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Accelerate UX Workshop Brings Global Expertise Together at the ALS

Staff from eleven different accelerator lab facilities gathered at the ALS to improve the user experience for operators, researchers, engineers, and more. Workshop participants learned from experts in the UX field and even took part in a hackathon that paired beamline scientists with interface developers. Read more »

2026 Winter Shutdown Recap

The 2026 winter shutdown started on January 2, and the ALS returned to user operations on Tuesday, February 3. It was the shortest shutdown the ALS has had since 2018; as a result, the current user run will be the longest one since 2018. One big accomplishment of the recent shutdown was the installation of the “golden bellows” connecting the accumulator ring vacuum with the rest of the ALS vacuum system. Read more »

Berkeley Lab Hosts Agentic AI for User Facilities Workshop

Berkeley Lab hosted a workshop on Agentic AI for User Facilities with about 100 registered participants from user facilities across the US national lab complex and European light sources. The two main goals of the workshop were to identify cross-facility patterns, gaps, and design principles for agentic AI at DOE user facilities, and ground agentic AI in domain realities and identify domain-specific constraints, opportunities, and readiness. Read more »

200 Scouts Visit the ALS

Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division hosted another Nuclear Science Day for Scouts. The day’s activities included ALS tours for the scouts. This year a record number of about 200 scouts attended. Read more »

Mirrored Momentum: ALS Hosts SSRL Staff

Three months after the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) hosted Advanced Light Source (ALS) staff to grow longstanding partnerships and build new connections, the two facilities swapped host and visitor roles. Not wanting to lose the momentum from the first trip, event organizers Dula Parkinson and Uta Ruett filled the ALS visit program with further discussion on a series of shared interests, ranging from research areas to innovative instrumentation. Read more »

MOFs in the Light: ALS User Omar Yaghi Receives 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Omar Yaghi, Susumu Kitagawa, and Richard Robson for the development of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). At many different ALS beamlines, Yaghi used a broad range of techniques to characterize MOFs in formats such as small crystals, thin films, and powders, leading to applications in water harvesting, carbon dioxide conversion, and more. Read more »

2025 Summer Shutdown Recap

The ALS returned to user operation in October after a lengthy shutdown. During the shutdown, a major milestone for ALS-U was accomplished: The mechanical installations of the accumulator ring and the booster-to-accumulator-ring transfer line were completed. Read more »

Beam Across the Bay: ALS Visits SSRL

It is rare to find synchrotron light sources around the world, much less two within 50 miles of each other. Capitalizing on their proximity, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource hosted the Advanced Light Source for a day of introductions and reconnections, all in the name of science. Read more »

Highlights from the 2025 ALS User Meeting

This year’s ALS User Meeting brought a new energy of inspiration and envisioning of a future to come, with old traditions as well as new insights into using machine learning in experimentation. Read more »