ALS-United is an opportunity to meet the people collaborating at the Advanced Light Source and the ALS Upgrade Project. Hear firsthand how team science enables the cutting-edge research of today and builds the facility of the future. This month, we spoke with Changchun Sun (Staff Scientist/Engineer) and Jonah Weber (Electronics Engineer).
Read the Q&A after the video.
What is your role with the ALS and the upgrade?
Weber: I’m the team lead for instrumentation at the ALS, as well as the technical lead for instrumentation for the ALS-U project. The instrumentation team is responsible for developing high-performance specialized electronics for supporting the accelerator. The way I think of it is, the electronics provide the connection from the actuators and sensors that control, monitor, and interact with the beam, back to the accelerator control system, and ultimately for operations.
Sun: I’m an accelerator physicist in the ALS accelerator physics group. I’m also the control account manager (CAM) for ALS-U beam diagnostics and instrumentation, as well as the technical lead for beam diagnostics. My research mainly focuses on beam dynamics and beam diagnostics study. I support both ALS and ALS-U for this study. As technical lead, I oversee beam diagnostics device design, development, fabrication, procurement, and integration testing. As control account manager, I bridge the gap between the project office and technical team. I plan and report the technical activity. And, I make sure this technical activity aligns with project needs and deliver beam diagnostic and instrumentation devices on time and within budget.
What brought you to ALS/ALS-U?
Weber: When I was in college, I got an internship in the ALS instrumentation group and served as an intern for two years. When I graduated, I was offered a position as an electronics engineer in the same group. So, I’ve been in this group ever since. As part of a larger reorganization within ALS electrical engineering last year, I took on the leadership roles that I currently hold.
Sun: My background is in accelerator physics. About 16 years ago, before I joined the lab, I studied at the Duke University free electron laser lab, where I did my PhD dissertation mainly focused on beam dynamics study, and beam diagnostics. After I graduated, I joined Berkeley Lab as a postdoc. At that time, I worked on development of optimization tools, such as multi-objective genetic algorithms to optimize the ALS lattice and also contribute to ALS diagnostic beamlines and upgrades. This naturally led to my involvement in ALS-U lattice design and optimization, and also diagnostic beamline development. Over the years, I’ve become technical lead for beam diagnostics and become control account manager for beam diagnostic instrumentation. So there’s a little bit of a shift, but overall my career is fairly consistent at the beginning, trying to study the beam behavior on paper, using diagnostic tools to measure the beam behavior. Now I lead the team to develop and design these tools, to understand and to study the beam behavior.
How do you work together?
Weber: For the ALS-U project, Changchun and I started working together about a year ago in the roles that we currently have. He handles the project management and interfacing to the project side, and I handle the technical side. We meet regularly to make sure that the technical activities are aligned with the project cost and schedule, and other constraints and expectations of the project.
Sun: After unification of beam diagnostic instrumentation last year, we’ve worked very closely with each other. Before that, beam diagnostics and instrumentation were independent groups. Even though our work depends on each other, we didn’t communicate and interact on a daily basis. So after this unification, we’ve worked together much closer than before. This is a big improvement and helps improve the work efficiency and also reduce misunderstanding. On the technical side, I’m not an electrical engineer, but I learn a lot from the instrumentation team led by Jonah. They help me understand how we develop the devices and build the devices we are using. I’m in a unique position to communicate with the instrumentation team about our beam diagnostics and beam physics specifications and requirements. So, this helps us to improve the device and also helps us to use the device much better than before.
What are some recent accomplishments you’re most proud of?
Weber: Leveraging an existing operational accelerator has many benefits for us as we work towards the ALS upgrade. It allows us to test our new systems on an operating machine, finding any issues and building confidence that these systems will work eventually in the ALS-U system. Some of the recent accomplishments that we’ve had are: last year, we commissioned part of the new ALS-U timing system hardware and software at ALS. That was very successful, and we’ve been running it at ALS for over a year now. More recently, we also installed the beam position monitor (BPM) electronics for ALS-U. This is a prototype, and we’ve done some beam measurements there to also build confidence that it will work for ALS-U.
Sun: The big accomplishment that we are proud of is that we successfully delivered all the accumulator ring (AR) beam diagnostic devices last year, within budget, on time. This is a big achievement. These devices include two feedback kickers, bunch current monitor, beam profile monitor, as well as a diagnostic beam line. All these devices have been installed in the accumulator ring inside the tunnel. We are ready to commission these devices. Delivering these devices on time and within budget involves a lot of coordination across design, fabrication, procurement, integration and testing, and it is definitely a team effort. I’m very proud that we achieved this milestone last year.
What is on the horizon for your team?
Weber: On the instrumentation side, we’re currently working on production builds for the beam position monitor electronics as well as some of the timing system hardware. Those will be used for ALS-U accumulator ring commissioning, which is happening next year. We also have prototyping activities for our fast forward feedback system, fast machine protection system, and high speed digitizer, which is a data acquisition system that we use for capturing waveforms of some of our diagnostic systems.
Sun: The next for us on the horizon, as Jonah mentioned, is the beam position monitor system. This is a very critical system and involves different groups to work on it. Jonah developed an electronic chassis that involved beam diagnostics delivering the cabling and also improved vacuum scope to deliver the beam. We plan to deliver this whole BPM system early next year and prepare for accumulator ring commissioning. This is going to be a big milestone for us. At that time, the team will come together to commission the BPM system, and together with AR commissioning, this is going to be an exciting product phase.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Weber: Outside of work, my main hobby is playing soccer. I play in an over-40 men’s league. We play every week. I also play pickup on evenings and weekends when I have time. My favorite activity, though, is watching my kids play. I have three kids. They all play competitive soccer. And so especially fall and spring, I spend a lot of time driving all over northern and central California to watch them play.
Sun: I used to play soccer and tennis, but I’m not active anymore after having two kids. The older one is in high school, the younger one in elementary school. Both of them are very active in sports. My older one plays volleyball in school and at the club. I spend a lot of time driving her to practice and tournaments. The younger one started playing soccer and baseball, and I also spend time driving him to practice and coaching him. In the winter time, we go up to Tahoe to ski. This is the time we all enjoy. This certainly keeps me busy, but I enjoy being around them and supporting them. It’s a great balance to my daily work.