Jim Floyd, the current EHS Program Manager for the Advanced Light Source, has been named the new director for the Environment, Health & Safety Division, effective July 8. He brings over 30 years of experience as a chemist, operations manager, division group leader, and program manager. He replaces acting Division Director Joe Dionne. Go here to read a message on the appointment from COO Glenn Kubiak, and here for a profile on Floyd that ran last year.
Posts Tagged ‘Advanced Light Source’
Jim Floyd Appointed Environment, Health & Safety Division Director
Monday, June 17th, 2013Planning for Future Research in Magnetism and Spintronics at the ALS
Friday, June 14th, 2013
The Advanced Light Source excels at ARPES — angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy — which directly maps a material’s electronic structure using electrons emitted when x-rays strike its surface. When it comes to magnetism and spintronics, progress in both these fast-rising fields demands new experimental tools, however. Electron spin determines magnetic properties and can control how charged currents flow. Alexei Fedorov, Chris Jozwiak, and Zahid Hussain of the ALS and Peter Fischer of the Materials Sciences Division have proposed an instrument that would be unique in the United States for a deeper understanding of the role of spin: spin-resolved ARPES. More>
19-Year Old ALS Researcher Among Lab’s Youngest Scientists
Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
Polite Stewart graduated from high school at the ripe old age of 14, graduated from college with a physics degree at 18, and at 19, has taken a yearlong fellowship at the Advanced Light Source, gathering synchrotron x-ray data from Beamline 7.3.3. His dream is to go to graduate school in Japan to study physics in a different language. Go here to learn more about this gifted and ambitious employee.
Second ALS Beamline Hits the 1,000 Mark
Monday, June 10th, 2013
At the Advanced Light Source (ALS), Beamline 5.0.2, a protein crystallography beamline that is part of the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB), became the second ALS beamline to reach the 1,000 published structures mark. Proteins are the workhorses of biology, responsible for much of the architecture and chemistry of living cells. Knowing the crystal structure of a protein is the key to determining its function. The 1,000th published protein structure at 5.0.2 was a thiourea-containing anti-cancer agent. Beamline 8.3.1 became the first ALS beamline to pass the 1,000 published structure milestone earlier this year.
ALS Helps Show Why Ancient Roman Concrete is Durable and Ecological
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
An international team led by Paulo Monteiro of the Advanced Light Source and UC Berkeley has analyzed samples of Roman concrete from harbor installations that have survived 2,000 years of chemical attack and wave action, “one of the most durable construction materials on the planet,” says UC Berkeley’s Marie Jackson, a leading member of the team. Says Monteiro, “It’s not that modern concrete isn’t good, but manufacturing Portland cement accounts for seven percent of the carbon dioxide that industry puts into the air.” The carbon footprint of Roman concrete, made from lime, volcanic ash, and seawater, is much smaller.
ALS Helps Lead the Way to Better Vaccines
Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
Diphtheria is a potentially lethal respiratory disease that is fairly well controlled by vaccines discovered early last century. These vaccines have been extremely effective; studies on one vaccine in particular, the nontoxic form of the diphtheria toxin (DT), have informed other vaccines. Recently, researchers solved several structures of a nontoxic DT using data obtained at ALS Beamline 5.0.3, resolving a long-standing scientific puzzle and leading the way to even better vaccines for a variety of bacterial diseases. More>
Photo of Advanced Light Source Featured on Colbert Report
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
On a recent episode of the popular Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert starts the program by saying: “The day I long warned you about has finally arrived…not the one where my death ray is completed.” Then up pops a doctored photo showing the interior of Advanced Light Source along with a lab-coated Colbert and his “death ray” machine. He adds that his machine won’t be ready for another six months…but we have been warned!! Liz Moxon of the ALS guesses the photo was taken around 2004. Click here to watch the program. The ALS photo shows up at around 1:30 on the video.
ALS Science Cafe on Wednesday, May 8
Monday, May 6th, 2013
The next ALS Science Café will be held at noon in Building 15-253 on Wednesday, May 8. Featured topics and speakers are “Flipping Out over Topological Insulators” by Chris Jozwiak, “Playing ‘Chase the Electron’ With Oxides from Chromium to Plutonium” by Stefan Minasian, “Imaging the Chemistry of (Microbial) Life” by Hoi-Ying Holman. ALS Director Roger Falcone will moderate. Light refreshments will be provided.
Clever Animation Shows Addition of ALS Beamlines Over Last 20 Years
Friday, April 26th, 2013Since it was first introduced, the Advanced Light Source beamline diagram has been informally known as “the beamclock.” A new video, produced as part of the ALS 20th anniversary, transforms the static image into a literal clock. It marks time, not by hours or minutes, but by the addition of beamlines to the facility from 1993 to 2013.
A New Path to High Efficiency for Solar Cells
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiency in polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells rests in the purity of the charge donor and acceptor domains. Now, researchers using the Advanced Light Source have demonstrated that impure domains, if made sufficiently small, can also lead to improved performance. More>
