Immediately below this Director’s Corner is where you normally find the latest word on our proposed APS Upgrade (APS-U). This edition of “APS Upgrade News” is bittersweet for us because it marks APS-U Project Director Stuart Henderson’s farewell. One of our sister laboratories made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: Director of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. “Our loss is their gain” was never truer. Stuart leaves the APS-U on solid footing, with a sterling reputation for technical viability, project preparedness, and a steady course going forward. He departs Argonne as a friend and a valued colleague whose service to the APS community has earned him an immeasurable debt of gratitude from us all. Jefferson Lab could not be in better hands.

Elsewhere in this issue of “APS/User News,” you can read Denny Mills’s “Brief Look at FY16 APS User Survey Results.” While Denny calls out only two of the many survey questions/responses (“How satisfied were you with the fraction of the year that the facility operates?” and “How satisfied were you with the support for users provided by the beamline staff?”), the highly positive responses from our users discussed in the article are representative of the survey feedback in general. This level of satisfaction is doubly gratifying because we extend every effort to be sure our users have a positive experience at the APS, and because we appreciate it when our users recognize the work of the outstanding APS staff.

The safety of our users and staff are always job number one at the APS. To date, there has been only a single recordable injury for fiscal year (FY)2017 (a beamline staff member cut their hand on a thermocouple mount while reaching under a vacuum chamber, requiring some stitches), and increased vigilance in our battle against icy conditions has resulted in no slip or fall injuries during the winter. I thank all for keeping safety at the forefront. In particular, I want to recognize the outstanding contributions of two truly world-class teams at the APS: our safety coordinators, Tom Barkalow, Elroy Chang, Jim Lang, and Paul Rossi, and the newly-renamed Experimental Facilities Operation Group, Bruce Glagola, Nena Moonier, Bruno Fieramosca, Shane Flood, Patti Pedergnana, Wendy Van Wingeren, Clay White, and Dean Wyncott.

Our excellent record of x-ray availability, the outstanding scientific achievements of our users, our technical innovation to the benefit of our users and other DOE light sources, and the dedication of our staff give us great confidence about our future. We are confident that the importance of the APS and the proposed APS-U to our nation’s future continue to be apparent. In FY16, the APS hosted 50% of all U.S. DOE light source users. In March of this year, we reached 20,000 (and growing) peer-reviewed journal articles entered in our Publications Database (https://www.aps.anl.gov/Science/Publications). Our suite of research techniques continues to evolve, including:

• Quick-scanning XAFS at beamline 9-BM,
• An aerodynamic levitator with laser beam heating for studies of materials at extreme conditions at 6-ID-D,
• New capabilities for in situ probing of laser metal powder bed fusion process using high-speed x-ray imaging and diffraction at 32-ID, and
• A germanium strip detector at 6-BM-A that enables a new x-ray imaging technique based on energy dispersive diffraction.

While we at the APS are immersed in the day-to-day business of maintaining our standards of excellence in APS operations and in serving our current users and our nation, we run the risk of forgetting that science is, first of all, a great adventure into the unknown. But the breadth and depth of the knowledge that results from the research carried out by our users is a constant reminder of how fortunate we are to be part of this adventure.

Note: We’re looking forward to seeing you at the joint APS/CNM User Meeting in May! Register here: /APS-Announcements/2017/registration-for-the-2017-apscnm-users-meeting-is-open.

Stephen Streiffer

O                   O                   O                   O                   O                   O                   O                   O                   O                   O