CLASSE NEWS | 29 Jan 2020
On Tuesday, the people of CLASSE celebrated. CHESS-U construction was completed approximately one year ago, and CESR was re-commissioned during the first half of 2019. It was a true team effort to ensure that CHESS-U finished on time, while other operations around the lab continued as planned.
But the end of CESR construction and commissioning marked just the beginning of a dizzying variety and volume of remaining work to resume state-of-the art User Operations at CHESS. The Oct-Dec 2019 run constitutes a breathtakingly successful culmination of this effort.
Many people of CLASSE made specific contributions to this achievement, as well as the everyday contributions to making CLASSE safe, enjoyable, and exceptionally productive.
Here is a very abridged list of milestones and accomplishments over the 2nd half of 2019, including Oct-Dec run:
A time to celebrate at CLASSE
Braving the weather for a group photo
Management, Organization & Operations:
- Successful launch of the partner-model for CHESS operations with NSF, AFRL, NIH and NYSTAR.
- Successful reorganization and re-launch of the CHESS User Office.
- Implemented procedures for measurements on export-controlled items in compliance with CU policies and federal regulations.
- Completed over 2400 purchases.
Technical Achievements:
- Achieved and maintained 50 mA in CESR in topoff mode and with corrections.
- Added six miles of network cable, deployed a completely new control system for CHESS, and added over 1 petabyte of storage for CHESS data.
- Built, installed and commissioned a custom, water-cooled diamond monochromator for the QM2/4B hutch.
- Deployed liquid N2 to 7B2 to permit high performance macromolecular crystallography.
- Conducted a critical assessment of radiation damage to one of the CHESS Compact Undulators, resulting in a positive prognosis for future operations.
In-hutch highlights:
- MB@1A3: Commissioned and carried out sophisticated, diffraction and mapping capabilities on a host of outside user projects, including measurements on an as-made jet-engine component.
- PIPOXS@2A: Obtained world-class emission spectroscopy data from dilute metalloenzymes in solution, as well as energy-dispersive spectroscopy, including high quality data on platinum compounds related to energy conversion.
- FAST@3A: Re-commissioning and Deployment for user operations of RAMS IV, which allows imaging and diffraction of samples under compressive and tensile loads.
- FMB@3B: Achieved one-touch monochromator selection, focused-beam small angle scattering-based mapping at the 5-micron scale, and in-situ SAXS/WAXS as well as absorption and phase-contrast imaging during 3D printing of industrially-relevant materials.
- QM2@4B: First successful resonant magnetic scattering experiments with the new diamond monochromator; new low-temperature record (5K) for diffuse scattering measurements using a CHESS-engineered rotary feedthrough for the cryogenic cooler.
- HP-BIO@7A1: Achieved general user operations of the only ambient and high pressure BioSAXS facility in the U.S., and a unique-in-the-world combination of HP BioSAXS with inline size-exclusion chromatographic separation of biomolecules.
- Protein Crystallography@7B2: Built a new endstation and achieved routine user operation starting in October, while advancing technologies for serial and high-pressure crystallography.