Dedicated to spreading the Good News of Basic and Applied Science at great research institutions world wide. Good science is a collaborative process. The rule here: Science Never Sleeps.
I am telling the reader this story in the hope of impelling him or her to find their own story and start a wordpress blog. We all have a story. Find yours.
The oldest post I can find for this blog is From FermiLab Today: Tevatron is Done at the End of 2011 (but I am not sure if that is the first post, just the oldest I could find.)
But the origin goes back to 1985, Timothy Ferris Creation of the Universe PBS, November 20, 1985, available in different videos on YouTube; The Atom Smashers, PBS Frontline November 25, 2008, centered at Fermilab, not available on YouTube; and The Big Bang Machine, with Sir Brian Cox of U Manchester and the ATLAS project at the LHC at CERN.
In 1993, our idiot Congress pulled the plug on The Superconducting Super Collider, a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas. Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 Tev per proton and was set to be the world’s largest and most energetic. It would have greatly surpassed the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider, which has ring circumference 27 km (17 mi) and energy of 13 TeV per proton.
If this project had been built, most probably the Higgs Boson would have been found there, not in Europe, to which the USA had ceded High Energy Physics.
(We have not really left High Energy Physics. Most of the magnets used in The LHC are built in three U.S. DOE labs: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Also, see below. the LHC based U.S. scientists at Fermilab and Brookhaven Lab.)
I have recently been told that the loss of support in Congress was caused by California pulling out followed by several other states because California wanted the collider built there.
The project’s director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Louis Ianniello served as its first Project Director for 15 months. The project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems, cited as having no immediate economic value.
Some where I learned that fully 30% of the scientists working at CERN were U.S. citizens. The ATLAS project had 600 people at Brookhaven Lab. The CMS project had 1,000 people at Fermilab. There were many scientists which had “gigs” at both sites.
I started digging around in CERN web sites and found Quantum Diaries, a “blog” from before there were blogs, where different scientists could post articles. I commented on a few and my dismay about the lack of U.S recognition in the press.
Those guys at Quantum Diaries, gave me access to the Greybook, the list of every institution in the world in several tiers processing data for CERN. I collected all of their social media and was off to the races for CERN and other great basic and applied science.
Since then I have expanded the list of sites that I cover from all over the world. I build .html templates for each institution I cover and plop their articles, complete with all attributions and graphics into the template and post it to the blog. I am not a scientist and I am not qualified to write anything or answer scientific questions. The only thing I might add is graphics where the origin graphics are weak. I have a monster graphics library. Any science questions are referred back to the writer who is told to seek his answer from the real scientists in the project.
The blog has to date 900 followers on the blog, its Facebook Fan page and Twitter. I get my material from email lists and RSS feeds. I do not use Facebook or Twitter, which are both loaded with garbage in the physical sciences.
Creating a startup to commercialize technology developed during research is a risky road for physicists and engineers but the help of experts can improve their chances.
Many researchers in high-energy physics [HEP] are inventors by default.
In their efforts to study phenomena on the smallest and largest scales, physicists and engineers wind up developing new technologies that have applications outside of the lab.
[E.g., the internet invented at CERN]
For example, some of the superconducting magnets and particle detectors originally created for high-energy physics research are now instrumental in the field of medical imaging.
Herein lies an alternative career path for scientists outside of academia: entrepreneurship.
Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Corinne Mucha.
The process of taking a new product to market, however, is risky. Commercialization requires an extensive amount of time, money and luck. But through legislation and training programs, scientists have found new support on their paths to becoming entrepreneurs.
Oil and water
In 2010, Arden Warner was watching coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on TV.
“They were trying different things to stop the leak,” says Warner, an accelerator scientist at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. “I started to get concerned.”
Not only was Warner worried about the environment, but there was talk of the oil riding the Gulf Stream to Barbados, where he was born. When the Secretary of Energy called on the national laboratories to propose solutions, Arden stepped up.
As someone who works with magnets while developing particle accelerators at Fermilab, Warner naturally turned to them for a solution. In a Dixie cup of oil and water, he figured out how to get magnetic particles to bond preferentially with the oil and used a magnetic field to remove it.
“That’s when I knew I had to talk to Fermilab’s technology transfer office,” he says.
At U.S. universities and the DOE national laboratories and others [e.g. SwRI], scientists and engineers are required to disclose inventions developed with federal funding to a technology transfer office. A tech transfer specialist certifies the origin of the invention and then decides whether to move forward with the patent process.
It used to be that in the United States, inventions like this belonged to the government. But the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 changed that: Now the invention belongs to the individual institution. All US national labs and universities have technology transfer offices, which can aid an inventor in patenting and commercializing their invention.
“The government is trying to make it easier for companies to commercialize and researchers to be able to transfer out technologies and expertise,” says Aaron Sauers, a senior patent and licensing executive in Fermilab’s tech transfer office.
A tech transfer specialist’s first step is to determine if the invention is novel and useful enough to be patented as intellectual property.
Sauers says scientists sometimes fail to disclose an invention because it doesn’t seem significant enough, or because they’re skeptical of a patent’s worth.
“At a bare minimum, you can put [a patent] on your resume because it’s another kind of publication,” he says. “You could attract collaborators who see that you’ve patented in a particular area. And you could potentially license it.”
Sauers says sometimes scientists write about inventions in scientific publications instead [e.g. PRL], assuming they will be able to file a patent later. But the order of operations matters. “If you publish first, that can hurt your ability to patent,” he says. “But if you put it in a patent application, then you can publish without worry.”
If a new technology is deemed worthy of patenting, the tech transfer office helps a researcher with the paperwork and handles the $15,000 to $20,000 of filing fees and legal expenses. The costly process is also time-intensive. With the help of the tech transfer office, it took Warner four years to patent his technology, which is not unusual.
Once a patent is filed, the lab or university makes a call for proposals from companies that would like to use the invention to try to make a profit. They can license the invention to a single company, or they can license the invention for different uses or for use in different regions to multiple companies.
Warner applied to take out a license on his invention to start his own business. For exclusive use of the patent, Warner’s company will give Fermilab a small percentage of his sales after he reaches a certain level of profit. The company will also reimburse Fermilab for patent costs over time.
In 2016, Warner launched his company, Natural Science, LLC. Once established, they were able to attract partners and funding to build a full-scale prototype, which Warner finally tested in 2019.
He says seeing his idea in action was the most memorable part of the process so far. “I still get chills from that part.”
Despite being nine years old, Natural Science, LLC is still considered a startup. “I learned along the way that any idea, no matter how good, takes about 10 years to develop into a business,” Warner says. “Overnight success takes years.”
Learning the science of business
To help researchers reach this success, the Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions offers Energy I-Corps, a training program that teaches scientist-inventors how to bring their technology to market.
When Sean Sullivan was a postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory, he and his collaborator at the University of Chicago, Manish Kumar Singh, patented results from their research through U Chicago’s tech transfer office. They were working on integrating quantum bits—qubits—for applications in quantum memory and communication.
“With some of the fundamental physics of quantum memory demonstrated, we wanted to take that a step further and tackle the engineering challenge to develop a usable device,” Sullivan says.
The two signed up for Energy I-Corps. During the two-month training program, participants pair up with industry mentors and conduct interviews with around 100 potential users. They do this to identify possible market applications of their technology and to establish a model for their business.
This program allowed Sullivan and Singh to zero in on their most likely customers, such as those who want to use quantum computing to solve difficult computations or to create secure communication links.
As the Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, Vanessa Chan helps researchers navigate the commercialization process, from research to development, to demonstration, to deployment.
“There’s a new skill set not taught in graduate school that you need to develop if you’re really passionate about commercialization, and that’s what Energy I-Corps is doing,” she says. “To get your stuff out there, you need to go talk to people outside the lab to figure out how your technology is going to solve their problems.”
Seeing a path forward, Sullivan and Singh negotiated a licensing agreement for their patent. They started full-time operations at their business, memQ Inc., in December 2022. Since then, they have raised $2.5 million in venture funding, a significant milestone as they work toward their goal of becoming a self-sustaining business.
Some researchers may not be able to take the time to participate in an intensive program like Energy I-Corps.
“I think Energy I-Corps is a great immersive program, but we’re also looking to see if we can develop some asynchronous materials, because it’s very difficult for some researchers to take that much time off,” Chan says.
Other non-asynchronous options for researchers include incubators and accelerators. “My advice is if you at all think you’re interested in commercializing, start exploring programs that your university [or other institution] offers,” Sullivan says. “I wish we would have started even sooner.”
Like Energy I-Corps, incubators and accelerators are training programs that beef up early-stage companies through education, networking and access to resources.
“A program like an accelerator or an incubator gives a founder the space to learn how to run a business, which is hard to do if you just have your head down in a lab,” says Dan Sachs, the executive director of Polsky Deep Tech Ventures, an organization that runs several domain-specific deep tech accelerators through the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center. Sullivan and Singh’s memQ is currently participating in Duality, Polsky Deep Tech Ventures’ accelerator focused on quantum startups.
Most researchers have no idea how to run a business, Sachs says. Mentors and coaches at incubators and accelerators help fill in these gaps.
Risky business
Sullivan says one of the biggest things he’s learned through participating in training programs is how to be more comfortable with risk.
“In science, you always want to take things gradually and methodically, so I think being comfortable with the level of risk involved in being an entrepreneur is hard for a lot of scientists,” Sullivan says. “Talking to people helped me understand that the risk is baked in.”
Physicists interested in improving the chances for scientists-turned-entrepreneurs held discussions over the last few years as a part of the 2021 Snowmass Process, a particle physics community planning exercise.
Their main takeaway: “I think funding is key—and funding beyond just training programs,” says Farah Fahim, head of the microelectronics division in the emerging technologies directorate at Fermilab, who co-led the topical discussions related to tech transfer during Snowmass.
For example, she says, researchers could use funding specifically for prototype development. This part of the process is expensive, especially for deep technology: the cutting-edge innovations that typically come out of high-energy physics. But many venture capital firms won’t invest in an invention before seeing a prototype.
“It’s kind of like a Catch-22,” Fahim says.
She has experienced this Catch-22 herself. Fahim designs detectors capable of ultrafast X-ray imaging. Through Fermilab’s tech transfer office, she patented camera systems that could be used in medical imaging or in the semiconductor industry for quality assurance during product fabrication.
After patenting her technology, she attended some entrepreneurial trainings. She even presented her ideas to venture capital firms, but without a prototype, they were unwilling to take the risk on her product.
Fahim believes funding, programs and other resources should be developed to take this huge financial risk off researchers’ startups and ensure they land on their feet. This would allow inventors from more socio-economic backgrounds to make the leap into entrepreneurship, she says.
“The whole thing is based mostly on luck. If you ask me, we only have four or five entrepreneurs in the entire life of Fermilab, but we have loads of inventors,” she says. “We need to democratize this process by creating programs and processes which allow a smooth transition.”
Many researchers in high-energy physics are inventors by default. But their ideas, career paths and personal lives—not to mention funding opportunities and the demands of the market—must all align for them to become successful entrepreneurs.
The Compact X-ray Free Electron Laser (CXFEL) will fit neatly in a traditional lab space at a fraction of the massive cost of traditional X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL). In addition to size and cost differences, both XFEL and CXFEL devices have different roles to play and lend themselves to different types of experiments. The Compact X-ray Light Source, a prototype instrument, is pictured here. Photo courtesy of Arizona State University.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and University of California-Davis researchers are assisting Arizona State University with a new laser facility that will use ultrafast pulsed X-ray beams to study biological processes, materials and other research at the atomic level.
In March, the National Science Foundation announced that it was awarding $90.8 million to Tempe-based ASU to build a Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser, or CXFEL, facility.
“One of the reasons that we’re excited about the CXFEL is that, as we have more of these compact machines come online, more scientists will have the opportunity to do more science,” said Matthias Frank, a team leader and a biophysicist in the LLNL’s Biology and Biotechnology Division.
LLNL and UC Davis scientists assisted ASU in the planning and proposal stages to the National Science Foundation for the CXFEL, helping define the machine’s science applications and the requirements for experimental end stations.
“Since we’re part of the commissioning process, we’ll be involved in some of the early experiments for both the CXFEL and its companion machine, the Compact X-ray Light Source,” Frank said.
One of LLNL’s tasks will be to develop and supply novel chips comprised of polymer composites for biological sample platforms. They’ll be produced at the Lab’s Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory and at UC Davis.
The facility’s suite of ultrafast X-ray beams will probe the dynamics of different biological processes, such as photosynthesis in plants, DNA repair and protein functions. The unique set of probes also will measure the physics of quantum materials that may lead to breakthrough technologies such as novel superconductors that would revolutionize energy production and storage or quantum computers.
The CXFEL machine will be the first of its kind in the world. It will provide X-ray pulses so short that they will outrun X-ray damage processes. As a result, scientists can conduct novel science to explore the structure and dynamics of nature and materials as never before.
In Frank’s view, the CXFEL will allow scientists to better understand the changes in protein structures as they perform biological functions by allowing protein microcrystals to be exposed to X-rays to measure their diffraction and permit the measurement of protein structural changes or the chemical changes of metals, such as zinc and iron, in biological process.
In addition to Frank, the Livermore team working with ASU and UC Davis includes physical chemist Megan Shelby, postdoctoral researcher Sankar Narayanasamy and biologist Matt Coleman. The UC Davis team is led by Tonya Kuhl, the head of the university’s chemical engineering department.
Frank’s team is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health that supports the basic technology development and their participation in the CXFEL planning.
The DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is an American federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States, founded by the University of California- Berkeley in 1952. A Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), it is primarily funded by The U.S. Department of Energy and managed and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS), a partnership of the University of California, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, AECOM, and Battelle Memorial Institute in affiliation with the Texas A&M University System. In 2012, the laboratory had the synthetic chemical element livermorium named after it.
LLNL is self-described as “a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security.” Its principal responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons through the application of advanced science, engineering and technology. The Laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities to preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, bolstering homeland security and solving other nationally important problems, including energy and environmental security, basic science and economic competitiveness. The National Ignition Facility, is a large laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at The DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. NIF uses lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel with the goal of inducing nuclear fusion reactions. NIF’s mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain, and to support nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear weapons. NIF is the largest and most energetic ICF device built to date, and the largest laser in the world.
Construction on the NIF began in 1997 but management problems and technical delays slowed progress into the early 2000s. Progress after 2000 was smoother, but compared to initial estimates, NIF was completed five years behind schedule and was almost four times more expensive than originally budgeted. Construction was certified complete on 31 March 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy, and a dedication ceremony took place on 29 May 2009. The first large-scale laser target experiments were performed in June 2009 and the first “integrated ignition experiments” (which tested the laser’s power) were declared completed in October 2010.
Bringing the system to its full potential was a lengthy process that was carried out from 2009 to 2012. During this period a number of experiments were worked into the process under the National Ignition Campaign, with the goal of reaching ignition just after the laser reached full power, sometime in the second half of 2012. The Campaign officially ended in September 2012, at about 1⁄10 the conditions needed for ignition. Experiments since then have pushed this closer to 1⁄3, but considerable theoretical and practical work is required if the system is ever to reach ignition. Since 2012, NIF has been used primarily for materials science and weapons research.
richardmitnick
9:35 am on May 19, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "Faster X-ray Nanotomography Using Machine Learning", Applied Research & Technology ( 11,352 ), Scientists at NSLS-II enable users to study changes in materials faster than ever before., The DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory ( 63 ), The new algorithm is based on a supervised deep learning neural network using residual in residual dense block (RRDB) to correct image artifacts induced by fast data collection., X-ray Nanotomography, X-ray Technology
Scientists at NSLS-II [below] enable users to study changes in materials faster than ever before.
Figure showing the different stages of cracks in a battery particle during continuous heating. The left shows the cross section of the particle at four different times, while the right shows a graph of the crack volume at these four times. BNL.
What do battery cathodes, molten salts, and atomic layer deposition have in common? To study the changes, growth, or chemical reactions in these materials, researchers must study them as they change. One tool for studying the internal dynamics of materials is x-ray computed tomography (CT). However, the time required to acquire a CT scan must be shorter than the timescale at which changes occur inside the material. The obvious solution of using a higher intensity x-ray beam can lead to parasitic reactions and damage to the sample, reducing the quality of the measurement.
To address this challenge, a team of researchers at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) [below] developed an image processing method based on machine learning that significantly reduces both data acquisition time and x-ray dose. Using the Full Field X-ray Imaging (FXI) beamline, the team was able to reduce the acquisition time to less than 10 seconds with a pixel resolution of less than 50 nanometers (nm) in a transmission x-ray microscope. FXI offers advanced capabilities for studying the morphology and oxidation states of dynamic systems in 2D and 3D with 30 nm resolution. The beamline is specialized in in-situ and operando studies of energy storage devices, as well as environmental, biological, and materials science samples. ALL NSLS-II beamlines—including FXI—are available free of charge to academic users through the NSLS-II user program.
In their study [Communications Materials (below)], the researchers demonstrated that their method outperforms conventional methods such as filtered-back projection, maximum likelihood, and model-based “maximum a posteriori” probability by up to a factor of two, depending on the reconstruction method used. The new algorithm is based on a supervised deep learning neural network using residual in residual dense block (RRDB) to correct image artifacts induced by fast data collection. The performance of a supervised neural network is highly dependent on the quality of the training dataset. To achieve better performance, simulations were used to generate a bank of blurred 3D reconstruction images based on the derived mathematics that characterize the blurring and noisy features originated in fast tomography at beamline. The model incorporates several loss functions, including mean absolute error, mean squared error, and visual geometry group VGG feature loss.
The team applied this machine learning algorithm to study the dynamic morphology changes in a lithium-ion battery cathode when the cathode was heated at a rate of 50°C per minute. The study showed that thermal annealing at this rate allowed cracks to heal themselves.
The researchers conclude that this new method can be applied to several other fields of study using similar conditions. This is supported by the fact that their new method can be applied to all other tomography measurements using different signals. This would even allow its use in medical imaging, where a reduction in acquisition time and dose would be beneficial.
The team for this study consisted of Jiayong Zhang, Wah-Keat Lee, and Mingyuan Ge.
Fig. 1: Blurring effects in fly-scan.
a) Schematics of a fly-scan data collection. The blue shadow illustrates the area that is exposed to x-ray under single exposure. In the line profile, the red part manifests the blurring effects compared to the blur curve obtained in the regular step-scan, as indicated by Eq. (4). b) Simulated reconstruction of a grid pattern with blurring angle Δθ = 1·5 degrees. The image size is 512 × 512 pixels. The width of horizontal and vertical is 1 pixel. c) Enlarged view of area enclosed by the blur rectangular in (b). d) e) Line profiles at two positions indicated by the dashed lines in (c).
Fig. 2: Machine learning for tomography reconstruction.
a) Workflow. Blurred sinogram is calculated from the synthetic ground truth image (GT image) using Eq. (5). b) Scheme of RRDB network containing four sequentially connected RRDB models. c) Scheme of individual RRDB model (as outlined by the black rectangle in (b) containing three dense blocks. d–g) Four types of synthetic images with coarse-to-fine features are used in model training.
One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the The DOE Office of Science, The DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. The Laboratory’s almost 3,000 scientists, engineers, and support staff are joined each year by more than 5,000 visiting researchers from around the world. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.
Research at BNL specializes in nuclear and high energy physics, energy science and technology, environmental and bioscience, nanoscience and national security. The 5300 acre campus contains several large research facilities, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider [below] and National Synchrotron Light Source II [below]. Seven Nobel prizes have been awarded for work conducted at Brookhaven lab.
BNL is staffed by approximately 2,750 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, and hosts 4,000 guest investigators every year. The laboratory has its own police station, fire department, and ZIP code (11973). In total, the lab spans a 5,265-acre (21 km^2) area that is mostly coterminous with the hamlet of Upton, New York. BNL is served by a rail spur operated as-needed by the New York and Atlantic Railway. Co-located with the laboratory is the Upton, New York, forecast office of the National Weather Service.
Major programs
Although originally conceived as a nuclear research facility, Brookhaven Lab’s mission has greatly expanded. Its foci are now:
Nuclear and high-energy physics
Physics and chemistry of materials
Environmental and climate research
Nanomaterials
Energy research
Nonproliferation
Structural biology
Accelerator physics
Operation
Brookhaven National Lab was originally owned by the Atomic Energy Commission and is now owned by that agency’s successor, the United States Department of Energy (DOE). DOE subcontracts the research and operation to universities and research organizations. It is currently operated by Brookhaven Science Associates LLC, which is an equal partnership of Stony Brook University and Battelle Memorial Institute. From 1947 to 1998, it was operated by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), but AUI lost its contract in the wake of two incidents: a 1994 fire at the facility’s high-beam flux reactor that exposed several workers to radiation and reports in 1997 of a tritium leak into the groundwater of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens on which the facility sits.
Foundations
Following World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission was created to support government-sponsored peacetime research on atomic energy. The effort to build a nuclear reactor in the American northeast was fostered largely by physicists Isidor Isaac Rabi and Norman Foster Ramsey Jr., who during the war witnessed many of their colleagues at Columbia University leave for new remote research sites following the departure of the Manhattan Project from its campus. Their effort to house this reactor near New York City was rivalled by a similar effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to have a facility near Boston, Massachusetts. Involvement was quickly solicited from representatives of northeastern universities to the south and west of New York City such that this city would be at their geographic center. In March 1946 a nonprofit corporation was established that consisted of representatives from nine major research universities — Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and Yale University.
Out of 17 considered sites in the Boston-Washington corridor, Camp Upton on Long Island was eventually chosen as the most suitable in consideration of space, transportation, and availability. The camp had been a training center from the US Army during both World War I and World War II. After the latter war, Camp Upton was deemed no longer necessary and became available for reuse. A plan was conceived to convert the military camp into a research facility.
In 1947 construction began on the first nuclear reactor at Brookhaven, the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor. This reactor, which opened in 1950, was the first reactor to be constructed in the United States after World War II. The High Flux Beam Reactor operated from 1965 to 1999. In 1959 Brookhaven built the first US reactor specifically tailored to medical research, the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor, which operated until 2000.
Accelerator history
In 1952 Brookhaven began using its first particle accelerator, the Cosmotron. At the time the Cosmotron was the world’s highest energy accelerator, being the first to impart more than 1 GeV of energy to a particle.
The AGS was used in research that resulted in 3 Nobel prizes, including the discovery of the muon neutrino, the charm quark, and CP violation.
In 1970 in BNL started the ISABELLE project to develop and build two proton intersecting storage rings.
The groundbreaking for the project was in October 1978. In 1981, with the tunnel for the accelerator already excavated, problems with the superconducting magnets needed for the ISABELLE accelerator brought the project to a halt, and the project was eventually cancelled in 1983.
After ISABELLE’S cancellation, physicist at BNL proposed that the excavated tunnel and parts of the magnet assembly be used in another accelerator. In 1984 the first proposal for the accelerator now known as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)[below] was put forward. The construction got funded in 1991 and RHIC has been operational since 2000. One of the world’s only two operating heavy-ion colliders, RHIC is as of 2010 the second-highest-energy collider after the Large Hadron Collider (CH). RHIC is housed in a tunnel 2.4 miles (3.9 km) long and is visible from space.
In addition to the site selection, it was announced that the BNL EIC had acquired CD-0 from the Department of Energy. BNL’s eRHIC design proposes upgrading the existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which collides beams light to heavy ions including polarized protons, with a polarized electron facility, to be housed in the same tunnel.
Other discoveries
In 1958, Brookhaven scientists created one of the world’s first video games, Tennis for Two. In 1968 Brookhaven scientists patented Maglev, a transportation technology that utilizes magnetic levitation.
Major facilities
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which was designed to research quark–gluon plasma and the sources of proton spin. Until 2009 it was the world’s most powerful heavy ion collider. It is the only collider of spin-polarized protons.
BNL National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven’s newest user facility, opened in 2015 to replace the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), which had operated for 30 years. NSLS was involved in the work that won the 2003 and 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, a particle accelerator that was used in three of the lab’s Nobel prizes. Accelerator Test Facility, generates, accelerates and monitors particle beams. Tandem Van de Graaff, once the world’s largest electrostatic accelerator.
Computational Science resources, including access to a massively parallel Blue Gene series supercomputer that is among the fastest in the world for scientific research, run jointly by Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University-SUNY.
Interdisciplinary Science Building, with unique laboratories for studying high-temperature superconductors and other materials important for addressing energy challenges. NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, where scientists use beams of ions to simulate cosmic rays and assess the risks of space radiation to human space travelers and equipment.
richardmitnick
3:43 pm on May 8, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "X-ray beams help researchers learn new tricks from old metals", A new understanding of materials important to the production and use of hydrogen., Electrochemistry ( 13 ), Hydrogen can be produced from water using renewable energy or excess energy and transported as a fuel and converted back to water to produce energy for consumers., Material Sciences ( 640 ), Physics ( 3,396 ), Platinum and its alloys are best in catalyzing and boosting the water-splitting process by accelerating the exchange of electrons., The Advanced Photon Source and a nanoscale grain of platinum unlock new techniques to help the hydrogen economy., The APS currently delivers X-ray beams that are up to a billion times brighter than those used by a dentist., The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory ( 18 ), The goal is to make hydrogen production and usage more efficient and less expensive., Understanding and developing materials enabling efficient production and usage of hydrogen are key to the hydrogen economy., When the upgraded APS comes online in 2024 its X-ray beams will be up to 500 times brighter than today., X-ray Technology
Argonne and Stanford University researchers used ultrabright X-ray beams to understand materials important to the production of hydrogen.
The Advanced Photon Source [below] and a nanoscale grain of platinum unlock new techniques to help the hydrogen economy.
An intense X-ray beam (in pink) is focused into a small spot on a single nanoscale grain of a platinum electrode (highlighted within the droplet). Diffraction interference patterns from that grain were collected on an X-ray detector (the black screen). (Illustration by Dina Sheyfer, Argonne National Laboratory.)
A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory used powerful X-ray beams to unlock a new understanding of materials important to the production and use of hydrogen. The goal is to make hydrogen production and usage more efficient and less expensive, offering a better fuel for transportation and industry.
“Efficient hydrogen production is key,” said Hoydoo You, an Argonne senior physicist. “Hydrogen is the lightest energy storage material. Hydrogen can be produced from water using renewable energy or excess energy, transported as a fuel, and converted back to water to produce energy for consumers. Platinum and its alloys are best in catalyzing and boosting the water-splitting process by accelerating the exchange of electrons.”
Understanding and developing materials enabling efficient production and usage of hydrogen are key to the hydrogen economy. The researchers made a first step in developing a tool that enables them to characterize the materials with a new level of detail, ultimately producing the best materials for hydrogen production and use.
“This will make production and use of hydrogen less costly and more environmentally friendly,” You said.
The research team made use of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. Working at the APS, researchers aimed an intense X-ray beam onto a single grain of platinum. Diffraction patterns from that grain were collected on an X-ray detector. Those patterns were converted into images of the sample using customized computer algorithms.
A nanodroplet chemical cell, created with a tiny pipette tip (a tool for making a small droplet of liquid), was used to control the chemical reaction happening on the platinum grain to produce hydrogen in an electrolyzer. An electrolyzer is a device for producing hydrogen fuel from water using electricity; the device in a reverse operation, known as a fuel cell, converts hydrogen fuel back to electricity.
“The reaction was controlled by applying voltage, directed through an electrolyte in the nano-pipette onto the grain being studied,” said Argonne physicist Matt Highland. He designed the initial prototype of this new tool. This prototype enabled the investigation of a single nanograin and opened a door for scanning capability over all grains in a realistic electrolyzer or fuel cell when the APS upgrade is completed. He also helped with the data collection and experiments.
Argonne physicists Ross Harder and Wonsuk Cha worked at the APS beamline 34-ID-C, where the experiments were performed, and helped with integrating the new electrochemistry tool in the existing instrument.
“The ability to do localized electrochemistry while creating a new picture of the way things were happening, at a single particle level, was incredible,” Harder said.
“The APS upgrade will help us see things happen in real time in the material,” said Harder. “Measurement times could become fast enough that we can move from one particle to another, and we could see how they are interacting with the electrochemical environment and each other.”
“Important processes like battery charging and corrosion require the real-time imaging of grains to understand a full picture of the process,” said Argonne assistant physicist Dina Sheyfer. “We believe the added brightness of the APS upgrade with our new tool will enable studies we can only dream about today.”
Co-authors are Sheyfer, Highland, Harder, Cha and You with Argonne’s Stephan O. Hruszkewycz and former Argonne scientist Tomoya Kawaguchi (Tohoku University). Other contributors include Stanford University’s Ruperto G. Mariano and Matthew W. Kanan.
Funding for this research came, in part, from the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division and the Scientific User Facilities Division.
The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their is a science and engineering research national laboratory operated by UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facility is located in Lemont, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest.
Argonne had its beginnings in the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, formed in part to carry out Enrico Fermi’s work on nuclear reactors for the Manhattan Project during World War II. After the war, it was designated as the first national laboratory in the United States on July 1, 1946. In the post-war era the lab focused primarily on non-weapon related nuclear physics, designing and building the first power-producing nuclear reactors, helping design the reactors used by the United States’ nuclear navy, and a wide variety of similar projects. In 1994, the lab’s nuclear mission ended, and today it maintains a broad portfolio in basic science research, energy storage and renewable energy, environmental sustainability, supercomputing, and national security.
UChicago Argonne, LLC, the operator of the laboratory, “brings together the expertise of the University of Chicago (the sole member of the LLC) with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.” Argonne is a part of the expanding Illinois Technology and Research Corridor. Argonne formerly ran a smaller facility called Argonne National Laboratory-West (or simply Argonne-West) in Idaho next to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. In 2005, the two Idaho-based laboratories merged to become the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory.
What would become Argonne began in 1942 as the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, which had become part of the Manhattan Project. The Met Lab built Chicago Pile-1, the world’s first nuclear reactor, under the stands of the University of Chicago sports stadium. Considered unsafe, in 1943, CP-1 was reconstructed as CP-2, in what is today known as Red Gate Woods but was then the Argonne Forest of the Cook County Forest Preserve District near Palos Hills. The lab was named after the surrounding forest, which in turn was named after the Forest of Argonne in France where U.S. troops fought in World War I. Fermi’s pile was originally going to be constructed in the Argonne forest, and construction plans were set in motion, but a labor dispute brought the project to a halt. Since speed was paramount, the project was moved to the squash court under Stagg Field, the football stadium on the campus of the University of Chicago. Fermi told them that he was sure of his calculations, which said that it would not lead to a runaway reaction, which would have contaminated the city.
Other activities were added to Argonne over the next five years. On July 1, 1946, the “Metallurgical Laboratory” was formally re-chartered as Argonne National Laboratory for “cooperative research in nucleonics.” At the request of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, it began developing nuclear reactors for the nation’s peaceful nuclear energy program. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the laboratory moved to a larger location in unincorporated DuPage County, Illinois and established a remote location in Idaho, called “Argonne-West,” to conduct further nuclear research.
In quick succession, the laboratory designed and built Chicago Pile 3 (1944), the world’s first heavy-water moderated reactor, and the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (Chicago Pile 4), built-in Idaho, which lit a string of four light bulbs with the world’s first nuclear-generated electricity in 1951. A complete list of the reactors designed and, in most cases, built and operated by Argonne can be viewed in the, Reactors Designed by Argonne page. The knowledge gained from the Argonne experiments conducted with these reactors 1) formed the foundation for the designs of most of the commercial reactors currently used throughout the world for electric power generation and 2) inform the current evolving designs of liquid-metal reactors for future commercial power stations.
Conducting classified research, the laboratory was heavily secured; all employees and visitors needed badges to pass a checkpoint, many of the buildings were classified, and the laboratory itself was fenced and guarded. Such alluring secrecy drew visitors both authorized—including King Leopold III of Belgium and Queen Frederica of Greece—and unauthorized. Shortly past 1 a.m. on February 6, 1951, Argonne guards discovered reporter Paul Harvey near the 10-foot (3.0 m) perimeter fence, his coat tangled in the barbed wire. Searching his car, guards found a previously prepared four-page broadcast detailing the saga of his unauthorized entrance into a classified “hot zone”. He was brought before a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to obtain information on national security and transmit it to the public, but was not indicted.
Not all nuclear technology went into developing reactors, however. While designing a scanner for reactor fuel elements in 1957, Argonne physicist William Nelson Beck put his own arm inside the scanner and obtained one of the first ultrasound images of the human body. Remote manipulators designed to handle radioactive materials laid the groundwork for more complex machines used to clean up contaminated areas, sealed laboratories or caves. In 1964, the “Janus” reactor opened to study the effects of neutron radiation on biological life, providing research for guidelines on safe exposure levels for workers at power plants, laboratories and hospitals. Scientists at Argonne pioneered a technique to analyze the moon’s surface using alpha radiation, which launched aboard the Surveyor 5 in 1967 and later analyzed lunar samples from the Apollo 11 mission.
In addition to nuclear work, the laboratory maintained a strong presence in the basic research of physics and chemistry. In 1955, Argonne chemists co-discovered the elements einsteinium and fermium, elements 99 and 100 in the periodic table. In 1962, laboratory chemists produced the first compound of the inert noble gas xenon, opening up a new field of chemical bonding research. In 1963, they discovered the hydrated electron.
High-energy physics made a leap forward when Argonne was chosen as the site of the 12.5 GeV Zero Gradient Synchrotron, a proton accelerator that opened in 1963. A bubble chamber allowed scientists to track the motions of subatomic particles as they zipped through the chamber; in 1970, they observed the neutrino in a hydrogen bubble chamber for the first time.
Meanwhile, the laboratory was also helping to design the reactor for the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, which steamed for more than 513,550 nautical miles (951,090 km). The next nuclear reactor model was Experimental Boiling Water Reactor, the forerunner of many modern nuclear plants, and Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), which was sodium-cooled, and included a fuel recycling facility. EBR-II was later modified to test other reactor designs, including a fast-neutron reactor and, in 1982, the Integral Fast Reactor concept—a revolutionary design that reprocessed its own fuel, reduced its atomic waste and withstood safety tests of the same failures that triggered the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters. In 1994, however, the U.S. Congress terminated funding for the bulk of Argonne’s nuclear programs.
Argonne moved to specialize in other areas, while capitalizing on its experience in physics, chemical sciences and metallurgy. In 1987, the laboratory was the first to successfully demonstrate a pioneering technique called plasma wakefield acceleration, which accelerates particles in much shorter distances than conventional accelerators. It also cultivated a strong battery research program.
Following a major push by then-director Alan Schriesheim, the laboratory was chosen as the site of the Advanced Photon Source, a major X-ray facility which was completed in 1995 and produced the brightest X-rays in the world at the time of its construction.
On 19 March 2019, it was reported in the Chicago Tribune that the laboratory was constructing the world’s most powerful supercomputer. Costing $500 million it will have the processing power of 1 quintillion flops. Applications will include the analysis of stars and improvements in the power grid.
With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more visit http://www.anl.gov.
The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.
With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more visit http://www.anl.gov.
richardmitnick
10:17 am on May 8, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "A farewell to the particle accelerator that was my father’s baby", "PDB": The Protein Data Bank, A “fourth-generation” design: The new machine will double the current in the ring to 200 milliamps., A design invariably contains elements that builders do not yet know how to make., Applied Research & Technology ( 11,352 ), Basic Research ( 16,530 ), Compared with previous sources the Argonne machine produced more-compact electron beams that generated far more intense x-rays., In the 1960s scientists began to siphon the x-ray radiation from electron accelerators to study materials., In the old APS the beam always bent inward to the right. In the new design it will occasionally bend outward to the left. These kinks give rise to new dynamics that shrink the beam., It took the team 3 years to complete the conceptual design., Like the other 70 x-ray synchrotrons around the world the APS turns what was a nuisance into a powerful resource for studying materials., Material Sciences ( 640 ), Of the 201000 protein structures in the PDB 72% come from x-ray synchrotrons. Of those 30466 come from the APS., Particle Physics ( 2,489 ), Science Magazine ( 155 ), The Advanced Photon Source at the DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, The first goal was to make the most compact electron beam possible which would then radiate the brightest x-ray beams., The original APS’s beam measured 10 micrometers high and 275 micrometers wide. The new APS’s beam will measure 3 micrometers high and 15 micrometers wide—less than the width of a human hair., Third-generation x-ray synchrotrons have revolutionized the study of the structure and function of proteins and other biomolecules., When accelerators were built just for experiments in particle physics it was an unavoidable waste., Workers will replace the original APS magnets with 1321 new ones and change the entire vacuum system. They are swapping out essentially the whole ring, X-ray Technology
The Advanced Photon Source at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory is one of the brightest and most productive x-ray sources in the world. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.
“Last week technicians at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory began to disassemble a particle accelerator known as the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a ring 1.1 kilometers around that since 1995 has shone as one of the world’s brightest sources of x-rays. It’s hardly the end for the facility, which annually serves nearly 6000 scientists from myriad fields. Within a year, workers will replace the electron accelerator with a new one that will boost the intensity of the APS’s output x-ray beams by a factor of 500. A major scientific facility will be rejuvenated. That’s not unusual.
For me personally, however, the dismantling of the original APS evokes strong emotions. My father, Yanglai Cho, was an accelerator physicist who spent his entire career at Argonne, a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory outside of Chicago. Forty years ago, he led the small team that hammered out the conceptual design for the machine. In my mind, it was his baby. When dad died in 2015 at age 82—4 years after a devastating stroke—I took comfort in the thought that he lived on in that accelerator. Now, it, too, will be gone.
I was a teenager when, in the early 1980s, my dad started musing about the accelerator. I loved him dearly, but, as many people do, I had a complicated relationship with my father. He could be tyrannical and demanding, self-centered and remote. ‘I don’t care what you do just as long as you’re the best at it,’ he would pronounce to me or one of my two brothers and then leave us to flounder on our own. Back then, the APS was this mysterious thing that occupied his time and his mind.
I did follow my father into physics, eventually grinding out a Ph.D. However, my path led me into science journalism. Over the past 20 years, I have written about many big scientific facilities, ranging from atom smashers and gravitational-wave detectors to x-ray lasers and neutron sources. I have never built anything, but I have learned a few things about what it takes to create these often-astounding machines. And that has helped me better understand my father.
‘He was a superb and visionary accelerator physicist, and he transformed many large machines at Argonne and elsewhere,’ says one former DOE official who still consults for the agency and therefore asked not to be named. ‘He was also a wonderful colleague and teacher.’ Having locked horns with my father so many times, I marvel at that last assessment. Yet, thinking about his work, I’ve come to appreciate how a South Korean immigrant with a thick accent and a fiery temper could flourish in an unusual and demanding field.
A revolutionary tool
Like the other 70 x-ray synchrotrons around the world, the APS turns what was a nuisance into a powerful resource for studying materials. It accelerates electrons within a long vacuum tube to high energy and near–light-speed, while magnets steer them around the ring. The circulating electron beam radiates x-rays, just as a wet washcloth twirled overhead flings droplets of water. That synchrotron radiation saps the electrons’ energy, so when accelerators were built just for experiments in particle physics, it was an unavoidable waste.
In the 1960s, scientists began to siphon the x-ray radiation from electron accelerators to study materials by, say, measuring their absorption spectra. The first major dedicated sources emerged in the following decade. The APS led a wave of larger, higher energy third-generation sources, along with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, and the SPring-8 facility in Hyogo, Japan.
Compared with previous sources, the Argonne machine produced more-compact electron beams that generated far more intense x-rays. It also pushed into the regime of hard x-rays, those with wavelengths shorter than 0.1 nanometers, which are ideal for probing a material’s atomic-scale structure. It replenished its electrons not every 12 hours, but every 30 seconds, keeping the intensity of the x-ray beams rock steady.
Most practically, the APS helped revolutionize the reliability of x-ray sources, says David Moncton, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was Argonne’s associate lab director for the APS from 1987 to 2001. Earlier, more persnickety machines would operate between 50% and 75% of the available time, vexing officials trying to schedule a facility’s users. The APS pushed that reliability factor to 99%, Moncton says. ‘If you just buy equipment, put it together, and cross your fingers, you will not wind up with a machine that performs 99% of the time.’
Such attributes have made the APS a font of discovery. Perhaps most strikingly, it and other third-generation x-ray synchrotrons have revolutionized the study of the structure and function of proteins and other biomolecules, says Helen Berman, a structural biologist at Rutgers University and a co-founder of the global Protein Data Bank (PDB). Before probing molecules with x-rays, structural biologists must crystallize them, an arduous task. Berman says the APS and other third-generation sources provided “the ability to take data with a very intense x-ray source and use much smaller crystals.”
Of the 201,000 protein structures in the PDB, 72% come from x-ray synchrotrons. Of those, 30,466 come from the APS—51% of the yield from U.S. synchrotrons. Data from the APS helped win two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry—in 2009, for studies of the function and structure of the ribosome, the cell’s proteinmaking machinery; and in 2012, for studies of cell membrane proteins called G protein-coupled receptors. The APS helped determine the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and develop Paxlovid, a drug used to treat it.
The APS supports many other types of work, as I saw last month when I walked around its expansive, tunnel-like experimental hall. Within the facility’s 68 experimental end stations, scientists are analyzing the quantum properties of magnetic materials, developing biologically inspired adhesives, and even studying how the atomic-scale structure of lead-acid batteries changes as they run, a study made possible by the intensity of the APS’s x-rays.
A vision and a quest
All of this was a gleam in scientists’ eyes when my dad started to think about the accelerator—which he wanted to name Phoebus, for the Greek god of the Sun. In 1983, he was helping fix a troubled smaller x-ray synchrotron called Aladdin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when a review panel released a report arguing for a larger hard x-ray source. Sitting in the Aladdin control room, my dad read the report and then dashed back to Argonne to urge lab officials to fund R&D on the machine and to push for Argonne to host it, Moncton says.
The lab badly needed such a project. It had once had a thriving particle physics program, which is what had attracted my father. But in 1979, Argonne shut down its proton accelerator, which had been superseded by a much bigger, new one at the DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory 50 kilometers away. ‘The lab was struggling for a mission,’ Moncton says. ‘Yang immediately thought that this made a good potential project and was of a size to carry the lab into its future.’
The project also gave my father something he needed personally. Like most of us, he was a jumble of mismatched puzzle pieces. He could be tetchy one moment, and ridiculously overindulgent the next. My parents had divorced when I was young, yet he was a constant presence, letting himself into our mother’s house as he pleased. He had contracted polio as a child and had a withered leg. Nevertheless, he liked to take us bowling, even if he would sometimes fall. He loved to go out for lunch and, oddly, liked John Wayne movies. But, overall, after the divorce he seemed unhappy.
The clubby, intense effort of designing the new machine revitalized him. The team consisted of my father; Gopal Shenoy, a material scientist at Argonne who died in 2017; and a dozen others. On a choice table in the Argonne cafeteria, my father posted a sign, ‘Reserved for APS staff’—and replaced it as cafeteria workers repeatedly removed it. In 1985, the Chicago Bears football team stormed to a championship. dad brought in a TV so researchers could keep tabs on the games while working on Sundays.
It took the team 3 years to complete the conceptual design. Exactly what my father did remains a bit of a mystery to me. As an accelerator physicist, he understood how electrons surf radio waves to gain energy, magnetic fields focus those particles, resonances can obliterate a beam, and synchrotron radiation itself kicks the electrons around. But he had to turn that knowledge into a workable design. His team specified the myriad parameters that defined the APS: the beam energy, the radius of the ring, the number of bunches of electrons in the beam, the arrangements of the magnets, the frequency of the radio waves, etc.
The first goal was to make the most compact electron beam possible, which would then radiate the brightest x-ray beams, says John Galayda, an accelerator physicist who worked on the APS. The beam also could not move, he says. A tiny electron beam radiates a tiny x-ray beam, which can probe minuscule samples—provided it consistently hits the target. Finally, the machine had to run as reliably as possible.
Machine designers must strike a delicate balance. The design cannot be so ambitious that the machine can’t be built. But it can’t be so cautious that it merely replicates what already exists. So, a design invariably contains elements that builders do not yet know how to make. ‘Every facility that I’ve been involved with—that’s been lots—was one of a kind, first of a kind,’ the former DOE official says. ‘And that means there are enormous technical problems that haven’t yet been resolved.’
Apparently, my father was good at identifying what, with effort, could be achieved. ‘He would look at what other projects did and use it and make it better,’ says Marion White, an accelerator physicist at Argonne and my father’s widow. ‘He was incredibly good at that.’
Of course, a project leader must also manage people. And that’s where my father struggled. His autocratic style worked early on, when the project staff consisted of a self-selected few. It became less effective as the effort became more formal and ballooned to hundreds of people. “He’d hold a meeting and afterwards I’d have people coming into my office and saying, ‘I can’t take it anymore,’ Moncton recalls. So in 1991, as construction ramped up, a physicist named Ed Temple replaced my father as project director.
My father remained deeply involved in the project, however. He chaired the committee that had to approve any modification to the final design. ‘He’d be pretty rough about that,’ Galayda says. ‘I think he viewed it as an adversarial process.’ As with any machine, some changes, more or less painful, had to be made. Nevertheless, the APS came in on budget at $467 million and ahead of schedule.
To me, it seemed that my father had his fingers in nearly every aspect of the facility. For example, the APS’s 90,000-square-meter concrete floor has no expansion seams. Contractors had urged including them to keep the floor from cracking, Moncton says, but the design team insisted that the stability of the floor was more important than superficial cracks. I remember my father talking the finer points of concrete floors over lunch.
The original accelerator in the Advanced Photon Source (above) ran from 1995 until last month. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.
The optimist
Now, workers are dismantling dad’s machine to replace it with a ‘fourth-generation’ design. The new machine will double the current in the ring to 200 milliamps. More important, its electron beam will be even more compact, says Jim Kerby, a mechanical engineer at Argonne and director of the $815 million project. The original APS’s beam measured 10 micrometers high and 275 micrometers wide. The new APS’s beam will measure 3 micrometers high and 15 micrometers wide—less than the width of a human hair.
That subtle shrinking depends on a key difference between the two machines, Kerby says. In the old APS, the beam always bent inward, to the right. In the new design, it will occasionally bend outward, to the left. These kinks give rise to new dynamics that shrink the beam—an approach pioneered at the MAX IV facility in Sweden and deployed in a rebuild of the ESRF completed in 2020.
The scheme requires an almost entirely new accelerator. Workers will replace the original APS magnets with 1321 new ones, and change the entire vacuum system. ‘We are swapping out essentially the whole ring,’ Kerby says. The transformation will take just 1 year. ‘It’s always been a deliverable of the project that the downtime would be as short as humanly possible,’ Kerby says. By then my father’s machine will be a memory.
But my father himself was thinking of new machines even before the APS turned on. In the late 1990s, the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory began building the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which slams a proton beam into a mercury target to generate neutrons for studying materials.
The project struggled and DOE nearly canceled it, says Thom Mason, director of the DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was SNS project director from 2001 to 2008. Moncton, White, my father, and others went to Oak Ridge to help.
My father led the team that made a key design change, Mason says. The original plan for the SNS called for a conventional linear accelerator made of copper accelerating cavities. The team switched to a novel design with cavities made of a superconducting metal, which promised to be more energy efficient, reliable, and flexible. ‘As a result, we wound up building the first superconducting proton accelerator instead of the last normal one,’ Mason says.
My father consulted on accelerator projects in South Korea, Germany, Japan, and elsewhere, finding his niche in the odd community of scientific machine builders. He had grown up dirt poor in what is now South Korea, then occupied by Japan. He came to the United States when he was 24 and didn’t return home for 17 years. Whether because of cultural differences, his disability, or his temperament, often he was an outsider.
Not when he was among his colleagues, however. The happiest I ever saw my father was when he was playing with his grandchildren. A close second was when he was hobnobbing with his colleagues. At least some of them enjoyed his company, too. ‘To me, working with your father was a wonderful experience,’ says Giorgio Margaritondo, a physicist at EPFL, formerly the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, who teamed up with him on Aladdin.
In fact, my father managed to find a community in which he could succeed not in spite of his prickly personality, but, to some degree, because of it. ‘To build an accelerator is a very complex task with many subtasks and a lot of coordination and so on, so you need to run the thing almost the military way,’ Margaritondo says. ‘There is one element that is absolutely necessary for somebody to be a leader which is to be respected. Your father really commanded the respect of the collaborators.’
Thinking about my father’s work, I also realize how he and I differed in an important respect. I couldn’t cut it as a physicist in part because of my reflexive pessimism. Confronted with some complex scheme, I tend to respond, ‘That will never work.’ In contrast, my father had the confidence to break a barely conceivable technical proposal into parts, identify the obstacles, and devise ways to overcome them. ‘He was the most optimistic person I ever met,’ White says.
By virtue of that optimism, my father helped create facilities that have enabled thousands of scientists to explore the natural world, to the benefit of us all. That legacy is far less concrete, but far more important than any particular accelerator. So, that’s what I’ll hold on to now.”
Technicians prepare a section of the new accelerator, which builders plan to complete within 1 year. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.
richardmitnick
3:38 pm on May 5, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "Scientists capture elusive chemical reaction using enhanced X-ray method", Applied Research & Technology ( 11,352 ), Chemical reactions often involve intermediate steps that are too fast and complex for us to see., Combining two X-ray spectroscopy techniques has now been shown to illuminate intermediate steps that are too fast and complex for us to see., One one spectroscopic region called the "Kβ main emission line" and a second emission region called "valence-to-core", The DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory ( 38 ), X-ray Technology
A graphic representation of an intermediate chemical reaction and the X-rays, laser and detector. (Nina Fujikawa/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Chemical reactions often involve intermediate steps that are too fast and complex for us to see – even using our most advanced scientific instruments. Combining two X-ray spectroscopy techniques has now been shown to change that.
Researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory captured one of the fastest movements of a molecule called ferricyanide for the first time by combining two ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy techniques. They think their approach could help map more complex chemical reactions like oxygen transportation in blood cells or hydrogen production using artificial photosynthesis.
The research team from SLAC, Stanford and other institutions started with what is now a fairly standard technique: They zapped a mixture of ferricyanide and water with an ultraviolet laser and bright X-rays generated by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser [below]. The ultraviolet light kicked the molecule into an excited state while the X-rays probed the sample’s atoms, revealing features of ferricyanide’s atomic and electronic structure and motion.
What was different this time is how the researchers extracted information from the X-ray data. Instead of studying only one spectroscopic region, known as the “Kβ main emission line’, the team captured and analyzed a second emission region, called “valence-to-core”, which has been significantly more challenging to measure on ultrafast timescales. Combining information from both regions enabled the team to obtain a detailed picture of the ferricyanide molecule as it evolved into a key transitional state.
SLAC scientists Dimosthenis Sokaras, Marco Reinhard and Roberto Alonso Mori at LCLS’s XCS instrument. The team used the instrument to map the fastest atomic movements of a molecule called ferricyanide. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The team showed that ferricyanide enters an intermediate, excited state for about 0.3 picoseconds – or less than a trillionth of a second – after being hit with a UV laser. The valence-to-core readings then revealed that following this short-lived, excited period, ferricyanide loses one of its molecular cyanide “arms,” called a ligand. Ferricyanide then either fills this missing joint with the same carbon-based ligand or, less likely, a water molecule.
“This ligand exchange is a basic chemical reaction that was thought to occur in ferricyanide, but there was no direct experimental evidence of the individual steps in this process,” SLAC scientist and first author Marco Reinhard said. “With only a Kβ main emission line analysis approach, we wouldn’t really be able to see what the molecule looks like when it is changing from one state to the next; we’d only obtain a clear picture of the beginning of the process.”
“You want to be able to replicate what nature does to improve technology and increase our foundational scientific knowledge,” SLAC senior scientist Dimosthenis Sokaras said. “And in order to better replicate natural processes, you have to know all of the steps, from the most obvious to those that happen in the dark, so to speak.”
In the future, the research team wants to study more complex molecules, such as hemeproteins, which transport and store oxygen in red blood cells – but which can be tricky to study because scientists do not understand all the intermediate steps of their reactions, Sokaras said.
The research team refined their X-ray spectroscopy technique at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) [below] and LCLS over many years, and then combined all this expertise at LCLS’s X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy (XCS) instrument to capture the molecular structural changes of ferricyanide. The team published their results today in Nature Communications [below].
“We leveraged both SSRL and LCLS to complete the experiment. We couldn’t have finished developing our method without access to both facilities and our longstanding collaboration together,” said Roberto Alonso-Mori, SLAC lead scientist. “For years, we have been developing these methods at these two X-ray sources, and now we plan to use them to uncover previously inaccessible secrets of chemical reactions.”
This project was supported in part by the DOE’s Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. LCLS and SSRL are DOE Office of Science user facilities. Support was also provided by SSRL’s Structural Molecular Biology Program, supported by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Fig. 1: Photoinduced dynamics of aqueous ferricyanide observed with femtosecond x-ray emission spectroscopy and scattering.
a) UV-visible absorption spectrum of aqueous [2*][FeIII(CN)6]3−. Electronic excited states that are relevant for this work are shown. The photoexcitation wavelength (336 nm) is represented by the black dashed line. b) Experimental setup used to collect simultaneous femtosecond Fe Kβ main line (Kβ1,3/Kβ’) and valence-to-core (Kβ2,5/Kβ”) x-ray emission spectroscopy and solution scattering at the X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy instrument of the Linac Coherent Light Source (adapted from Kjaer et al. with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry). c) The time dependent difference between pumped and unpumped x-ray emission spectra (top) is shown together with the [2][FeIII(CN)6][3−] ground state spectrum (bottom). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
*No reference noted for these numbers
The DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the Department of EnergyOffice of Science and located in Menlo Park, California. It is the site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a 3.2 kilometer (2-mile) linear accelerator constructed in 1966 and shut down in the 2000s, which could accelerate electrons to energies of 50 GeV.
Today SLAC research centers on a broad program in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using X-rays from synchrotron radiation and a free-electron laser as well as experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.
Founded in 1962 as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the facility is located on 172 hectares (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west of the University’s main campus. The main accelerator is 3.2 kilometers (2 mi) long—the longest linear accelerator in the world—and has been operational since 1966.
Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics
1976: The charm quark—see J/ψ meson
1990: Quark structure inside protons and neutrons
1995: The tau lepton
SLAC’s meeting facilities also provided a venue for the Homebrew Computer Club and other pioneers of the home computer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1984 the laboratory was named an ASME National Historic Engineering Landmark and an IEEE Milestone.
SLAC developed and, in December 1991, began hosting the first World Wide Web server outside of Europe.
In the early-to-mid 1990s, the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector [below].
As of 2005, SLAC employed over 1,000 people, some 150 of whom were physicists with doctorate degrees, and served over 3,000 visiting researchers yearly, operating particle accelerators for high-energy physics and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) [below] for synchrotron light radiation research, which was “indispensable” in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Stanford Professor Roger D. Kornberg.
In October 2008, the Department of Energy announced that the center’s name would be changed to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The reasons given include a better representation of the new direction of the lab and the ability to trademark the laboratory’s name. Stanford University had legally opposed the Department of Energy’s attempt to trademark “Stanford Linear Accelerator Center”.
In March 2009, it was announced that the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory was to receive $68.3 million in Recovery Act Funding to be disbursed by Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
In October 2016, Bits and Watts launched as a collaboration between SLAC and Stanford University to design “better, greener electric grids”. SLAC later pulled out over concerns about an industry partner, the state-owned Chinese electric utility.
Accelerator
The main accelerator was an RF linear accelerator that accelerated electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV. At 3.2 km (2.0 mi) long, the accelerator was the longest linear accelerator in the world, and was claimed to be “the world’s most straight object.” until 2017 when the European x-ray free electron laser opened. The main accelerator is buried 9 m (30 ft) below ground and passes underneath Interstate Highway 280. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline, was the longest building in the United States until the LIGO project’s twin interferometers were completed in 1999. It is easily distinguishable from the air and is marked as a visual waypoint on aeronautical charts.
A portion of the original linear accelerator is now part of the Linac Coherent Light Source [below].
Stanford Linear Collider
The Stanford Linear Collider was a linear accelerator that collided electrons and positrons at SLAC. The center of mass energy was about 90 GeV, equal to the mass of the Z boson, which the accelerator was designed to study. Grad student Barrett D. Milliken discovered the first Z event on 12 April 1989 while poring over the previous day’s computer data from the Mark II detector. The bulk of the data was collected by the SLAC Large Detector, which came online in 1991. Although largely overshadowed by the Large Electron–Positron Collider at CERN, which began running in 1989, the highly polarized electron beam at SLC (close to 80%) made certain unique measurements possible, such as parity violation in Z Boson-b quark coupling.
Presently no beam enters the south and north arcs in the machine, which leads to the Final Focus, therefore this section is mothballed to run beam into the PEP2 section from the beam switchyard.
The SLAC Large Detector (SLD) was the main detector for the Stanford Linear Collider. It was designed primarily to detect Z bosons produced by the accelerator’s electron-positron collisions. Built in 1991, the SLD operated from 1992 to 1998.
PEP (Positron-Electron Project) began operation in 1980, with center-of-mass energies up to 29 GeV. At its apex, PEP had five large particle detectors in operation, as well as a sixth smaller detector. About 300 researchers made used of PEP. PEP stopped operating in 1990, and PEP-II began construction in 1994.
PEP-II
From 1999 to 2008, the main purpose of the linear accelerator was to inject electrons and positrons into the PEP-II accelerator, an electron-positron collider with a pair of storage rings 2.2 km (1.4 mi) in circumference. PEP-II was host to the BaBar experiment, one of the so-called B-Factory experiments studying charge-parity symmetry.
SLAC plays a primary role in the mission and operation of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in August 2008. The principal scientific objectives of this mission are:
To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs.
To resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission.
To determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients.
To probe dark matter and fundamental physics.
The Stanford PULSE Institute (PULSE) is a Stanford Independent Laboratory located in the Central Laboratory at SLAC. PULSE was created by Stanford in 2005 to help Stanford faculty and SLAC scientists develop ultrafast x-ray research at LCLS.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)[below] is a free electron laser facility located at SLAC. The LCLS is partially a reconstruction of the last 1/3 of the original linear accelerator at SLAC, and can deliver extremely intense x-ray radiation for research in a number of areas. It achieved first lasing in April 2009.
The laser produces hard X-rays, 10^9 times the relative brightness of traditional synchrotron sources and is the most powerful x-ray source in the world. LCLS enables a variety of new experiments and provides enhancements for existing experimental methods. Often, x-rays are used to take “snapshots” of objects at the atomic level before obliterating samples. The laser’s wavelength, ranging from 6.2 to 0.13 nm (200 to 9500 electron volts (eV)) is similar to the width of an atom, providing extremely detailed information that was previously unattainable. Additionally, the laser is capable of capturing images with a “shutter speed” measured in femtoseconds, or million-billionths of a second, necessary because the intensity of the beam is often high enough so that the sample explodes on the femtosecond timescale.
The LCLS-II [below] project is to provide a major upgrade to LCLS by adding two new X-ray laser beams. The new system will utilize the 500 m (1,600 ft) of existing tunnel to add a new superconducting accelerator at 4 GeV and two new sets of undulators that will increase the available energy range of LCLS. The advancement from the discoveries using these new capabilities may include new drugs, next-generation computers, and new materials.
FACET
In 2012, the first two-thirds (~2 km) of the original SLAC LINAC were recommissioned for a new user facility, the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET). This facility was capable of delivering 20 GeV, 3 nC electron (and positron) beams with short bunch lengths and small spot sizes, ideal for beam-driven plasma acceleration studies. The facility ended operations in 2016 for the constructions of LCLS-II which will occupy the first third of the SLAC LINAC. The FACET-II project will re-establish electron and positron beams in the middle third of the LINAC for the continuation of beam-driven plasma acceleration studies in 2019.
The Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA) is a 60-120 MeV high-brightness electron beam linear accelerator used for experiments on advanced beam manipulation and acceleration techniques. It is located at SLAC’s end station B
Leland and Jane Stanford founded Stanford University to “promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization.” Stanford opened its doors in 1891, and more than a century later, it remains dedicated to finding solutions to the great challenges of the day and to preparing our students for leadership in today’s complex world. Stanford, is an American private research university located in Stanford, California on an 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus near Palo Alto. Since 1952, more than 54 Stanford faculty, staff, and alumni have won the Nobel Prize, including 19 current faculty members.
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university located in Stanford, California. Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford is consistently ranked as among the most prestigious and top universities in the world by major education publications. It is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
Leland Stanford was a U.S. senator and former governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates’ entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley.
The university is organized around seven schools: three schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate level as well as four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in law, medicine, education, and business. All schools are on the same campus. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. It has gained 126 NCAA team championships, and Stanford has won the NACDA Directors’ Cup for 24 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995. In addition, Stanford students and alumni have won 270 Olympic medals including 139 gold medals.
As of October 2020, 84 Nobel laureates, 28 Turing Award laureates, and eight Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups. Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, roughly equivalent to the 7th largest economy in the world (as of 2020). Stanford is the alma mater of one president of the United States (Herbert Hoover), 74 living billionaires, and 17 astronauts. It is also one of the leading producers of Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, and members of the United States Congress.
Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanford’s previous Palo Alto farm.
Jane and Leland Stanford modeled their university after the great eastern universities, most specifically Cornell University. Stanford opened being called the “Cornell of the West” in 1891 due to faculty being former Cornell affiliates (either professors, alumni, or both) including its first president, David Starr Jordan, and second president, John Casper Branner. Both Cornell and Stanford were among the first to have higher education be accessible, nonsectarian, and open to women as well as to men. Cornell is credited as one of the first American universities to adopt this radical departure from traditional education, and Stanford became an early adopter as well.
Despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I. The Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), established in 1962, performs research in particle physics.
Most of Stanford is on an 8,180-acre (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km^2) campus, one of the largest in the United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, in the northwest part of the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley) approximately 37 miles (60 km) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles (30 km) northwest of San Jose. In 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped.
Stanford’s main campus includes a census-designated place within unincorporated Santa Clara County, although some of the university land (such as the Stanford Shopping Center and the Stanford Research Park) is within the city limits of Palo Alto. The campus also includes much land in unincorporated San Mateo County (including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve), as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park (Stanford Hills neighborhood), Woodside, and Portola Valley.
Non-central campus
Stanford currently operates in various locations outside of its central campus.
On the founding grant:
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) natural reserve south of the central campus owned by the university and used by wildlife biologists for research.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a facility west of the central campus operated by the university for the Department of Energy. It contains the longest linear particle accelerator in the world, 2 miles (3.2 km) on 426 acres (172 ha) of land. Golf course and a seasonal lake: The university also has its own golf course and a seasonal lake (Lake Lagunita, actually an irrigation reservoir), both home to the vulnerable California tiger salamander. As of 2012 Lake Lagunita was often dry and the university had no plans to artificially fill it.
Off the founding grant:
Hopkins Marine Station, in Pacific Grove, California, is a marine biology research center owned by the university since 1892., in Pacific Grove, California, is a marine biology research center owned by the university since 1892.
Study abroad locations: unlike typical study abroad programs, Stanford itself operates in several locations around the world; thus, each location has Stanford faculty-in-residence and staff in addition to students, creating a “mini-Stanford”.
Redwood City campus for many of the university’s administrative offices located in Redwood City, California, a few miles north of the main campus. In 2005, the university purchased a small, 35-acre (14 ha) campus in Midpoint Technology Park intended for staff offices; development was delayed by The Great Recession. In 2015 the university announced a development plan and the Redwood City campus opened in March 2019.
The Bass Center in Washington, DC provides a base, including housing, for the Stanford in Washington program for undergraduates. It includes a small art gallery open to the public.
China: Stanford Center at Peking University, housed in the Lee Jung Sen Building, is a small center for researchers and students in collaboration with Beijing University [北京大学](CN) (Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University(CN) (KIAA-PKU).
Administration and organization
Stanford is a private, non-profit university that is administered as a corporate trust governed by a privately appointed board of trustees with a maximum membership of 38. Trustees serve five-year terms (not more than two consecutive terms) and meet five times annually.[83] A new trustee is chosen by the current trustees by ballot. The Stanford trustees also oversee the Stanford Research Park, the Stanford Shopping Center, the Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University Medical Center, and many associated medical facilities (including the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital).
The board appoints a president to serve as the chief executive officer of the university, to prescribe the duties of professors and course of study, to manage financial and business affairs, and to appoint nine vice presidents. The provost is the chief academic and budget officer, to whom the deans of each of the seven schools report. Persis Drell became the 13th provost in February 2017.
As of 2018, the university was organized into seven academic schools. The schools of Humanities and Sciences (27 departments), Engineering (nine departments), and Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (four departments) have both graduate and undergraduate programs while the Schools of Law, Medicine, Education and Business have graduate programs only. The powers and authority of the faculty are vested in the Academic Council, which is made up of tenure and non-tenure line faculty, research faculty, senior fellows in some policy centers and institutes, the president of the university, and some other academic administrators, but most matters are handled by the Faculty Senate, made up of 55 elected representatives of the faculty.
The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) is the student government for Stanford and all registered students are members. Its elected leadership consists of the Undergraduate Senate elected by the undergraduate students, the Graduate Student Council elected by the graduate students, and the President and Vice President elected as a ticket by the entire student body.
Stanford is the beneficiary of a special clause in the California Constitution, which explicitly exempts Stanford property from taxation so long as the property is used for educational purposes.
Endowment and donations
The university’s endowment, managed by the Stanford Management Company, was valued at $27.7 billion as of August 31, 2019. Payouts from the Stanford endowment covered approximately 21.8% of university expenses in the 2019 fiscal year. In the 2018 NACUBO-TIAA survey of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, only Harvard University, the University of Texas System, and Yale University had larger endowments than Stanford.
In 2006, President John L. Hennessy launched a five-year campaign called the Stanford Challenge, which reached its $4.3 billion fundraising goal in 2009, two years ahead of time, but continued fundraising for the duration of the campaign. It concluded on December 31, 2011, having raised a total of $6.23 billion and breaking the previous campaign fundraising record of $3.88 billion held by Yale. Specifically, the campaign raised $253.7 million for undergraduate financial aid, as well as $2.33 billion for its initiative in “Seeking Solutions” to global problems, $1.61 billion for “Educating Leaders” by improving K-12 education, and $2.11 billion for “Foundation of Excellence” aimed at providing academic support for Stanford students and faculty. Funds supported 366 new fellowships for graduate students, 139 new endowed chairs for faculty, and 38 new or renovated buildings. The new funding also enabled the construction of a facility for stem cell research; a new campus for the business school; an expansion of the law school; a new Engineering Quad; a new art and art history building; an on-campus concert hall; a new art museum; and a planned expansion of the medical school, among other things. In 2012, the university raised $1.035 billion, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
Research centers and institutes
DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Stanford Research Institute, a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. Hoover Institution, a conservative American public policy institution and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government. Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, a multidisciplinary design school in cooperation with the Hasso Plattner Institute of University of Potsdam [Universität Potsdam](DE) that integrates product design, engineering, and business management education).
Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which grew out of and still contains the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project. John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists
Center for Ocean Solutions
Together with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, Stanford is part of the Biohub, a new medical science research center founded in 2016 by a $600 million commitment from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and pediatrician Priscilla Chan.
Discoveries and innovation
Natural sciences
Biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) – Arthur Kornberg synthesized DNA material and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for his work at Stanford.
First Transgenic organism – Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer were the first scientists to transplant genes from one living organism to another, a fundamental discovery for genetic engineering. Thousands of products have been developed on the basis of their work, including human growth hormone and hepatitis B vaccine.
Laser – Arthur Leonard Schawlow shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work on lasers.
Nuclear magnetic resonance – Felix Bloch developed new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements, which are the underlying principles of the MRI.
Computer and applied sciences
ARPANET – Stanford Research Institute, formerly part of Stanford but on a separate campus, was the site of one of the four original ARPANET nodes.
Internet—Stanford was the site where the original design of the Internet was undertaken. Vint Cerf led a research group to elaborate the design of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) that he originally co-created with Robert E. Kahn (Bob Kahn) in 1973 and which formed the basis for the architecture of the Internet.
Frequency modulation synthesis – John Chowning of the Music department invented the FM music synthesis algorithm in 1967, and Stanford later licensed it to Yamaha Corporation.
Google – Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford. They were working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP’s goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library” and it was funded through the National Science Foundation, among other federal agencies.
Klystron tube – invented by the brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian at Stanford. Their prototype was completed and demonstrated successfully on August 30, 1937. Upon publication in 1939, news of the klystron immediately influenced the work of U.S. and UK researchers working on radar equipment.
RISC – ARPA funded VLSI project of microprocessor design. Stanford and University of California- Berkeley are most associated with the popularization of this concept. The Stanford MIPS would go on to be commercialized as the successful MIPS architecture, while Berkeley RISC gave its name to the entire concept, commercialized as the SPARC. Another success from this era were IBM’s efforts that eventually led to the IBM POWER instruction set architecture, PowerPC, and Power ISA. As these projects matured, a wide variety of similar designs flourished in the late 1980s and especially the early 1990s, representing a major force in the Unix workstation market as well as embedded processors in laser printers, routers and similar products. SUN workstation – Andy Bechtolsheim designed the SUN workstation for the Stanford University Network communications project as a personal CAD workstation, which led to Sun Microsystems.
Businesses and entrepreneurship
Stanford is one of the most successful universities in creating companies and licensing its inventions to existing companies; it is often held up as a model for technology transfer. Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing is responsible for commercializing university research, intellectual property, and university-developed projects.
The university is described as having a strong venture culture in which students are encouraged, and often funded, to launch their own companies.
Companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world.
Some companies closely associated with Stanford and their connections include:
Hewlett-Packard, 1939, co-founders William R. Hewlett (B.S, PhD) and David Packard (M.S). Silicon Graphics, 1981, co-founders James H. Clark (Associate Professor) and several of his grad students. Sun Microsystems, 1982, co-founders Vinod Khosla (M.B.A), Andy Bechtolsheim (PhD) and Scott McNealy (M.B.A). Cisco, 1984, founders Leonard Bosack (M.S) and Sandy Lerner (M.S) who were in charge of Stanford Computer Science and Graduate School of Business computer operations groups respectively when the hardware was developed.[163] Yahoo!, 1994, co-founders Jerry Yang (B.S, M.S) and David Filo (M.S). Google, 1998, co-founders Larry Page (M.S) and Sergey Brin (M.S). LinkedIn, 2002, co-founders Reid Hoffman (B.S), Konstantin Guericke (B.S, M.S), Eric Lee (B.S), and Alan Liu (B.S). Instagram, 2010, co-founders Kevin Systrom (B.S) and Mike Krieger (B.S). Snapchat, 2011, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy (B.S). Coursera, 2012, co-founders Andrew Ng (Associate Professor) and Daphne Koller (Professor, PhD).
Student body
Stanford enrolled 6,996 undergraduate and 10,253 graduate students as of the 2019–2020 school year. Women comprised 50.4% of undergraduates and 41.5% of graduate students. In the same academic year, the freshman retention rate was 99%.
Stanford awarded 1,819 undergraduate degrees, 2,393 master’s degrees, 770 doctoral degrees, and 3270 professional degrees in the 2018–2019 school year. The four-year graduation rate for the class of 2017 cohort was 72.9%, and the six-year rate was 94.4%. The relatively low four-year graduation rate is a function of the university’s coterminal degree (or “coterm”) program, which allows students to earn a master’s degree as a 1-to-2-year extension of their undergraduate program.
As of 2010, fifteen percent of undergraduates were first-generation students.
Athletics
As of 2016 Stanford had 16 male varsity sports and 20 female varsity sports, 19 club sports and about 27 intramural sports. In 1930, following a unanimous vote by the Executive Committee for the Associated Students, the athletic department adopted the mascot “Indian.” The Indian symbol and name were dropped by President Richard Lyman in 1972, after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate. The sports teams are now officially referred to as the “Stanford Cardinal,” referring to the deep red color, not the cardinal bird. Stanford is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in most sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several other sports, and the America East Conference in field hockey with the participation in the inter-collegiate NCAA’s Division I FBS.
Its traditional sports rival is the University of California, Berkeley, the neighbor to the north in the East Bay. The winner of the annual “Big Game” between the Cal and Cardinal football teams gains custody of the Stanford Axe.
Stanford has had at least one NCAA team champion every year since the 1976–77 school year and has earned 126 NCAA national team titles since its establishment, the most among universities, and Stanford has won 522 individual national championships, the most by any university. Stanford has won the award for the top-ranked Division 1 athletic program—the NACDA Directors’ Cup, formerly known as the Sears Cup—annually for the past twenty-four straight years. Stanford athletes have won medals in every Olympic Games since 1912, winning 270 Olympic medals total, 139 of them gold. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, and 2016 Summer Olympics, Stanford won more Olympic medals than any other university in the United States. Stanford athletes won 16 medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics (12 gold, two silver and two bronze), and 27 medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Traditions
The unofficial motto of Stanford, selected by President Jordan, is Die Luft der Freiheit weht. Translated from the German language, this quotation from Ulrich von Hutten means, “The wind of freedom blows.” The motto was controversial during World War I, when anything in German was suspect; at that time the university disavowed that this motto was official. Hail, Stanford, Hail! is the Stanford Hymn sometimes sung at ceremonies or adapted by the various University singing groups. It was written in 1892 by mechanical engineering professor Albert W. Smith and his wife, Mary Roberts Smith (in 1896 she earned the first Stanford doctorate in Economics and later became associate professor of Sociology), but was not officially adopted until after a performance on campus in March 1902 by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
“Uncommon Man/Uncommon Woman”: Stanford does not award honorary degrees, but in 1953 the degree of “Uncommon Man/Uncommon Woman” was created to recognize individuals who give rare and extraordinary service to the University. Technically, this degree is awarded by the Stanford Associates, a voluntary group that is part of the university’s alumni association. As Stanford’s highest honor, it is not conferred at prescribed intervals, but only when appropriate to recognize extraordinary service. Recipients include Herbert Hoover, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Lucile Packard, and John Gardner.
Big Game events: The events in the week leading up to the Big Game vs. UC Berkeley, including Gaieties (a musical written, composed, produced, and performed by the students of Ram’s Head Theatrical Society).
“Viennese Ball”: a formal ball with waltzes that was initially started in the 1970s by students returning from the now-closed Stanford in Vienna overseas program. It is now open to all students.
“Full Moon on the Quad”: An annual event at Main Quad, where students gather to kiss one another starting at midnight. Typically organized by the Junior class cabinet, the festivities include live entertainment, such as music and dance performances.
“Band Run”: An annual festivity at the beginning of the school year, where the band picks up freshmen from dorms across campus while stopping to perform at each location, culminating in a finale performance at Main Quad.
“Mausoleum Party”: An annual Halloween Party at the Stanford Mausoleum, the final resting place of Leland Stanford Jr. and his parents. A 20-year tradition, the “Mausoleum Party” was on hiatus from 2002 to 2005 due to a lack of funding, but was revived in 2006. In 2008, it was hosted in Old Union rather than at the actual Mausoleum, because rain prohibited generators from being rented. In 2009, after fundraising efforts by the Junior Class Presidents and the ASSU Executive, the event was able to return to the Mausoleum despite facing budget cuts earlier in the year.
Former campus traditions include the “Big Game bonfire” on Lake Lagunita (a seasonal lake usually dry in the fall), which was formally ended in 1997 because of the presence of endangered salamanders in the lake bed.
Award laureates and scholars
Stanford’s current community of scholars includes:
After decades of effort and help from SLAC’s X-ray laser [below], scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University, Humboldt University, and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of Photosystem II.
Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) [below] and the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan, they captured for the first time in atomic detail what happens in the final moments leading up to the release of breathable oxygen.
The data reveal an intermediate reaction step that had not been observed before.
Fig. 1: An overview of PS II and the electron donor site where water oxidation takes place.
a, The structure of PS II with the membrane-embedded helices and the membrane extrinsic regions on the lumenal side of PS II shown in gray. The main electron transfer components are shown in colour, which include the reaction center chlorophylls (P680), pheophytins, acceptor quinones QA and QB, redox-active tyrosine Yz and the catalytic Mn4CaO5 cluster. The Yz and Mn4CaO5 cluster are the cofactors of the electron donor site. b, Kok cycle of the water oxidation reaction taking place at the donor site that is sequentially driven by charge separations in the reaction center P680 induced by the absorption of photons (nanosecond light flashes, 1F–4F) in the antenna system of PS II. Room temperature X-ray crystallography data were collected at the time points indicated during the S3→S0 transition. c,d, The structure of the OEC in the S3 (c) and S0 (d) states and the sequence of events occurring between them. Mn, purple; Ca2+, green; O, red. W1, -2, -3 and -4 are water ligands of Mn4 and Ca. The relevant channels for water and proton transfer (O1, O4 and Cl1) are indicated as red, blue and green shaded areas, respectively. The dotted circles mark structural differences between the S3 and S0 states.
The results, published today in Nature [below], shed light on how nature has optimized photosynthesis and are helping scientists develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon-based fuels.
“The more we learn about how nature does it, the closer we get to using those same principles in human-made processes, including ideas for artificial photosynthesis as a clean and sustainable energy source,” said co-author Jan Kern, a scientist at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
New Snapshots of Photosynthesis Captured by SLAC’s X-ray Laser.
Chris Smith/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
This video explains how, in a previous paper, researchers were able to see two key steps in photosynthetic water splitting under conditions as it occurs in nature, a big step to decoding how the process works in detail. (Chris Smith/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Co-author Junko Yano, also at Berkeley Lab, said, “Photosystem II is giving us the blueprint for how to optimize our clean energy sources and avoid dead ends and dangerous side products that damage the system. What we once thought was just fundamental science could become a promising avenue to improving our energy technologies.”
Bases loaded
During photosynthesis, Photosystem II’s oxygen-evolving center – a cluster of four manganese atoms and one calcium atom connected by oxygen atoms – facilitates a series of challenging chemical reactions that act to split apart a water molecule to release molecular oxygen.
The center cycles through four stable oxidation states, known as S0 through S3, when exposed to sunlight. On a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a player on home base is ready to go to bat. S1-S3 would be players on first, second, and third. Every time a batter connects with a ball, or the complex absorbs a photon of sunlight, the player on the field advances one base. When the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of Photosystem II, releasing one molecule of breathable oxygen.
In photosystem II, the water-splitting center cycles through four stable states, S0-S3. On a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a batter on home base is ready to hit. S1-S3 would be players waiting on first, second, and third. The center gets bumped up to the next state every time it absorbs a photon of sunlight, just like how a player on the field advances one base every time a batter connects with a ball. When the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of Photosystem II, releasing the oxygen we breathe. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
In their experiments, the researchers probed this center by exciting samples from cyanobacteria with optical light and then probing them with ultrafast X-ray pulses from LCLS and SACLA. The data revealed the atomic structure of the cluster and the chemical process around it.
A home run
Using this technique, the scientists for the first time imaged the mad dash for home – the transient state, or S4, where two atoms of oxygen bond together and an oxygen molecule is released. The data showed that there are additional steps in this reaction that had never been seen before.
“Other experts argued that this is something that could never be captured,” said co-author Uwe Bergmann, a scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s really going to change the way we think about Photosystem II. Although we can’t say we have a unique mechanism based on the data yet, we can exclude some models and ideas people have proposed over the last few decades. It’s the closest anyone has ever come to capturing this final step and showing how this process works with actual structural data.”
The new study is the latest in a series undertaken by the team over the past decade. Earlier work focused on observing various steps of the photosynthetic cycle at the temperature at which is occurs in nature.
“Most of the process that produces breathable oxygen happens in this last step,” said co-author Vittal Yachandra, a scientist at Berkeley Lab. “But there are several things happening at different parts of Photosystem II and they all have to come together in the end for the reaction to succeed. Just like how in baseball, factors like the location of the ball and the position of the basemen and fielders affect the moves a player takes to get to home base, the protein environment around the catalytic center influences how this reaction plays out.”
Brighter X-rays for a brighter future
Based on these results, the researchers plan to conduct experiments designed to capture many more snapshots of the process.
“There are still things happening in between that we could not catch yet,” Kern said. “There are more snapshots we really want to take which would bridge the remaining gaps and tell the whole story.”
To do so, they need to push the quality of their data even further. In the past, these types of measurements proved challenging because the X-ray signals from the samples are faint and the rates at which existing X-ray lasers like LCLS and SACLA produce X-ray pulses are too slow.
“It took quite some effort to optimize the setup, so we couldn’t collect all the data we needed for this one publication in a single experiment,” said co-author and SLAC scientist Roberto Alonso-Mori. “These results actually include data taken over six years.”
When an LCLS upgrade called LCLS-II [below] comes online later this year, the repetition rate will skyrocket from 120 pulses per second to up to a million per second.
“With these upgrades, we will be able to collect several days’ worth of data in just a few hours,” Bergmann said. “We will also be able to use soft X-rays to further understand the chemical changes happening in the system. These new capabilities will continue to drive this research forward and shed new light on photosynthesis.”
Key components of this work were carried out at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) [below], Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) and Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source (APS).
LCLS, SSRL, APS, and ALS are DOE Office of Science user facilities. This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science and the National Institutes of Health, among other funding agencies.
The DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the Department of EnergyOffice of Science and located in Menlo Park, California. It is the site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a 3.2 kilometer (2-mile) linear accelerator constructed in 1966 and shut down in the 2000s, which could accelerate electrons to energies of 50 GeV.
Today SLAC research centers on a broad program in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using X-rays from synchrotron radiation and a free-electron laser as well as experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.
Founded in 1962 as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the facility is located on 172 hectares (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west of the University’s main campus. The main accelerator is 3.2 kilometers (2 mi) long—the longest linear accelerator in the world—and has been operational since 1966.
Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics
1976: The charm quark—see J/ψ meson
1990: Quark structure inside protons and neutrons
1995: The tau lepton
SLAC’s meeting facilities also provided a venue for the Homebrew Computer Club and other pioneers of the home computer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1984 the laboratory was named an ASME National Historic Engineering Landmark and an IEEE Milestone.
SLAC developed and, in December 1991, began hosting the first World Wide Web server outside of Europe.
In the early-to-mid 1990s, the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector [below].
As of 2005, SLAC employed over 1,000 people, some 150 of whom were physicists with doctorate degrees, and served over 3,000 visiting researchers yearly, operating particle accelerators for high-energy physics and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) [below] for synchrotron light radiation research, which was “indispensable” in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Stanford Professor Roger D. Kornberg.
In October 2008, the Department of Energy announced that the center’s name would be changed to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The reasons given include a better representation of the new direction of the lab and the ability to trademark the laboratory’s name. Stanford University had legally opposed the Department of Energy’s attempt to trademark “Stanford Linear Accelerator Center”.
In March 2009, it was announced that the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory was to receive $68.3 million in Recovery Act Funding to be disbursed by Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
In October 2016, Bits and Watts launched as a collaboration between SLAC and Stanford University to design “better, greener electric grids”. SLAC later pulled out over concerns about an industry partner, the state-owned Chinese electric utility.
Accelerator
The main accelerator was an RF linear accelerator that accelerated electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV. At 3.2 km (2.0 mi) long, the accelerator was the longest linear accelerator in the world, and was claimed to be “the world’s most straight object.” until 2017 when the European x-ray free electron laser opened. The main accelerator is buried 9 m (30 ft) below ground and passes underneath Interstate Highway 280. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline, was the longest building in the United States until the LIGO project’s twin interferometers were completed in 1999. It is easily distinguishable from the air and is marked as a visual waypoint on aeronautical charts.
A portion of the original linear accelerator is now part of the Linac Coherent Light Source [below].
Stanford Linear Collider
The Stanford Linear Collider was a linear accelerator that collided electrons and positrons at SLAC. The center of mass energy was about 90 GeV, equal to the mass of the Z boson, which the accelerator was designed to study. Grad student Barrett D. Milliken discovered the first Z event on 12 April 1989 while poring over the previous day’s computer data from the Mark II detector. The bulk of the data was collected by the SLAC Large Detector, which came online in 1991. Although largely overshadowed by the Large Electron–Positron Collider at CERN, which began running in 1989, the highly polarized electron beam at SLC (close to 80%) made certain unique measurements possible, such as parity violation in Z Boson-b quark coupling.
Presently no beam enters the south and north arcs in the machine, which leads to the Final Focus, therefore this section is mothballed to run beam into the PEP2 section from the beam switchyard.
The SLAC Large Detector (SLD) was the main detector for the Stanford Linear Collider. It was designed primarily to detect Z bosons produced by the accelerator’s electron-positron collisions. Built in 1991, the SLD operated from 1992 to 1998.
PEP (Positron-Electron Project) began operation in 1980, with center-of-mass energies up to 29 GeV. At its apex, PEP had five large particle detectors in operation, as well as a sixth smaller detector. About 300 researchers made used of PEP. PEP stopped operating in 1990, and PEP-II began construction in 1994.
PEP-II
From 1999 to 2008, the main purpose of the linear accelerator was to inject electrons and positrons into the PEP-II accelerator, an electron-positron collider with a pair of storage rings 2.2 km (1.4 mi) in circumference. PEP-II was host to the BaBar experiment, one of the so-called B-Factory experiments studying charge-parity symmetry.
SLAC plays a primary role in the mission and operation of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in August 2008. The principal scientific objectives of this mission are:
To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs.
To resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission.
To determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients.
To probe dark matter and fundamental physics.
The Stanford PULSE Institute (PULSE) is a Stanford Independent Laboratory located in the Central Laboratory at SLAC. PULSE was created by Stanford in 2005 to help Stanford faculty and SLAC scientists develop ultrafast x-ray research at LCLS.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)[below] is a free electron laser facility located at SLAC. The LCLS is partially a reconstruction of the last 1/3 of the original linear accelerator at SLAC, and can deliver extremely intense x-ray radiation for research in a number of areas. It achieved first lasing in April 2009.
The laser produces hard X-rays, 10^9 times the relative brightness of traditional synchrotron sources and is the most powerful x-ray source in the world. LCLS enables a variety of new experiments and provides enhancements for existing experimental methods. Often, x-rays are used to take “snapshots” of objects at the atomic level before obliterating samples. The laser’s wavelength, ranging from 6.2 to 0.13 nm (200 to 9500 electron volts (eV)) is similar to the width of an atom, providing extremely detailed information that was previously unattainable. Additionally, the laser is capable of capturing images with a “shutter speed” measured in femtoseconds, or million-billionths of a second, necessary because the intensity of the beam is often high enough so that the sample explodes on the femtosecond timescale.
The LCLS-II [below] project is to provide a major upgrade to LCLS by adding two new X-ray laser beams. The new system will utilize the 500 m (1,600 ft) of existing tunnel to add a new superconducting accelerator at 4 GeV and two new sets of undulators that will increase the available energy range of LCLS. The advancement from the discoveries using these new capabilities may include new drugs, next-generation computers, and new materials.
FACET
In 2012, the first two-thirds (~2 km) of the original SLAC LINAC were recommissioned for a new user facility, the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET). This facility was capable of delivering 20 GeV, 3 nC electron (and positron) beams with short bunch lengths and small spot sizes, ideal for beam-driven plasma acceleration studies. The facility ended operations in 2016 for the constructions of LCLS-II which will occupy the first third of the SLAC LINAC. The FACET-II project will re-establish electron and positron beams in the middle third of the LINAC for the continuation of beam-driven plasma acceleration studies in 2019.
The Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA) is a 60-120 MeV high-brightness electron beam linear accelerator used for experiments on advanced beam manipulation and acceleration techniques. It is located at SLAC’s end station B
Leland and Jane Stanford founded Stanford University to “promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization.” Stanford opened its doors in 1891, and more than a century later, it remains dedicated to finding solutions to the great challenges of the day and to preparing our students for leadership in today’s complex world. Stanford, is an American private research university located in Stanford, California on an 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus near Palo Alto. Since 1952, more than 54 Stanford faculty, staff, and alumni have won the Nobel Prize, including 19 current faculty members.
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university located in Stanford, California. Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford is consistently ranked as among the most prestigious and top universities in the world by major education publications. It is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
Leland Stanford was a U.S. senator and former governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates’ entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley.
The university is organized around seven schools: three schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate level as well as four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in law, medicine, education, and business. All schools are on the same campus. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. It has gained 126 NCAA team championships, and Stanford has won the NACDA Directors’ Cup for 24 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995. In addition, Stanford students and alumni have won 270 Olympic medals including 139 gold medals.
As of October 2020, 84 Nobel laureates, 28 Turing Award laureates, and eight Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups. Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, roughly equivalent to the 7th largest economy in the world (as of 2020). Stanford is the alma mater of one president of the United States (Herbert Hoover), 74 living billionaires, and 17 astronauts. It is also one of the leading producers of Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, and members of the United States Congress.
Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanford’s previous Palo Alto farm.
Jane and Leland Stanford modeled their university after the great eastern universities, most specifically Cornell University. Stanford opened being called the “Cornell of the West” in 1891 due to faculty being former Cornell affiliates (either professors, alumni, or both) including its first president, David Starr Jordan, and second president, John Casper Branner. Both Cornell and Stanford were among the first to have higher education be accessible, nonsectarian, and open to women as well as to men. Cornell is credited as one of the first American universities to adopt this radical departure from traditional education, and Stanford became an early adopter as well.
Despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I. The Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), established in 1962, performs research in particle physics.
Most of Stanford is on an 8,180-acre (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km^2) campus, one of the largest in the United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, in the northwest part of the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley) approximately 37 miles (60 km) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles (30 km) northwest of San Jose. In 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped.
Stanford’s main campus includes a census-designated place within unincorporated Santa Clara County, although some of the university land (such as the Stanford Shopping Center and the Stanford Research Park) is within the city limits of Palo Alto. The campus also includes much land in unincorporated San Mateo County (including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve), as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park (Stanford Hills neighborhood), Woodside, and Portola Valley.
Non-central campus
Stanford currently operates in various locations outside of its central campus.
On the founding grant:
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) natural reserve south of the central campus owned by the university and used by wildlife biologists for research.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a facility west of the central campus operated by the university for the Department of Energy. It contains the longest linear particle accelerator in the world, 2 miles (3.2 km) on 426 acres (172 ha) of land. Golf course and a seasonal lake: The university also has its own golf course and a seasonal lake (Lake Lagunita, actually an irrigation reservoir), both home to the vulnerable California tiger salamander. As of 2012 Lake Lagunita was often dry and the university had no plans to artificially fill it.
Off the founding grant:
Hopkins Marine Station, in Pacific Grove, California, is a marine biology research center owned by the university since 1892., in Pacific Grove, California, is a marine biology research center owned by the university since 1892.
Study abroad locations: unlike typical study abroad programs, Stanford itself operates in several locations around the world; thus, each location has Stanford faculty-in-residence and staff in addition to students, creating a “mini-Stanford”.
Redwood City campus for many of the university’s administrative offices located in Redwood City, California, a few miles north of the main campus. In 2005, the university purchased a small, 35-acre (14 ha) campus in Midpoint Technology Park intended for staff offices; development was delayed by The Great Recession. In 2015 the university announced a development plan and the Redwood City campus opened in March 2019.
The Bass Center in Washington, DC provides a base, including housing, for the Stanford in Washington program for undergraduates. It includes a small art gallery open to the public.
China: Stanford Center at Peking University, housed in the Lee Jung Sen Building, is a small center for researchers and students in collaboration with Beijing University [北京大学](CN) (Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University(CN) (KIAA-PKU).
Administration and organization
Stanford is a private, non-profit university that is administered as a corporate trust governed by a privately appointed board of trustees with a maximum membership of 38. Trustees serve five-year terms (not more than two consecutive terms) and meet five times annually.[83] A new trustee is chosen by the current trustees by ballot. The Stanford trustees also oversee the Stanford Research Park, the Stanford Shopping Center, the Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University Medical Center, and many associated medical facilities (including the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital).
The board appoints a president to serve as the chief executive officer of the university, to prescribe the duties of professors and course of study, to manage financial and business affairs, and to appoint nine vice presidents. The provost is the chief academic and budget officer, to whom the deans of each of the seven schools report. Persis Drell became the 13th provost in February 2017.
As of 2018, the university was organized into seven academic schools. The schools of Humanities and Sciences (27 departments), Engineering (nine departments), and Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (four departments) have both graduate and undergraduate programs while the Schools of Law, Medicine, Education and Business have graduate programs only. The powers and authority of the faculty are vested in the Academic Council, which is made up of tenure and non-tenure line faculty, research faculty, senior fellows in some policy centers and institutes, the president of the university, and some other academic administrators, but most matters are handled by the Faculty Senate, made up of 55 elected representatives of the faculty.
The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) is the student government for Stanford and all registered students are members. Its elected leadership consists of the Undergraduate Senate elected by the undergraduate students, the Graduate Student Council elected by the graduate students, and the President and Vice President elected as a ticket by the entire student body.
Stanford is the beneficiary of a special clause in the California Constitution, which explicitly exempts Stanford property from taxation so long as the property is used for educational purposes.
Endowment and donations
The university’s endowment, managed by the Stanford Management Company, was valued at $27.7 billion as of August 31, 2019. Payouts from the Stanford endowment covered approximately 21.8% of university expenses in the 2019 fiscal year. In the 2018 NACUBO-TIAA survey of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, only Harvard University, the University of Texas System, and Yale University had larger endowments than Stanford.
In 2006, President John L. Hennessy launched a five-year campaign called the Stanford Challenge, which reached its $4.3 billion fundraising goal in 2009, two years ahead of time, but continued fundraising for the duration of the campaign. It concluded on December 31, 2011, having raised a total of $6.23 billion and breaking the previous campaign fundraising record of $3.88 billion held by Yale. Specifically, the campaign raised $253.7 million for undergraduate financial aid, as well as $2.33 billion for its initiative in “Seeking Solutions” to global problems, $1.61 billion for “Educating Leaders” by improving K-12 education, and $2.11 billion for “Foundation of Excellence” aimed at providing academic support for Stanford students and faculty. Funds supported 366 new fellowships for graduate students, 139 new endowed chairs for faculty, and 38 new or renovated buildings. The new funding also enabled the construction of a facility for stem cell research; a new campus for the business school; an expansion of the law school; a new Engineering Quad; a new art and art history building; an on-campus concert hall; a new art museum; and a planned expansion of the medical school, among other things. In 2012, the university raised $1.035 billion, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
Research centers and institutes
DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Stanford Research Institute, a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. Hoover Institution, a conservative American public policy institution and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government. Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, a multidisciplinary design school in cooperation with the Hasso Plattner Institute of University of Potsdam [Universität Potsdam](DE) that integrates product design, engineering, and business management education).
Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which grew out of and still contains the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project. John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists
Center for Ocean Solutions
Together with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, Stanford is part of the Biohub, a new medical science research center founded in 2016 by a $600 million commitment from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and pediatrician Priscilla Chan.
Discoveries and innovation
Natural sciences
Biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) – Arthur Kornberg synthesized DNA material and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for his work at Stanford.
First Transgenic organism – Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer were the first scientists to transplant genes from one living organism to another, a fundamental discovery for genetic engineering. Thousands of products have been developed on the basis of their work, including human growth hormone and hepatitis B vaccine.
Laser – Arthur Leonard Schawlow shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work on lasers.
Nuclear magnetic resonance – Felix Bloch developed new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements, which are the underlying principles of the MRI.
Computer and applied sciences
ARPANET – Stanford Research Institute, formerly part of Stanford but on a separate campus, was the site of one of the four original ARPANET nodes.
Internet—Stanford was the site where the original design of the Internet was undertaken. Vint Cerf led a research group to elaborate the design of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) that he originally co-created with Robert E. Kahn (Bob Kahn) in 1973 and which formed the basis for the architecture of the Internet.
Frequency modulation synthesis – John Chowning of the Music department invented the FM music synthesis algorithm in 1967, and Stanford later licensed it to Yamaha Corporation.
Google – Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford. They were working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP’s goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library” and it was funded through the National Science Foundation, among other federal agencies.
Klystron tube – invented by the brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian at Stanford. Their prototype was completed and demonstrated successfully on August 30, 1937. Upon publication in 1939, news of the klystron immediately influenced the work of U.S. and UK researchers working on radar equipment.
RISC – ARPA funded VLSI project of microprocessor design. Stanford and University of California- Berkeley are most associated with the popularization of this concept. The Stanford MIPS would go on to be commercialized as the successful MIPS architecture, while Berkeley RISC gave its name to the entire concept, commercialized as the SPARC. Another success from this era were IBM’s efforts that eventually led to the IBM POWER instruction set architecture, PowerPC, and Power ISA. As these projects matured, a wide variety of similar designs flourished in the late 1980s and especially the early 1990s, representing a major force in the Unix workstation market as well as embedded processors in laser printers, routers and similar products. SUN workstation – Andy Bechtolsheim designed the SUN workstation for the Stanford University Network communications project as a personal CAD workstation, which led to Sun Microsystems.
Businesses and entrepreneurship
Stanford is one of the most successful universities in creating companies and licensing its inventions to existing companies; it is often held up as a model for technology transfer. Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing is responsible for commercializing university research, intellectual property, and university-developed projects.
The university is described as having a strong venture culture in which students are encouraged, and often funded, to launch their own companies.
Companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world.
Some companies closely associated with Stanford and their connections include:
Hewlett-Packard, 1939, co-founders William R. Hewlett (B.S, PhD) and David Packard (M.S). Silicon Graphics, 1981, co-founders James H. Clark (Associate Professor) and several of his grad students. Sun Microsystems, 1982, co-founders Vinod Khosla (M.B.A), Andy Bechtolsheim (PhD) and Scott McNealy (M.B.A). Cisco, 1984, founders Leonard Bosack (M.S) and Sandy Lerner (M.S) who were in charge of Stanford Computer Science and Graduate School of Business computer operations groups respectively when the hardware was developed.[163] Yahoo!, 1994, co-founders Jerry Yang (B.S, M.S) and David Filo (M.S). Google, 1998, co-founders Larry Page (M.S) and Sergey Brin (M.S). LinkedIn, 2002, co-founders Reid Hoffman (B.S), Konstantin Guericke (B.S, M.S), Eric Lee (B.S), and Alan Liu (B.S). Instagram, 2010, co-founders Kevin Systrom (B.S) and Mike Krieger (B.S). Snapchat, 2011, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy (B.S). Coursera, 2012, co-founders Andrew Ng (Associate Professor) and Daphne Koller (Professor, PhD).
Student body
Stanford enrolled 6,996 undergraduate and 10,253 graduate students as of the 2019–2020 school year. Women comprised 50.4% of undergraduates and 41.5% of graduate students. In the same academic year, the freshman retention rate was 99%.
Stanford awarded 1,819 undergraduate degrees, 2,393 master’s degrees, 770 doctoral degrees, and 3270 professional degrees in the 2018–2019 school year. The four-year graduation rate for the class of 2017 cohort was 72.9%, and the six-year rate was 94.4%. The relatively low four-year graduation rate is a function of the university’s coterminal degree (or “coterm”) program, which allows students to earn a master’s degree as a 1-to-2-year extension of their undergraduate program.
As of 2010, fifteen percent of undergraduates were first-generation students.
Athletics
As of 2016 Stanford had 16 male varsity sports and 20 female varsity sports, 19 club sports and about 27 intramural sports. In 1930, following a unanimous vote by the Executive Committee for the Associated Students, the athletic department adopted the mascot “Indian.” The Indian symbol and name were dropped by President Richard Lyman in 1972, after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate. The sports teams are now officially referred to as the “Stanford Cardinal,” referring to the deep red color, not the cardinal bird. Stanford is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in most sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several other sports, and the America East Conference in field hockey with the participation in the inter-collegiate NCAA’s Division I FBS.
Its traditional sports rival is the University of California, Berkeley, the neighbor to the north in the East Bay. The winner of the annual “Big Game” between the Cal and Cardinal football teams gains custody of the Stanford Axe.
Stanford has had at least one NCAA team champion every year since the 1976–77 school year and has earned 126 NCAA national team titles since its establishment, the most among universities, and Stanford has won 522 individual national championships, the most by any university. Stanford has won the award for the top-ranked Division 1 athletic program—the NACDA Directors’ Cup, formerly known as the Sears Cup—annually for the past twenty-four straight years. Stanford athletes have won medals in every Olympic Games since 1912, winning 270 Olympic medals total, 139 of them gold. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, and 2016 Summer Olympics, Stanford won more Olympic medals than any other university in the United States. Stanford athletes won 16 medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics (12 gold, two silver and two bronze), and 27 medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Traditions
The unofficial motto of Stanford, selected by President Jordan, is Die Luft der Freiheit weht. Translated from the German language, this quotation from Ulrich von Hutten means, “The wind of freedom blows.” The motto was controversial during World War I, when anything in German was suspect; at that time the university disavowed that this motto was official. Hail, Stanford, Hail! is the Stanford Hymn sometimes sung at ceremonies or adapted by the various University singing groups. It was written in 1892 by mechanical engineering professor Albert W. Smith and his wife, Mary Roberts Smith (in 1896 she earned the first Stanford doctorate in Economics and later became associate professor of Sociology), but was not officially adopted until after a performance on campus in March 1902 by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
“Uncommon Man/Uncommon Woman”: Stanford does not award honorary degrees, but in 1953 the degree of “Uncommon Man/Uncommon Woman” was created to recognize individuals who give rare and extraordinary service to the University. Technically, this degree is awarded by the Stanford Associates, a voluntary group that is part of the university’s alumni association. As Stanford’s highest honor, it is not conferred at prescribed intervals, but only when appropriate to recognize extraordinary service. Recipients include Herbert Hoover, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Lucile Packard, and John Gardner.
Big Game events: The events in the week leading up to the Big Game vs. UC Berkeley, including Gaieties (a musical written, composed, produced, and performed by the students of Ram’s Head Theatrical Society).
“Viennese Ball”: a formal ball with waltzes that was initially started in the 1970s by students returning from the now-closed Stanford in Vienna overseas program. It is now open to all students.
“Full Moon on the Quad”: An annual event at Main Quad, where students gather to kiss one another starting at midnight. Typically organized by the Junior class cabinet, the festivities include live entertainment, such as music and dance performances.
“Band Run”: An annual festivity at the beginning of the school year, where the band picks up freshmen from dorms across campus while stopping to perform at each location, culminating in a finale performance at Main Quad.
“Mausoleum Party”: An annual Halloween Party at the Stanford Mausoleum, the final resting place of Leland Stanford Jr. and his parents. A 20-year tradition, the “Mausoleum Party” was on hiatus from 2002 to 2005 due to a lack of funding, but was revived in 2006. In 2008, it was hosted in Old Union rather than at the actual Mausoleum, because rain prohibited generators from being rented. In 2009, after fundraising efforts by the Junior Class Presidents and the ASSU Executive, the event was able to return to the Mausoleum despite facing budget cuts earlier in the year.
Former campus traditions include the “Big Game bonfire” on Lake Lagunita (a seasonal lake usually dry in the fall), which was formally ended in 1997 because of the presence of endangered salamanders in the lake bed.
Award laureates and scholars
Stanford’s current community of scholars includes:
richardmitnick
9:10 am on May 3, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "Advanced X-Ray Technique Unveils Fast Solid-Gas Chemical Reaction Pathways", "In-situ" synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques have been used for investigating reactions occurring in crystalline phases., Applied Research & Technology ( 11,352 ), Chemistry ( 1,371 ), High-speed time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Reaction pathways governing the formation of solid-state crystalline compounds remain poorly understood., Scientists were enabled to access reaction data within a time window of few hundred milliseconds., The Tokyo Institute of Technology [東京工業大学] (JP) ( 9 ), X-ray Technology
5.2.23
Associate Professor Takafumi Yamamoto
Laboratory for Materials and Structures
Institute of Innovative Research
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Email yama@msl.titech.ac.jp
Contact:
Public Relations Division
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Email media@jim.titech.ac.jp
Tel +81-3-5734-2975
Short-lived intermediate phases in solid-gas reactions can be captured with high-speed time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique, demonstrate Tokyo Tech researchers. Their observation of the redox reaction pathway for layered perovskite, a high-performance oxygen storage material, enable them to access reaction data within a time window of few hundred milliseconds, highlighting the potential of the technique for optimizing solid-gas reactions.
For the rational design of new material compounds, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying their synthesis. Analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance and spectroscopy are usually employed to study such mechanisms in molecular reactions. However, reaction pathways governing the formation of solid-state crystalline compounds remain poorly understood. This is partly due to the extreme temperatures and inhomogeneous reactions observed in solid-state compounds. Further, the presence of numerous atoms in solid crystalline compounds hinders precise analysis. Developing new techniques that can circumvent these challenges is, therefore, necessary.
More recently, in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques have been used for investigating reactions occurring in crystalline phases. Owing to their high speed and temporal resolution, synchrotron XRD measurements provide access to reaction data within extremely short time windows (few hundred milliseconds). This makes the technique promising for capturing data pertaining to short-lived intermediate reaction phases.
Now, a group of researchers from Japan have used such a state-of-the-art synchrotron XRD technique to report the topochemical solid-gas reduction mechanisms in layered perovskite. The study was led by Associate Professor Takafumi Yamamoto from Tokyo Institute of Technology and published in the journal Advanced Science [below].
“We used Sr3Fe2O7-δ, a Ruddlesden-Popper type layered perovskite, owing to its efficient oxygen storage ability. Sr3Fe2O7-δ undergoes reversible and fast topochemical redox reactions under O2 and H2 and shows excellent performance as an environmental catalyst material,” explains Dr. Yamamoto.
His collaborators had previously observed that doping Sr3Fe2O7-δ with Palladium (Pd) significantly increases the oxygen release rate while decreasing the release temperature. Based on these observations, the team investigated the reaction pathways and structural evolution of this perovskite during the solid-gas reduction.
The team began by preparing a pristine sample and a Pd-loaded sample of Sr3Fe2O7-δ. They then used high-speed synchrotron XRD to monitor them as they underwent fast oxygen deintercalation (reduction).
The analyses revealed that the reduction of pristine Sr3Fe2O7-δ proceeded via thermodynamically stable phases, with pristine Sr3Fe2O7-δ undergoing gradual single-phase structural evolution during its reduction. In contrast, the reduction of Pd-loaded Sr3Fe2O7-δ involved nonequilibrium intermediate phases, a drastically different pathway. It first transformed into a dynamically-disordered phase for a few seconds and then rearranged itself via a first-order transition to reach the final ordered and stable state.
Additionally, Pd metal particles on the Sr3Fe2O7-δ surface significantly accelerated the oxygen deintercalation reaction of Pd-loaded Sr3Fe2O7-δ relative to that of pristine Sr3Fe2O7-δ. Dr. Yamamoto adds, “The change in reaction dynamics following the loading of Sr3Fe2O7-δ with Pd demonstrates that surface treatment can be used to manipulate reaction processes in a crystalline material.”
In summary, these findings suggest that the synchrotron XRD technique can be leveraged to study reaction pathways in solid-state compounds as well as identify their rate-determining steps. This, in turn, could help optimize the reaction pathway for the rational design of high-performance functional materials.
The Tokyo Institute of Technology [東京工業大学] (JP) is the top national university for science and technology in Japan with a history spanning more than 130 years. Of the approximately 10,000 students at the Ookayama, Suzukakedai, and Tamachi Campuses, half are in their bachelor’s degree program while the other half are in master’s and doctoral degree programs. International students number 1,200. There are 1,200 faculty and 600 administrative and technical staff members.
In the 21st century, the role of science and technology universities has become increasingly important. Tokyo Tech continues to develop global leaders in the fields of science and technology, and contributes to the betterment of society through its research, focusing on solutions to global issues. The Institute’s long-term goal is to become the world’s leading science and technology university.
Schools and departments
TokyoTech comprises 6 schools, a number of departments and Institute for Liberal Arts.
School of Science (ja)
Department of Mathematics
Department of Physics
Department of Chemistry
Department of Earth and Planetary Science
School of Engineering (ja)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Systems and Control Engineering
Department of Electrical and Electric Engineering
Department of Information and Communication Engineering
Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics
School of Life Science and Technology (ja)
Department of Life Science and Technology
School of Computing (ja)
Department of Mathematical and Computing Science
Department of Computer Science
School of Environment and Society (ja)
Department of Architecture and Building Engineering
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Department of Social and Human Sciences
Technology Innovation Management / Department of Innovation Science
Institute for Liberal Arts
Research laboratories
Chemical Resources Laboratory
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory
Materials and Structures Laboratory
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors
Quantum Nano Electronics Research Centre
Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI)
Centers
Politics and social sciences
Centre for Research in Advanced Financial Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Solutions Research Laboratory
Integrated Research Institute
Global Edge Institute (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Productive Leader Incubation Platform
Academy for Global Leadership
Centre for Research and Development of Educational Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Centre for Educational Facilities
Creative Research Laboratory
Research Centre for the Science of Institutional Management of Technology
Collaboration Centre for Design and Manufacturing (CODAMA)
Centre for Agent-Based Social Systems Sciences (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Foreign Language Research and Teaching Centre
Centre for the Study of World Civilizations
Asia-Africa Biology Research Centre
Centre for CompView Research and Education
Career Advancement Professional School
Organization for Life Design and Engineering
Centre for Liberal Arts
Engineering and computing
Materials and Structure Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Frontier Research Centre
Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory
Global Scientific Information and Computing Centre
Structural Engineering Research Centre
Super-Mechano Systems R&D Centre
Centre for Photonic Nano-Device Integrated Engineering
Photovoltaics Research Center
Inter-departmental organization for Informatics
Chemistry and life sciences
Chemical Resources Laboratory
Research Centre for Carbon Recycling and Energy
Centre for Biological Resources and Informatics
International Research Centre of Macromolecular Science
Bio-Frontier Research Centre
Emerging Nanomaterial Research Centre
Centre for Molecular Science and Technology
The Osmotic Power Research Centre
Physics and astronomy
Volcanic Fluid Research Centre (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Centre for Low Temperature Physics
Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Centre
Centre for Urban Earthquake Engineering
Research Centre for Nanometer-Scale Quantum Physics
Research Centre for the Evolving Earth and Planets
Centre for Research into Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems
Other facilities
Asia-Oceania Top University League on Engineering
Tokyo Tech Archive Initiative
Health Service Centres
TITECH Earth Database Centre
Tokyo Tech Front
International Student Centre
Inter-departmental Organization for Environment and Energy
ICE Cube Centre
This doesn’t happen often: For his final project, an electronics apprentice at ETH Zürich produced a test device that will save physicists a lot of time in developing a novel microscope. His work has been published in the Journal of Instrumentation [below].
The test signal generator that Jingo Bozzini built helps researchers save a lot of time in developing the novel microscope. (Photograph: Fabio Merino)
Working with a great deal of dexterity and concentration, Jingo Bozzini, an electronics engineer, solders the tiny legs of a chip onto the green circuit board. “Soldering isn’t my strong suit,” he grins. He’s much more interested in programming the circuit on the chip, which was also the focus of his final practical exam last year. As part of his individual practical work (IPA) – his final project – he and Yves Acremann from the Solid State Physics Research Group developed a test signal generator that simulates experimental data. This little silver box may look unremarkable, but it is of invaluable help in designing a novel microscope that will enable researchers to observe individual electrons.
“Taking photos” with X-ray flashes
ETH Zürich is one of a number of universities around the world that are involved in building this groundbreaking instrument. When completed, the k-microscope, as it is known, will be connected to the LCLS-II free-electron laser – a particle accelerator at the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that moves electrons in a slalom course so that they emit powerful X-ray flashes.
These X-rays are then directed at a specimen in the microscope, causing electrons to detach from the specimen. A detector at the end of the microscope captures these electrons and calculates their exit angle and time of flight. This data tells researchers more about the electronic properties of a specimen, such as a new semiconductor. The super-fast flashes can also be used to observe dynamic processes such as a chemical reaction.
“The test signal generator simulates the electrons hitting the detector,” explains Acremann, a physicist. “It’s connected to the detector electronics to program the software for the microscope. This step can be done from the comfort of an office.” Bozzini’s simulator enables researchers to develop the software while the microscope is still being built. This will save them a lot of time and money because the software will already be fully operational when the researchers connect the microscope to the particle accelerator.
Integrated into the research group
Apprentices also have to prepare a detailed schedule for their IPA. “Testing the generator and documenting the work took longer than planned,” Bozzini recounts. This was mainly because he had written his work – as is common in research – in English and using LaTeX, a software program. That’s not the only thing that makes Bozzini’s work unusual: “This final project goes well beyond the basic skills of an electronics engineer,” Acremann says. In January, Bozzini even managed to publish a scientific paper on the test signal generator in the Journal of Instrumentation [below] – not an everyday achievement for an apprentice.
As an apprentice, Bozzini was fully integrated into the research group. “I was able to contribute to the group’s output with my paper,” he says. The close collaboration between researchers and apprentices is a hallmark of vocational training at ETH Zürich. The aspiring electronics engineers spend the first two years of their education in the electronics training lab, where they learn the basics of circuit technology, manufacturing and measuring technology, and programming. For the next two years, they do an apprenticeship within ETH – in a research lab, for example. “Especially in experimental physics, it’s important that we have experts who can solve technical problems and implement things effectively,” Acremann explains.
Although Bozzini thinks it’s cool that his thesis made an important contribution to basic research, he remains modest: “That’s my job – it’s what I get paid for,” he says. He doesn’t yet know whether he would one day like to work in research himself. He’s currently completing a one-year full-time vocational diploma. He has fond memories of his successful apprenticeship at ETH Zürich: after his IPA, he got to travel with Acremann to Hamburg, where the microscope is currently being set up. “That was an exciting experience for me. That’s when I saw that my work can actually contribute to basic research,” he says happily.
The university is an attractive destination for international students thanks to low tuition fees of 809 CHF per semester, PhD and graduate salaries that are amongst the world’s highest, and a world-class reputation in academia and industry. There are currently 22,200 students from over 120 countries, of which 4,180 are pursuing doctoral degrees. In the 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings ETH Zürich is ranked 6th in the world and 8th by the Times Higher Education World Rankings 2020. In the 2020 QS World University Rankings by subject it is ranked 4th in the world for engineering and technology (2nd in Europe) and 1st for earth & marine science.
As of November 2019, 21 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 2 Pritzker Prize winners, and 1 Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the Institute, including Albert Einstein. Other notable alumni include John von Neumann and Santiago Calatrava. It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) and a member of the CESAER network.
ETH Zürich was founded on 7 February 1854 by the Swiss Confederation and began giving its first lectures on 16 October 1855 as a polytechnic institute (eidgenössische polytechnische schule) at various sites throughout the city of Zurich. It was initially composed of six faculties: architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, forestry, and an integrated department for the fields of mathematics, natural sciences, literature, and social and political sciences.
It is locally still known as Polytechnikum, or simply as Poly, derived from the original name eidgenössische polytechnische schule, which translates to “federal polytechnic school”.
ETH Zürich is a federal institute (i.e., under direct administration by the Swiss government), whereas The University of Zürich [Universität Zürich ] (CH) is a cantonal institution. The decision for a new federal university was heavily disputed at the time; the liberals pressed for a “federal university”, while the conservative forces wanted all universities to remain under cantonal control, worried that the liberals would gain more political power than they already had. In the beginning, both universities were co-located in the buildings of the University of Zürich.
From 1905 to 1908, under the presidency of Jérôme Franel, the course program of ETH Zürich was restructured to that of a real university and ETH Zürich was granted the right to award doctorates. In 1909 the first doctorates were awarded. In 1911, it was given its current name, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. In 1924, another reorganization structured the university in 12 departments. However, it now has 16 departments.
ETH Zürich is ranked among the top universities in the world. Typically, popular rankings place the institution as the best university in continental Europe and ETH Zürich is consistently ranked among the top 1-5 universities in Europe, and among the top 3-10 best universities of the world.
Historically, ETH Zürich has achieved its reputation particularly in the fields of chemistry, mathematics and physics. There are 32 Nobel laureates who are associated with ETH Zürich, the most recent of whom is Richard F. Heck, awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010. Albert Einstein is perhaps its most famous alumnus.
In 2018, the QS World University Rankings placed ETH Zürich at 7th overall in the world. In 2015, ETH Zürich was ranked 5th in the world in Engineering, Science and Technology, just behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of Cambridge (UK). In 2015, ETH Zürich also ranked 6th in the world in Natural Sciences, and in 2016 ranked 1st in the world for Earth & Marine Sciences for the second consecutive year.
In a comparison of Swiss universities by swissUP Ranking and in rankings published by CHE comparing the universities of German-speaking countries, ETH Zürich traditionally is ranked first in natural sciences, computer science and engineering sciences.
In the survey CHE Excellence Ranking on the quality of Western European graduate school programs in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, ETH Zürich was assessed as one of the three institutions to have excellent programs in all the considered fields, the other two being Imperial College London (UK) and the University of Cambridge (UK), respectively.
richardmitnick
3:45 pm on April 26, 2023 Permalink
| Reply Tags: "Bringing Interferometric Imaging into the X-Ray Regime", "HBT": Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry, Applied Research & Technology ( 11,352 ), Extending the HBT technique into the x-ray regime has been a challenge due to the low probability of x-ray excitation and the short coherence time of x-ray fluorescence., Physics ( 3,396 ), The "HBT" effect is a two-photon interference phenomenon that occurs when two indistinguishable photons emitted from different points within a source reach two different detectors., The development of x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has helped by making possible the generation of high-intensity x-ray pulses with femtosecond or even shorter durations., The experimental realization of a recently proposed technique points to new possibilities for imaging molecules using x rays., The indistinguishability condition is satisfied when the time interval between the two photons is within the coherence time of the light source., X-ray Technology, XFEL's-X-ray free-electron lasers ( 8 )
From “Physics” : “Bringing Interferometric Imaging into the X-Ray Regime”
4.24.23
Phay J. Ho | the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory
The experimental realization of a recently proposed technique points to new possibilities for imaging molecules using x rays.
Figure 1: An intense x-ray free-electron pulse is diffracted to ionize atoms at two distinct spots on a copper film, resulting in the generation of x-ray fluorescence photon pairs. Each photon pair has two indistinguishable pathways to reach a pair of pixels on a detector, thereby producing a two-photon interference effect that is associated with Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry.
Hanbury Brown and Twiss (“HBT”) interferometry [1] is a versatile technique widely used in various fields of physics, such as astronomy, quantum optics, and particle physics. By measuring the correlation of photon arrival times on two detectors as a function of the photons’ spatial separation, HBT interferometry enables the determination of the size and spatial distribution of a light source. Recently, a novel x-ray imaging technique based on the HBT method was proposed to image the spatial arrangement of heavy elements in a crystal or molecule by inducing those elements to fluoresce at x-ray wavelengths [2]. Now Fabian Trost of the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) and colleagues—including some of those who first proposed the scheme—have implemented this technique, successfully demonstrating that the temporal correlation of fluorescence photons on a detector can be used to image the structure of emitters on a copper film [3]. This achievement marks a significant milestone toward extending HBT interferometry into high-resolution x-ray imaging, with the potential to image the structure and dynamics of isolated biomolecules without the need for crystallization [4].
The HBT effect is a two-photon interference phenomenon that occurs when two indistinguishable photons emitted from different points within a source reach two different detectors. The indistinguishability condition is satisfied when the time interval between the two photons is within the coherence time of the light source. The interference effect, whether constructive or destructive, can be quantified using the second-order correlation function, or g^(2), which describes the probability of detecting two photons simultaneously as a function of their spatial separation. If the arrival time is longer than the coherence time, this will lead to reduced contrast in the interference fringes in g^(2).
Extending the HBT technique into the x-ray regime has been a challenge due to the low probability of x-ray excitation and the short coherence time of x-ray fluorescence, especially for heavy elements. Here the coherence time is given by the lifetime of the fluorescence states. For example, the lifetime of the electronic state of a copper atom with a vacancy in the K shell is less than 1 fs. The emission from two copper atoms will only be coherent or indistinguishable if the atoms are excited within that interval. The development of x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has helped in this regard by making possible the generation of high-intensity x-ray pulses with femtosecond or even shorter durations [5]. These pulses can excite the K-shell electrons of heavy elements with a high probability and increase the chance of producing indistinguishable pairs of photons through x-ray fluorescence.
Trost and colleagues utilized such pulses to measure the intensity correlation of fluorescence photons emitted from a copper film. Conducting their experiment at the European XFEL facility in Germany, the researchers used a phase grating to diffract the incoming x-ray pulse and focus it onto two spots on a micron-sized copper foil.
The incident x-ray photons had an energy of 9 keV, which was sufficient to ionize the K-shell electron of the illuminated copper atoms on the film. This ionization process created a short-lived excited state that primarily decayed via fluorescence emission, which the researchers measured using a detector specially developed at the XFEL facility. With one million pixels, each capable of single-photon detection, this detector can measure 1012 correlations between pixel pairs.
The team needed to address several challenges in order to implement x-ray imaging using this technique. One challenge was that the detector used in the experiment does not resolve the energy of the photons, meaning it cannot exclude contributions from other sources of radiation besides the desired Kα emission. This nonselectivity would lead to a low signal-to-noise ratio. To address this issue, Trost and colleagues used a nickel filter to block elastically scattered radiation and copper Kβ radiation.
Another challenge was that the duration of the x-ray pulse was 10 times longer than the coherence lifetime of the Kα emission, which reduces the contrast of the interference fringes. To improve the signal quality, the researchers recorded 58 million 2D fluorescence images in about 5 hours, enabled by the detector’s high readout rate and by the high repetition rate of the XFEL pulses. To ensure that the sample wasn’t damaged from the pulses, the copper foil was rotated such that each pulse illuminated a new area. Although the combined fluorescence image was isotropic and contained no structural information, the constructed g^(2) revealed interference fringes reaching the third-order peaks, which is an improvement compared to previous studies that only measured the zero-order peak in g^(2) [6, 7]. By using an iterative algorithm, the researchers successfully reconstructed the size (300 nm) and separation (860 nm) of the two excited spots on the copper film.
Given substantial improvement in spatial resolution, the technique could eventually enable single-particle imaging of biomolecules and catalysts at the atomic scale, and, with sufficient time resolution, characterization of their reaction dynamics. Continued advances in XFEL technology could also mean that the photon-hungry process of fluorescence excitation can be achieved with subfemtosecond pulses. For example, using intense, subfemtosecond x-ray pulses, it is possible to tailor the temporal fluorescence profile to be shorter than the lifetime of the fluorescing states [8]. To exploit the power of HBT interferometry for chemical imaging with elemental specificity, it is highly desirable to develop multicolor imaging using multiple detectors or detectors with energy-discrimination capabilities. Further development in this respect has the potential to revolutionize the characterization of important catalytic functions and of the associated structural changes in their native environments—such as metal-bearing clusters in metalloproteins [9]. Such characterization would provide unprecedented insight into these catalysts’ structure and activity, which is critical for the development of renewable energy sources.
References
1. R. Hanbury Brown and R. Q. Twiss, “Correlation between photons in two coherent beams of light,” Nature 177, 27 (1956).
2. A. Classen et al., “Incoherent diffractive imaging via intensity correlations of hard x rays,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 053401 (2017).
3. F. Trost et al., “Imaging via correlation of x-ray fluorescence photons,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 173201 (2023).
4. R. Neutze et al., “Potential for biomolecular imaging with femtosecond X-ray pulses,” Nature 406, 752 (2000).
5. J. Duris et al., “Tunable isolated attosecond x-ray pulses with gigawatt peak power from a free-electron laser,” Nat. Photonics 14, 30 (2019).
6. I. Inoue et al., “Determination of x-ray pulse duration via intensity correlation measurements of x-ray fluorescence,” J. Synchrotron Radiat. 26, 2050 (2019).
7. N. Nakamura et al., “Focus characterization of an x-ray free-electron laser by intensity correlation measurement of x-ray fluorescence,” J. Synchrotron Radiat. 27, 1366 (2020).
8. P. J. Ho et al., “Fluorescence intensity correlation imaging with high spatial resolution and elemental contrast using intense x-ray pulses,” Struct. Dyn. 8, 044101 (2021).
9. J. Yano and V. Yachandra, “Mn4CA cluster in photosynthesis: Where and how water is oxidized to dioxygen,” Chem. Rev. 114, 4175 (2014).
Physicists are drowning in a flood of research papers in their own fields and coping with an even larger deluge in other areas of physics. How can an active researcher stay informed about the most important developments in physics? Physics highlights a selection of papers from the Physical Review journals. In consultation with expert scientists, the editors choose these papers for their importance and/or intrinsic interest. To highlight these papers, Physics features three kinds of articles: Viewpoints are commentaries written by active researchers, who are asked to explain the results to physicists in other subfields. Focus stories are written by professional science writers in a journalistic style and are intended to be accessible to students and non-experts. Synopses are brief editor-written summaries. Physics provides a much-needed guide to the best in physics, and we welcome your comments.
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