Dear Thom,

I have been following your e-mail messages and the subsequent congratulatory messages all day on my Blackberry. I just now got to my computer and could see the pictures and charts. You and the SNS team deserve the heartiest congratulations. You must be ecstatic and deservedly so.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your energy, enthusiasm, and steadiness during the past few years. You have done a remarkable job bringing the SNS to the CD-4 goal. This is just a wonderful day for everyone in BES, at the SNS and ORNL, and in the entire neutron sciences community, which has been waiting for more than two decades for this facility to be realized.

I look forward to seeing you next week, when we will celebrate in person.

With very best regards,

Pat Dehmer, DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences

Thom, Pat:

Congrats. The SNS project is the first thing I worked on at OMB, so it is good to see the first phase of the facility's life coming to a close in such an auspicious fashion. Best of luck with the beginning of operations,

Mike Holland, Energy Subcommittee, Committee on Science, U.S. House of Representatives

The Tennessee Valley Corridor Salutes and Celebrates with the U.S. Department of Energy,
the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their many partners, the successful first operation of the
Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the nation's largest civilian science project. Built and operated in the heart of the Tennessee Valley's growing science and technology corridor, the $1.4 Billion Spallation Neutron Source, when combined with the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Oak
Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator Pulsed Neutron Source makes Oak Ridge the world's foremost center for Neutron Science with thousands of researchers and users now expected each year from universities, U.S. industry, and other laboratories to develop the materials of the future.

Find out more about the potential research and business opportunities related to the launch of the SNS by registering today for the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Technology Summit (http://www.tennvalleycorridor.org), May 31-June 1, 2006, Chattanooga Convention Center
Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Congratulations to the SNS staff and the DOE from TRTR!

Sean O'Kelly, The University of Texas at Austin

Tom,

Congratulations to SNS!

Clive Field , SLAC

Congratulations to all of you and your whole team!!!!!!!!!!

Bob Webber , FNAL

Tom,

Great and congratulations on commissioning the neutrons source facility at ORNL.  I have copied a couple of researchers in the lab for their awareness.  Gian manages our physics and material science team and Dilip manages our storage systems team.   I also look forward to talking with Steve.  Thanks for making this connection.  Continued success with the SNS.

Mark Dean, Almaden Research Center

Hi Tom,

And congratulations for the great success with SNS I watched the movie, very nice!

C heers,

Enrico Bravin , CERN

Thom and Ian:

Congratulations to the successful competion of the SNS construction project. You really did a heck of a job. It could not have been done without you two. We are truly thankful to you, and look forward to even more exciting days ahead.

Best,

Takeshi

Tom,

Congratulations to you and your SNS colleagues. I saw a bit of that first day's work while at the workshop at Fermilab. It feels good when years of hard work start to pay off.

Alan Fisher, SLAC

Dear Thom

A slightly belated but not the less heartily felt congratulations on first neutrons from SNS. I am full of the deepest admiration for the SNS team. Your efforts are a real inspiration. I wish you all continuing success with this amazing project and I hope that I get a chance to come to Oak Ridge and see the facility before too long.

Well done

Very best regards

Bob Cywinski, University of Leeds

Kathy,

Congratulations to Thom and the entire SNS staff for a job well done. The SNS is helping to make Oak Ridge a vibrant community again. I hear a lot of positive things about it at Rotary meetings.

Carolyn Krause, ORNL

Dear Tom,

Coming back from a number of business trips only, today I read your message that finally there has been an SNS beam on the target. I like to congratulate you for this extraordinary achievement to complete the project before the deadline.

I hope for a great future and for very exciting science at SNS.

With very best regards,

Dieter Richter, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Hi Kathy,

Jim Lawson sent me some of the photos that you recently distributed. It was great to see the anticipation and excitment on the faces of the gathered staff. The turn-on success is a tribute to all the hard work that the SNS people have devoted to the project. Thank you for sharing these photos with me. Congratulation and best wishes for the work ahead.

Jim Sanford, BNL

Lieber Norbert,

Most sincere congratulations to you and the entire team for having achieved first beam on target, ahead of time and on budget. I wish the SNS many more neutrons and a very exciting science to be done with them.

Best regards,
Albrecht Wagner, DESY

CONGRATULATIONS!!! This is absolutely sensational news!

Best regards, and here's hoping for a smooth path to full-power operation!

Jose Alonso, LBNL

Dear Thom,

Congratulations to you and everyone else at the SNS on producing your first neutrons. We will now start the lobbying to get someone to lay on direct flights from London to Knoxville!

All the best,
Des McMorrow, University College London

Al

Dear physics group,

Congratulations to all of you for the great accomplishment of completing the CD4 beam demonstration!   Your long hours in preparing for this moment, and long hours in the control room(s) during the previous 6 commissioning runs have paid off.  You should all feel very proud of this accomplishment and savor the moment.  Thanks for all your hard work!

Stuart Henderson, Accelerator Physics Group Leader , SNS

Norbert,

Congratulations on first beam! I bet you are all feeling fantastic.

Greg Bock, FNAL

Dear Norbert,

My warmest congratulations for your success! I'm sure you will lead your new project with the same skill, strength and above all the same good humor and 'mitgefuhl'.

Cheers,

Caterina Biscari, INFN

Norbert --

Congratulations! The SNS story is a bright spot for US science, in no small part because of you. What wonderful news!

Jon Bagger, The Johns Hopkins University

Norbert,

Congratulations on producing the first neutrons at SNS!!! I just read the announcement. This is a historic achievement, and I hope that you and your colleagues will celebrate the occasion accordingly. Thanks to your tours I know what a complex project the SNS is.

We will have a story on the SNS in Symmetry magazine in June or so, written by ORNL's Bill Cabage. Your timing is perfect!

Kurt Riesselmann, FNAL

Norbert,

Congratulations. You even made CNN!

Ned Sauthoff, DOE Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Hi Norbert,

I just looked at channel 4. The neutron source is born! Congratulations! Wir sehen uns dann mal in Suedfrankreich hoffe ich.

W.D. Klotz, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Thom and Carl,

I heard from Jim Decker yesterday that you put beam on target last week and met your CD4 milestone. This is fantastic! Congratulations to you and the entire SNS Team for a wonderful achievement.

Best wishes in the years ahead with the research on SNS.

Rich Hawryluk, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Congratulations,

It is so exciting to have this scientific endeavor here in East Tennessee and so remarkable to follow the progress.

Sincerely,

Austin Guynes, DOE

Congratulations!  This is wonderful news!

Best regards,

Chris Wiebe, Florida State University

Dear Thom, Norbert,

On behalf of INR, Moscow Directorate and Staff  let us congratulate You and everyone at SNS with such a remarkable event as commissioning of new Neutron Source - SNS. It's a great news for all scientific community around the world!

With best wishes,

Victor Matveev and Leonid Kravchuk, Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences

EXCELLENT.

C. Montgomery Burns, Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

Dear Thom,

Congratulations on getting a proton beam to the target. It is a very nice achievement!

Best, John Seeman, SLAC

Dear Thom and Norbert:

It is truly exciting to hear the news that you succeeded in delivering beams to the target at SNS. Congratulations to you all for this great achievement.

This news was circulated among Japan very quickly. Everyone felt that a new era is now open, with an additional feeling that Japan has to do it as quickly as possible to catch up the SNS.

In any case, I would like to congratulate both of you for this success. I know that it was not a simple matter. Your effort must be greatly appreciated by the entire community of the world sciences.

Again, congratulations to you and to all the staff members at SNS.

Best regards,

Shoji Nagamiya, KEK

Congratulation on such a successful production of the first neutron beams from SNS !

Yasuhiko Fujii, JAERI

Thom, Norbert, and the whole team,

Congratulations! Great work. Best wishes for the next steps.

Bob Jameson, RIKEN

Dear Thom,

Congratulations with the neutrons getting loose and ready.

Best regards

Per-Anker Lindgard, RISOE National Laboratory

Congratulations Tom!

Mario Ferianis, Elettra

Dear Tom,

This is a great ! I congratulate you and all your colleaugues for the hard and successful work so far and I wish you all the best in bringing the facility up to fully operational. Also on behalf of my colleaugues of the Accelerator Division.

Mario Serio, INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati

Tom

Congratulations!

Bob Hettel, SLAC

Hi Tom,

Congratulations! Very impressive indeed.
.
Cheers,

Fernando Sannibale, LB NL

Hello Tom,

Thom

Congratulations on the beam on target!

Paul Lisowski, LANL

Congratulations and my thanks to all of you and your teams in your construction and project support roles for successfully helping to pull off one of the most challenging technical and management projects in my memory (and I've got a long one.) There have been a large number of useful lessons that we have collectively learned over the past 7-10 years, but the universal law of "it takes good people, the rest is detail" remains the case. I have a lot of years working in and leading large technical institutions doing complex work, but I have never seen such a high degree of talent and willingness to apply it to the larger goal as was the case on SNS. It is lagniappe (ask Wilfert) that successfully hitting the target here has a much more benign and useful outcome-science-- than in my prior life.

I missed the champagne, but I missed more the opportunity to share in this celebration with the people who really made it happen (meaning all those who worked for us, despite our sometimes feeble efforts at direction!)

See you next week.

Carl Strawbridge, SNS Deputy Project Director

Thom, Norbert,

I'd say that the effort on the part of the SNS team was quite impressive. It's no easy task to achieve success as quickly as you did. I'm sure all will sleep better having demonstrated the proof that all the bits and pieces can work in reality, not just on paper.

Bob Kustom, ANL/APS

Dear Thom,

Congratulations with the neutrons getting loose and ready.

Best regards,

Per-Anker, Riseo National Laboratory

Dear Thom and Norbert,

Congratulations to you and your team for delivering beam to the target. The SNS is born and soon it will grow to adulthood and make a immense impact on science. 

Best regards,

John Peoples, FNAL

Dear Hal, Frank, Georg and Ian,

Congratulations for these very first and very punctual neutrons!
These are great news for the SNS and for neutron scattering !!
I was at the ILL Millenium Workshop last week, where the SNS was all present and the news provoked huge excitement.

Hope to see you at the PNCMI in Berlin.

Regards,

Katia Pappas, HMI

Hello Thom Mason,

Well! You've come a long way from Mac. I am pleased for your successes and I am proud that I have been a part (however small) of getting you to where you are.

Sincerely,

Jim Garrett, McMaster University

Congratulations Thom, to you and your staff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rosa Murr, ORNL

Please add me to the list.

Congratulations on doing this with lots of FLAIR!!!

Brian@Chotchkie's

Thom,

I just got back in the county from a months vacation in the southern hemisphere and got the good news about the beam. Terrific and congratulations. This has been a super project under you and your team and all are to be congratulated. Nice job - on time and within budget. We from Bechtel would be proud of your accomplishments as a project manager.
Thanks for allowing me to participate and best wishes for the future.

Harld Forsen

Dear Thom and Ian

Thom,

Congratulations to you and the entire SNS team.

Bill Barletta, LBNL

On behalf of ILL directors and ILL staff, congratulations to you and all the team!
A big day for neutron scattering community worl-wide

Cheers

Christian Vettier, ILL

My mouth is watering at seeing that raw red intensity.

Many congrats, old bean!

Have a few beers on me.

Jeremy Smith, IWR

Hello Ian:

Congratulations on this milestone!! This is great news, this must be very rewarding to the many people, like yourself, that have put so much efforts in this project. I passed this along the CNS staff (Steve is at a seminar as we speak). Take care Ian; we have to celebrate this sometime soon.

Jaime Fernandez-Baca, ORNL

Ian:

Please pass on my personal congratulations to the SNS Target Systems Team for a "job well done"... That was quite-a-ride for everyone involved.

Gary Russell, LANL

Ian,

Congratulations! I'm really pleased you made it by your early target date - a tremendous achievement.

Robert McGreevy, RAL

Congrats. Read about it in Wash Post.

Jack Bagley, UT Battelle

I'm very proud to have been a part of the SNS Project. Even though I now work at CNMS, SNS is still part of my work “home”. 

Congratulations on reaching this milestone.

Patricia Miller, ORNL

Dear Thom

congratulations with this milestone!

Fokko Mulder, Faculty of Applied Sciences

Dear Thom,

Congratulations for SNS Beam on Target!

H ave a nice day!

Dongfeng Chen, China Institute of Atomic Energy

Dear Thom, Ian and the whole SNS team,

We at ILL congratulate you wholeheartedly on your achievement, and we welcome you warmly to the neutron club.

Well done!
Colin Carlile, On behalf of all ILL staff

Dear Thom,

Congratulation!!

This is really a great step for the world-wide pulsed spallation neutron community.

With best regards,
Yoshi Yamazaki, J-PARC

Dear Thom,

Congratulations to the entire SNS team for this marvellous achievement!

Best wishes,

Frank Zimmerman, CERN

Dear Thom

Please add my name to your list of congratulations. In fact I gave you my congratulations before you got neutrons.

Herb Mook, ORNL

Thom,

 A half-dozen plus years ago (before either you or Norbert were involved in the project) I'm sure I wasn't alone in wondering if SNS would ever produce a neutron.  The way things have gone during design, construction and commissioning has made me a believer, to the extent that your e-mail was expected, even though it announces a remarkable achievement.  My congratulations to you, your team at ORNL, and the partner labs (who came through despite the politics and other issues) -- you all made it look easy.

Gerald McMichael, ANL

Congratulations, I wish you all a long and productive study using neutrons.

Walter Sommer

GREAT.

Bill Lumbergh, CEO, Initech

Congratulations!! I look forward to the next step.

Takeshi

Egami, University of Tennessee

Congrats.

Todd Brannigan
Physical Electronics, Research Division, SLAC

Congratulations!

Suresh Babu, EWI

Thom,

Fantastic achievement!
Three cheers from the VISION team!

John Larese, University of Tennessee

Thanks, Thom, for sending news of a great moment.
I've already told one bright post-doc of the opportunities likely to emerge at SNS.
best...

Adrian Wiestner, NIH

Dear Thom,

Congratulations! We've all been waiting for this exciting news. Best wishes for the rest of the project. With kind regards...

Ersan Ustundag, Iowa State University

Hi Thom and Ian;

Wonderful news! Congratulations to all!

best wishes, Bruce

Gaulin, McMaster University

Dear Thom, Kathy and SNS team

This is wonderful news - congratulation!

Kurt Clausen, PSI

Thom and Ian ++++++++

as expected!

Congratulations, the timing was excellent!

Guenter Bauer

Dear Thom, dear Ian,

Congratulations to all of you for this outstanding achievement.

On behalf of the LNS and Neutron News teams,

Joel Mesot, PSI

Great accomplishment! Congratulations and good luck for the future operation of the facility.

Hans Ott, ETH-Hönggerberg

Congratulations!

Peter Tindemans, INLV

Thom,

Fantastic news indeed! Congratulations!

Thomas Zacharia, ORNL

Very many congratulations. I look forward to hearing of all the progress at ASAC in June.

Grahame Rees, RAL

Congratulations and well done!

Lynann Clapham, Queen's University

Thanks Thom for the email and congraturations to the SNS Team.

Best Regards

Carla Andreani, INFN

Dear Thom and Ian and everbody at SNS,

Best congratulations to this most deserved victory!

Kind regards

Feri Mezei, LANL

Congratulations on your great news today, best wishes to all friends at SNS.

Harry Jones, TS-2 Project Manager, ISIS

CONGRATS!!

John Neneth, ORAU

Dear Thom: 

Congratulations! 

Charlie Liotta, Georgia Institute of Technology

Congratulations Thom!

David Vaknin, Ames Lab

Thom,

Congratulations on the initial operation of the SNS.  People have been calling me out here in Colorado to announce the good news.  It's an accomplishment for all members of the project and especially for the management team.  Think of it, you will go down in history as the man who directed the SNS facility from design into actual operation.  You should be very proud.

I have contacted the SNS QA staff and passed on my congratulations as well.  Seems we (QA) also hit our mark with the balanced approach to quality.  I am very happy about the whole darn situation!

Continued luck,

Mike Skonicki

Dear Tom and Ian,

Congratulations !

It is really  great.

Masa Arai, J-Parc

Hi Thom,

Glad to hear the news. Thanks for keeping me informed. All best wishes to your team.

Alan Schries

Congratulations to you on generating neutrons last Friday! (I hope there will be champagne at the Lehman review next week, if there is any left in Oak Ridge after today.)

John Tranquada, BNL

Thom:

Wonderful!!!

Tom Russell, University of Massachusetts

Thom,

Brilliant enjoy the moment. An outstanding team effort, many congratulations to all!

Tim Broome, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

FANTASTIC!

Ann Jordan, ORNL

Congratulations!

J. Michael Rowe, NIST

Congratulations!

Jim Roberto, ORNL

Congratulations, Thom.

This is a terrific achievement.

Bill Buyers, National Research Council Canada

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Best regards,

Ana Claver, Forschungszentrum Juelich

Fantastic! Congratulations to you all on a superb job.

Chuck Majkrzak, NIST

Congratulations, Thom, to you and the entire team for a splendid achievement. The entire world neutron community is in your debt, and I look forward to the first experimental results (in Physical Review Letters, of course). Certainly much needs to be done before that happens, but you give us confidence that we will get there sooner rather than later!

Best wishes,

Martin Blume, American Physical Society

Thom – congratulations to you and everyone else at SNS!!  Great news!!

Steve Nagler, ORNL

Thom and Ian,

Congratulations from all of us at the Lujan Center on achieving first beam on target at SNS.  Also for completing this major milestone ahead of schedule!!!

Jim Rhyne, LANL

Thom

Heartiest congratulations on a fantastic achievement !

Andrew Taylor, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Congratulations on today's monumental success!

Ron Townsend, ORAU

Congratulations!!

Roger Pynn, University of California, Santa Barbara

Fantastic!  Congratulations to everyone at SNS, from all of us at LANSCE!

Al Hurd, LANL

Dear Thom and Bob,

Thanks for passing along this good news.

Thom, may I join Bob in offering my hearty congratulations to the entire SNS team!

Sincerely,
Tom Koetzle, ANL

WAY TO GO SNS!

Bill Madia, UT Battelle

Jeff and Bill: Mason says we have neutrons.

Congratulations.

Billy Stair, ORNL

Thom--EXCELLENT! 

Kent Blasie, University of Pennsylvania

Hi, Thom:

WooHoo!  Congratulations.  And I'll pass the word. 

Cheers. 
Dave Finley, FNAL

Super!!!!

Michelle Buchanan, ORNL

Ian and Thom,

Congratulations! 

Greg Smith, ORNL

Congratulations Thom!

Great reason for you to celebrate.

Sincerely,
John Ditusa, Louisiana State University

Thom,

Congratulations!

Bob Bau, University of Southern California
(on behalf of the "Topaz" team)

congratulations!

Gabriel Aeppli, University College London

Congratulations-please let everyone know we are proud of the accomplishment

Gerald Boyd, DOE ORO

Dear Thom,

Thank you for sharing this wonderful news! Los Alamos

sends our most heartfelt congratulations to the entire SNS team for achieving this major milestone. It is the culmination of many years of technical excellence, perseverance, and cooperation.

All the best!

Don Rej, LANL

Dear Thom, congratulation with this amazing achievement. I am glued to Channel 4.

Best Wishes

Congratulations Ian. What an achievement! We are very excited as I am sure you all are too.

Collin Broholm, The Johns Hopkins University

Thom: Congratulations

David Moncton, MIT

Hi Thom, Frank and Everyone:

Congratulations!!!  Beam on target is a terrific achievement. 

Regards.

Ed Lessard, BNL

Thom,

My heartiest congratulations. It has been a long haul. Now the real fun begins. Get the science out.

Derek Lowenstein, BNL

Thom,

GREAT NEWS!  Congratulations.

Bob Siemann, SLAC