From the SSRL Director: From a Shed to a Directorate of SLAC
by Joachim Stöhr
Everybody at SLAC knows Pief Panofsky and other high energy physics and accelerator pioneers of the lab, but it is a safe bet that the history and pioneers of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) are less well known. Here I briefly want to tell how SSRL developed from a hole in the wall (of SPEAR) to an important part of SLAC. My story tries to capture the SSRL philosophy developed along the way and what it means today for implementing the vision of "one lab."
Bill Spicer was a pioneer not just in his chosen field of photoemission research but as early as June 1968 wrote a letter to Pief Panofsky pointing out the possibility of using "cyclotron" radiation for solid state physics and chemistry. At the time, the construction of the Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Ring (SPEAR) was still on the drawing board, but Bill's vision soon became a reality with the advent of the storage ring SPEAR. Following his and Seb Doniach's initiative, with support of Pief Panofsky and the experimental facilities division of SLAC, the first X-ray "beam line" was constructed in 1972 by Ingolf Lindau and Piero Pianetta, a graduate student at the time.
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10 Year Service Awards
by Charlotte Carlson
Recipients of SLAC's 10 Year Service Awards enjoyed a buffet luncheon
on Tuesday. (Image courtesy of Diana Rogers.)
Employees who have served 10 years with SLAC were honored at a luncheon and service award ceremony last Tuesday in the Redwood Room. Director Persis Drell and Human Resources Director Lee Lyon were on hand to distribute the awards and offer their thanks.
In addition to enjoying a luncheon buffet, awardees were honored and served by the SLAC Red Hat Society ladies, who offered coffee and tea.
Those being honored included Angel Angelov,
Jacek Becla,
Matthew Campbell,
Aina Cohen,
Pedro Colon,
Robert D. Cowles,
Domenico Dell’Orco,
Lovetta Dunn,
Lata Fangupo,
Karen Kalinski,
Ronald Kirkland,
Anatoly Krasnykh,
Zev Kvitky,
David Leung,
Andrew May,
Stuart Metcalfe,
Richard Mount,
Christopher P. O’Grady,
Corrine Purcell,
Robert Reek,
Dellilah Sabba,
James Safranek,
Victor Serbo,
Eva Silverstein,
Richard L. Talley,
Peter Tenenbaum,
Ruth E. Thomas,
Vladimir Vinetskiy,
Clemens Wermelskirchen and
Jingchen Zhou.
Photos from the event are now
available online, thanks to SLAC Photographer Diana Rogers.
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Word of the Week: "Photon Science"
by Brad Plummer
The term "photon science" encompasses a range of scientific laboratory techniques in which light is used to investigate the properties of matter in fields as diverse as chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. Key to the field of photon science are the "light sources," which produce intense beams of light in the visible range as well as ultraviolet light and X-rays. SLAC's light sources comprise a number of laser labs, the SPEAR3 synchrotron at SSRL and starting in 2009, the Linac Coherent Light Source, which will produce X-rays billions of times brighter than other sources.
Building the LCLS: Weekly Update
by Brad Plummer
Highlights from this week's Linac Coherent Light Source construction activities include:
–Beginning of installation for service building 2.3 atop the Beam Transport Hall in the Research Yard; waterproofing the roof.
–Near Experimental Hall: installing drywall, painting; applying backfill to the exterior; installing roofing insulation; electrical utility installation.
–Central Utilities Plant: installation of main rollup door frame, electrical utility installation.
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