The General Sciences Proposal Study Panel (PSP) oversees the evaluation of General User (GU) and Approved Program (AP) proposals for the general sciences, meeting twice yearly. Beginning October 1, 2018, Sarah Tolbert will serve as chair, taking over from longtime chair Peter Johnson.
Johnson, a senior physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, chaired the PSP for 12 years, overseeing the review of about 7,000 GU proposals and leading the formulation of PSP advice on over 100 AP proposals seeking to form strong partnerships with the ALS. More recently, he motivated and oversaw an analysis of the productivity of the AP program.
Tolbert, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, leads a group focused on nanostructured composite materials and has served on the PSP since 2017. She’s used the ALS for her research for more than a decade, and her group currently conducts experiments at Beamline 12.2.2. As PSP chair, she will also serve ex officio on the ALS Scientific Advisory Committee.
The General Sciences PSP membership as of October 1 will be:
- Liney Árnadóttir, Oregon State University
- Kristen Buchanan, Colorado State University
- Carol Hirschmugl, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- R. Joseph Kline, National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Jessica McChesney, Argonne National Laboratory
- Apurva Mehta, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Alexander Moewes, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
- Mark Rivers, University of Chicago
- Oleg Shpyrko, University of California, San Diego
- Craig Taatjes, Sandia National Laboratory
- Yayoi Takamura, University of California, Davis
- Sarah Tolbert (chair), University of California, Los Angeles
- Brandy Toner, University of Minnesota
- Tony van Buuren, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Structural Biology proposals will continue to be evaluated by the Structural Biology PSP. Current membership of all ALS advisory panels is listed here.