Welcome to the new Users’ Executive Committee members for 2019! The ALS Users’ Executive Committee (UEC) is responsible for conveying the concerns and interests of users to ALS management. Each member serves on the UEC for three years, with the exception of the student member, who serves for two years.
Meet the newly elected representatives:
Emma Anquillare, Student Representative, Boston University and Berkeley Lab
I am an ALS Doctoral Fellow working with Dr. Jinghua Guo at Beamline 8. I love working at the ALS and hope to work at a national lab after obtaining my PhD. While I have led shifts and assisted others with many beamlines here at the ALS (4, 6, 8, and 10) the majority of my research is focused on using the unique liquid cell capabilities of Beamline 8 to study vanadium oxide nanoparticles and understand how nanoparticle size can be used to tune electromagnetic properties. This is particularly relevant to applications in smart materials and catalysis. As someone who has both earned beamtime with written proposals and who also will have experience assisting users as an end station group member, I am in a good position to understand the concerns of a variety of ALS users. As a friendly and outgoing person who prides herself on good communication skills, I am excited to act as the ALS UEC Graduate Student Representative and ensure that the voices of graduate students are heard by the committee.
Clemens Heske, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Ever since I spent two years at the ALS as a beamline scientist and post-doc (1996-1998; “my” beamline was simply called “Beamline 8” back then), I’ve been a user and great fan of the ALS and the scientific opportunities it presents. My research interests lie in the development and application of cutting-edge soft x-ray spectroscopies to applied materials and liquids/solutions, which we perform in an Approved Program at Beamlines 8.0.1 and 9.3.1. I look forward to supporting the ALS users and management in the early stages of the transition from ALS to ALS-plus-ALS-U, such that it can be conducted in a user-friendly, transparent, and also diverse fashion. My goal would be to help keep not only the facility, but also the user involvement and opportunities at the forefront of today’s most advanced synchrotron radiation sources.
Johanna Nelson Weker, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
I have been an ALS user since 2006, as a graduate student. Now as a staff scientist at SLAC I’m using the soft x-ray techniques available at ALS to complement the hard x-ray characterization I can do at SLAC’s SSRL. I wanted to join the UEC because I thought I had a balanced perspective both as an ALS user and as a synchrotron staff scientist. It’s also an exciting time at ALS with its planned upgrade.
Antoine Wojdyla, Advanced Light Source Upgrade
I wanted to join the ALS UEC because I am working on the upgrade of the ALS and wanted to be a point of contact for users interested in discussing the various aspects of the upgrade, especially on how coherence can empower them to do new science, but also alleviate any concerns they may have or voice them to the management so that we can find solutions. Besides, the ALS-U project is also a great occasion to work closely with other light sources around the country, and I want to bring this collaborative spirit to the user community.
Many thanks to the UEC members who are rotating off: Monika Blum, Robert Streubel, Andrew McElrone, and Michael Jacobs.