With mixed feelings, I announce that Murray Gibson will be leaving Argonne, effective Oct. 1, 2010, to accept a newly created position as Dean of Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. As founding dean, he will draw from his deep experience and expertise to build and grow a new College of Science that combines 10 existing programs and schools. Part of me is delighted that Murray will have this great opportunity to shape and grow the university's already excellent science programs; but I also know how much Argonne will miss him and his leadership.

An intimate understanding of complex materials that lie at the heart of pharmaceuticals or even nuclear weapons can occur more quickly and efficiently thanks to an agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne and Los Alamos national laboratories.

Crystallographic analysis of x-ray and neutron diffraction data is a widely used technique to provide three-dimensional (3-D) pictures of how atoms are arranged in materials, an essential first step toward understanding a material’s function.

A high-level delegation from Australia, including the Hon. Kim Carr, Australian Federal Minister for Science, visited Argonne National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source (APS) on May 2, 2010.

Derrick Mancini has been appointed Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Facility Development within Photon Sciences (PSC). Mancini’s primary responsibility will be as Project Director for the APS Upgrade, which has just received Critical Decision-0 confirmation of mission need from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) Users Organization has named Rafael Jaramillo as the recipient of the 2010 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award. Jaramillo is recognized for furthering understanding of itinerant magnetism and for contributions to the study of quantum matter at high pressure using synchrotron x-ray diffraction.

Naveen Dharmagunawardhane, a Missouri State University (MSU) graduate student in materials science, and Joseph Demster, an MSU undergraduate student in physics, participated in x-ray experiments at the [U.S. Department of Energy's] Advanced Photon Source synchrotron facility located at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Ill.

Dennis Mills of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society. The honor recognizes his development of synchrotron x-ray optics and related techniques, the build-out of beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne, and the development of x-ray monochromators, phase plates, and timing techniques.

Physicist Antonino Miceli of the X-ray Science Division in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory has been awarded $2.5 million over the next five years as part of the DOE's Early Career Research Program.

Alexander (Sasha) Zholents has been named Director of the Argonne Accelerator Systems Division of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), and Chris Jacobsen has been named an Associate Division Director of the Argonne X-ray Science Division (XSD), also of the APS.

Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Argonne National Laboratory, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot.

Elroy Chang (ANL-AES), Ali Nassiri (ANL-ASD), and Geoff Pile (ANL-PSC) have been presented with a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Environmental Sustainability Award for the “Reduction, Re-use, Recycling, and Re-buying of Dielectric Oils.” The award, signed by W.F. Brinkman, Director of the Office of Science, was presented to Chang, Nassiri, and Pile on behalf of Argonne National Laboratory at a ceremony in November 2009.

A recently published Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study of a naturally bioreduced sediment sample from a former uranium mill tailings site reveals insights that enhance understanding of the long-term persistence of uranium in groundwater. The study provides the first-ever evidence of a useful pyrite mineral formation within the sample.

Martin R. Kraimer, formerly of the Controls Group in the Argonne APS Engineering Support Division, is one of three recipients of the first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the ICALEPCS International Scientific Advisory Committee. The award recognizes “those who through their vision, leadership and technical excellence have influenced the practice of control system development beyond the boundaries of their home laboratory or nation.”

All three recipients of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry published papers on their award-winning work based on data collected at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory.

Join the adventure as Linda Young (Argonne Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division) publishes updates on the progress of her group as they carry out the first experiment to use the U.S. Department of Energy's Linac Coherent Light Source—the next-generation laser x-ray source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory—which produces pulses of x-rays more than a billion times brighter than the most powerful existing sources.

Linda Young, a leader in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical physics, has accepted the position of Division Director for the Argonne National Laboratory X-ray Science Division (XSD) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). Linda is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Have you ever seen a three-foot dragonfly? Where such gigantic insects once dominated the Earth, now only diminutive cousins remain. What created these differences? Elyse Munoz, a junior majoring in biology in the Arizona State University (ASU) College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, had the rare opportunity to directly investigate this question over the summer, while participating in cutting-edge research in the lab of physiologist Jon Harrison.

New x-ray sources and improved x-ray detectors will be the result of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding in the amount of $7.9 M obtained by the Advanced Photon Source (APS).

The Hard X-ray Nanoprobe at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory has received one of four R&D 100 awards presented to Argonne by R&D Magazine.