As you receive this update, we are more than halfway through the first user run of the upgraded Advanced Photon Source.

The new accelerator has been running very well, recently reaching 160 mA operating current with high reliability. It has been gratifying to see our users returning to the facility and early scientific experiments being conducted. As you can see in the chart below, nearly 40 of our 72 beamlines are in some stage of commissioning, and 16 are in the final commissioning stage, welcoming their first users. Among these is the new X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) beamline at 8-ID, which saw its first users (from the University of Akron) earlier this month.

Photos of the first users at the new 8-ID are below.

Our teams are working steadily to bring up additional beamlines and get them ready for science. We're bringing first light to two or three beamlines each week and moving them through the process of commissioning as quickly and safely as possible. At the same time, construction work continues on the remaining feature beamlines and other upgrades on the experiment floor. The goal is for the entire upgrade project to be completed next summer when the last feature beamlines take light, and we're on pace to achieve that.

For those of you returning to the APS for the first time after the shutdown, we've posted a new resource page for you. This page includes information on everything from domain accounts to the new LabCab rideshare service Argonne has launched. The new resource page also gives you the rundown on the Universal Proposal System we are using to accept proposals for beamtime. We're currently working through the allocations for proposals to run during the 2025-1 cycle, which begins in late January.

One more thing this month: the upgrade to the APS has been such a momentous undertaking that we thought it was worth it to capture that story on film and produce a short documentary about it. It's called "Building Brilliance," and you can watch it on Argonne's YouTube channel. It’s a nice way to remember some of the high points of the last couple years and see how far we've come. In the United States, we recognize a national holiday of thanks this month, and we have a lot to be thankful for here at the APS.

Until next time, be safe and be well.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Lang
Director, X-ray Science Division