quality of the LCLS pulses.

To further improve the LCLS, earlier this year Norbert Holtkamp, the SLAC Associate Laboratory Director for Accelerators, and I formed a working group co-lead by Zhirong Huang from the Accelerator Directorate and Jerry Hastings from the LCLS Directorate to develop an integrated R&D program for LCLS that has near, mid and long term goals. Read more...

2. Science Update: LCLS Shines at International Workshop on Science with FELs

The second annual International Workshop on Science with Free Electron Lasers, sponsored by the Max Planck Society, was held in early March in the society's conference center at Schloss Ringberg in the Bavarian Alps south of Munich. This has become an annual, informal opportunity for researchers using Linac Coherent Light Source, FLASH and other facilities to meet for three days in an isolated mountain castle to discuss the problems and revolutionary opportunities of the new generation of X-ray laser light sources. The spectacular LCLS results published in the February 3 edition of Nature on nanocrystallography and single-particle imaging of viruses were already old news at this meeting, where the "buzz" was much more focused on the new data that has been collected since last summer. LCLS featured very prominently in many of the scientific presentations. These are the not-yet published results that will create headlines in the coming year. The talks were filled with images that were even more impressive than the snowy Alpine mountain scenery on view through the windows in the back of the lecture hall. Read more...

3. Instrument Update: XCS to Begin Commissioning; MEC Readies

The LCLS's unprecedented x-rays currently stream into four instrument hutches; by next spring, that number will increase to six.

As mentioned in Jo's director's column (above), the X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy (XCS) instrument, under the care of instrument scientists Aymeric Robert and Chiara Caronna, is currently undergoing commissioning in the LCLS Far Experimental Hall. When the first XCS users arrive this fall, the instrument will be ready to reveal fundamental molecular motion on very short time and length scales. (Learn more about XCS here.)

Meanwhile, instrument scientists Hae Ja Lee and Bob Nagler are hard at work building the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument, which will subject samples to multi-megabar pressure and searing heat reaching tens of thousands of degrees and then reveal the samples' fundamental behavior under these conditions. The first users will conduct experiments with the MEC instrument in spring 2012. (Learn more about MEC here.)

More information on all six LCLS instruments can be found on the instruments of LCLS webpage.

4. Upcoming Events: New Scientific Computing Series; Annual Users’ Conference

Scientific Computing Seminars to Share Knowledge, Experience
This month marks the beginning of a new SLAC scientific computing seminar series, showcasing scientific computing techniques from across the lab and beyond. Lectures by SLAC researchers will discuss the science made possible by the vast amounts of data produced by the LCLS, images of the universe in three dimensions and more. Scientists from other institutions will also share new methods for using computing to advance science. The first lecture, given by LCLS Instrument Scientist Garth Williams earlier this week, discussed new methods in coherent imaging and nano crystallography. Williams demonstrated how the raw data taken by the Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument—which can already exceed 700 megabytes per second and total more than 100 terabytes for some experiments—is converted into molecular and atomic structures. The lectures are currently scheduled for one Tuesday a month in SLAC’s Kavli Auditorium. The next will take place on May 17.

Annual Users’ Conference, October 24-26
Plan to participate in the Annual SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting and Workshops, October 24-26, 2011 to learn about new developments and share exciting user research at both LCLS and SSRL. The draft program and registration details will be posted shortly. In the meantime, please take a few moments to consider organizing a workshop in conjunction with the annual users' conference. Please contact organizers Josh Turner, Martin Meedom Nielsen, Serena DeBeer, Sam Webb or Cathy Knotts with suggestions. To reserve lodging for the meeting, contact the Stanford Guest House and specify SSRL/LCLS/SLAC to take advantage of discounted rates.

5. Announcements:

Energy Secretary Lauds LCLS Construction
The Linac Coherent Light Source construction project was awarded the Secretary's Award of Excellence at a ceremony in Alexandria, VA, during the March 16 Department of Energy Project Management Workshop. The award recognizes the overall management of the project, and the effort and expertise required to build the first hard x-ray laser on time and under budget—from the groundbreaking in October 2006 to the facility's first x-ray laser light in April 2009. Learn more...

Stöhr Wins Davisson-Germer Prize
Jo Stöhr has been awarded the 2011 Davisson-Germer Prize in Surface or Atomic Physics, sponsored by AT&T Bell Laboratories. Stöhr received the prize “for the development of soft x-ray based spectroscopy and microscopy leading to fundamental contributions to the understanding of chemical bonding, magnetism and dynamics at surfaces and interfaces.” Congratulations, Jo!

Axel Brunger Receives DeLano Award
Axel Brunger, professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Photon Science and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology, has been named the winner of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s inaugural DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences. The award, given for the first time this year, honors those who “create accessible and innovative development or applications of computer technology to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular level,” according to a press release issued by the society.

LCLS Goes to Washington
LCLS, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource and SLAC’s particle physics and astrophysics user facilities were represented at the National User Facility Organization exhibit on Capitol Hill earlier this month. Uwe Bergmann and other user facility representatives highlighted research underway at the facilities and addressed how the science underpins U.S. competitiveness and innovation. Learn more...

6. User Administration Update: Inform Us of Publications and News

The scientific community is eagerly awaiting news from the world's first hard x-ray laser, so as soon as data have been collected, analyzed and prepared for publication, please inform us so that we can help share the latest LCLS scientific advancements. Don't forget to acknowledge LCLS and funding agencies in your publications using the formats posted on the LCLS website. The Proposal Review Panel, which next meets May 2-3, considers how previous beamtime was used—and whether a publication resulted—in ranking the best proposals for the next user run. We strongly encourage you to contact us when exciting results are about to be published so that we can work with you, your institution, and the SLAC Office of Communications to develop the story and to communicate user research findings to a broader audience.

7. Seen at LCLS:

Lu Yongxiang
President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Lu Yongxiang and an accompanying delegation visited SLAC for a tour of LCLS on April 1. Lu, who launched what became known as the "Knowledge Innovation Project," partnered with the Shanghai municipal government to build the new Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility—a third-generation machine completed in 2009. During their tour, President Lu and his colleagues were very interested in learning about photon science at SLAC.

Leland Cogliani
On Friday, April 22, SLAC hosted Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Staff Member Leland Cogliani for a day-long visit. Cogliani’s time at SLAC included an overview of laboratory science and a tour of LCLS, which included a visit to the Undulator Hall and both experimental halls, with a stop at the X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy instrument.

8. LCLS in the News:

Laser Focus World
The Role of Ultrafast Laser Systems in FELs
April 1, 2011

Physics Today
X-rays from a Free-electron Laser Resolve the Structures of Complex Biomolecules
April 2011

DOE Pulse
An X-ray Laser Captures the Structures of Life
March 21, 2011

The Scientist
Top 7 in Biochemistry (LCLS research ranked #1 and #5)
March 15, 2011

See a full list of LCLS news clippings on the LCLS in the News webpage.

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The Linac Coherent Light Source, a directorate of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Stanford University. As the world's most powerful x-ray laser, the LCLS creates unique light that can see details down to the size of atoms and processes that occur in less than one tenth of a trillionth of a second. At these unprecedented speeds and scales, the LCLS is embarking on groundbreaking research in physics, structural biology, energy science, chemistry and many other diverse fields.

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