COVID-19: Message to HFIR/SNS User Community
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, our two immediate priorities are to keep people safe and to support research that can help fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Neutron scattering has an important role to play in that fight by providing information that is difficult or impossible to obtain using other experimental techniques, and that could lead to the development of new diagnostics or therapeutics.
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) plans to bring the US Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences (BES) neutron user facilities, SNS and HFIR, back online in April for research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research will be performed as either in-house or remote access experiments carried out onsite by ORNL staff.
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Although the SNS and HFIR will begin neutron production, the General User Program (GUP) has been suspended for the time being, in order to minimize the density of people on site at ORNL and to maximize social distancing. I understand that this will impact your research, but at the moment we believe it is the GUP will start again.
In addition to research related to COVID-19, we continue to make progress with other important activities that can be accomplished safely. For example, we are continuing with cost estimate and conceptual design activities for a second guide hall at HFIR, the Second Target Station (STS) project at SNS, construction of VENUS - a new SNS imaging beamline, and the SNS Proton Power Upgrade (PPU) project. We also continue to make progress in testing new software for small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) data reduction and look forward to describing its features to the research community through a webinar once testing and acceptance is complete.
As the situation continues to be re-evaluated, we will inform you of any decision to change our operating status and of progress with our other important activities. I understand that this is a time of great uncertainty and hardship for many of you. Please stay safe, and let us know if you have any needs that we can help with.
Paul Langan
Associate Laboratory Director
Neutron Sciences Directorate
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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Call For Rapid Access Proposals for COVID-19 Research Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR)
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With the continuing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the DOE BES neutron sources will provide remote rapid access to support research into the COVID-19 virus and the search for effective diagnostics and therapies. Beamlines that will be made available at SNS and HFIR at ORNL , include neutron macromolecular crystallography, small angle scattering, reflectometry, spectroscopy, and imaging beamlines.
SNS and HFIR beamlines are supported by staff with expertise in neutron structural biology, biophysics, chemistry, and nanoscale materials science and engineering and could be used to help to develop physical, chemical and environmental controls to virus transmission, infection and replication, and guide in the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics of disease.
Researchers who would like to use these resources should submit a short rapid access proposal, outlining experiment aims and scope. A facility scientist will contact you regarding your proposal within 2 days. Scientific and technical questions should be sent to Dean Myles. ORNL is currently restricting site access. These Rapid Access proposals will be performed as remote access experiments with limited internal staff.
Researchers’ home institution will be expected to execute a User Agreement with ORNL. If someone from your institution has previously performed user research at ORNL, such an agreement is likely to already be in place. For information on User Agreements and administrative questions, contact neutronusers@ornl.gov.
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General User Proposal 2020-B Call: User Award Letters Delayed
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Award letters for the General User Proposal Call 2020-B will be delayed until a date is set for resuming the GUP.
The GUP is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We anticipate that some of the previously approved Proposal Call 2020-A proposals will need to be carried over to run in the Proposal Call 2020-B cycle, and this will impact how many days we can award to the proposals submitted for Call 2020-B. We will send a separate email communication to all proposal submitters reiterating this information.
Proposal Call 2020-B closed on February 26, 2020. We received 696 proposals with a total of 750 instrument requests - 491 for SNS instruments and 259 for HFIR instruments. The Science Review Committee met remotely on April 2 to recommend the final proposal rankings for each instrument.
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Experimental data is only a click away
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During this time of social distancing, remember that your experimental data is always close at hand. If you are having difficulties accessing your prior measurements or with analysis of results, the SNS and HFIR instrument scientists remain available to assist you.
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22nd National School on Neutron and X-Ray Scattering
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Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are converting the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering (NX School) scheduled for June 13-27, 2020, to a virtual format scheduled for June 15-26. Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are adapting the program to make sure it continues to be an engaging and high-quality educational experience. Students who applied for the school will be permitted to attend the virtual school, and already have been contacted. No new applications are being accepted.
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Staff Updates at SNS and HFIR
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We are pleased to announce that John Katsaras, Neutron Scattering Scientist, has moved from the Large Scale Structures Group to the Sample Environment Group. John is now working with beamline staff at HFIR and SNS to develop, build, and deploy new sample environment capabilities for soft matter-related science. He will collaborate with user groups and help them integrate their equipment on beamlines at HFIR and SNS for experiments. John will also become the new chair for the Soft Matter Sample Environment Steering Committee.
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Our Sample Environment Group is pleased to welcome Dante Quirinale to the High Temperature team. Dante will be working with users and staff on cryo-furnaces, high-temperature furnaces, and levitators. He will be developing new capabilities and techniques while pursuing a personal research program. Dante has extensive experience with electrostatic and aerodynamic levitators in scattering environments, high-vacuum and high-voltage systems, and high-temperature measurements, with emphasis on contactless instrumentation for determining thermophysical and electrical properties.
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Send us your publications!
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Your publications help us show our scientific productivity and the value of experiments completed using the SNS and HFIR instruments. Please send us any of your publications resulting from your work at SNS or HFIR. You can see if we already have your paper on our publication lists website.
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Submitting your publication is now as simple as entering the DOI. We also want to hear from you, if you have a recently completed dissertation that benefited from time at our facilities.
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The ORNL Neutron Sciences User Program began using ORCiD as a persistent identifier in October 2015. Obtaining an ORCiD is free and provides your name with a unique identifier.
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You can easily add your ORCiD when registering at the ORNL Guest Portal, where users register to submit a proposal for beam time or request facility access when coming on site. If you haven’t yet added your ORCiD, please update your user profile in the ORNL Guest Portal.
Having user ORCiDs enables the User Program to develop a database of users and their unique identifiers, with the ability to push beam time award notices to a user’s ORCiD profile.
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