Minutes of SHUG Executive Committee Meeting of October 1, 2003
The Executive Committee convened by conference call at 1:00 PM EDT on
February 7, 2003. 10 of the 11 members were present. The members in
attendance were:
Paul Butler
Zema Chowdhuri
Takeshi Egami (Chair)
Christina Hoffmann
Joanna Krueger
Scott Misture
Nancy Ross
John Tranquada
David Vaknin
Angus Wilkinson
This being the
first meeting of the committee with the newly elected members, the meeting
began with each member introducing themselves to the group. Following
this, the business of selecting a Vice-chair (and chair elect) and Secretary
was addressed. Takeshi pointed out that according to the bylaws, the
vice chair should be elected from the new members and that no ORNL employee
is eligible to be either chair or vice-chair. Thus, excepting the postdoc
member, only Nancy Ross, Joanna Krueger, and Paul Sokol are eligible.
Furthermore, Takeshi noted that he will be leaving the university of
Pennsylvania for a joint appointment at UT and ORNL in the summer, so
that the vice-chair will be taking over in mid-year and serve one and
a half years as chair making this a particularly important choice. Takeshi
suggested that the three eligible candidates all be nominated and that
election be via email to Paul Butler. There being no objection, Takeshi
next suggested that Paul Butler be nominated to continue as Secretary
and asked for any other nominations. There being none, Paul Butler was
appointed Secretary for 2003.
Takeshi then indicated
that he had invited Jim Roberto to address the committee at the next
meeting. In the meantime Takeshi briefed the group on the state of HFIR,
noting the progress on the various instrument fronts (one fully operational
triple axis and two others getting close). The reactor however did not
come up as scheduled for the latest cycle, which was to have been the
first cycle with user proposal beam time allocations (the start of the
user program). He indicated that no technical problems exist at this
time, but that HFIR is undergoing DOE review and awaiting signature
for restart. If all goes well, the reactor could be back up in a few
weeks though at this point that is not guaranteed.
SNS is progressing
well also, though a problem at Los Alamos with work on the Linac caused
a several month delay. The problem is fixed, but it now appears that
the early finish of late 2005 that had been hoped for will no longer
be possible. SNS will come online in early 2006 as originally scheduled.
The construction is on the order of 70% complete with the foundation
and concrete framework for several floors of the CLO (central lab and
office building) already up.
The CNMS (center
for nanophase material science) building is believed to be on hold pending
a final budget for FY- 2003.
Next Takeshi informed
the group that Jim Roberto would like SHUG to sample the community’s
view on the success of the initial user program. Obviously this would
not be until sometime mid year. However, Takeshi suggested this might
ideally be something for the HFIR special committee which so far has
never been activated. The bylaws requiring the two special committees
of HFIR and SNS anyway, Takshi asked Paul Butler for the names of the
members on each sub committee from last year. These are:
for SNS
Robert McQueeney, Chair (no longer member)
Meigan Aronson (no longer member)
Paul Butler
Takeshi Egami
Scott Misture
John Tranquada
David Vaknin
Angus Wilkonson
for HFIR
Costas Stassis, chair (no longer member)
David Belanger (no longer member)
Paul Butler
Takeshi Egami
Andrei Zheludev (no longer member)
the new members
were asked to think about which committee they might serve on, and in
particular, consider serving on the HFIR committee as it is particularly
lacking members (and may have the first task to deal with). No new members
for the SNS committee immediately came forth. For the HFIR committee
David Vaknin, Joanna Krueger, and Nancy Ross agreed to join and David
was elected chair. The remaining new members will choose at a later
date. The selection of the new chair of the SNS committee is likewise
postponed.
Last year saw much
discussion of “fast access” with two different varieties
being identified. The “hot topic” version is already addressed
in the SNS white paper. Angus Wilkinson had accepted at the last meeting
of last year to prepare a proposal for using the powder machine at HFIR
as a test of the “short duration” experiment model. Takeshi
asked Angus to brief us on his progress. Angus indicated he had contacted
Bryan Chakoumakos, the powder diffractometer instrument scientist, had
received good positive feedback, and was in the process of writing something
up.
A brief discussion
of how to increase the user base occurred next. The question of how
to bring new practitioners into the community was raised. It was noted
that workshops and “schools” (such as the JINS workshops
in Oak Ridge or the summer schools sponsored by the various neutron
sources) are very useful in this regard. It was agreed that we should
remain on the lookout for opportunities in this area.
Takeshi indicated
that while most of our work would be done via conference calling and
emails, we were planning one face to face meeting in Oak Ridge. A discussion
about appropriate times ensued with a clear interest in making it after
the end of semester (late may early June). A question arose about other
meetings taking place in Knoxville with which such a visit could be
combined, but the NICEST workshop is too soon (March 12) and the next
one appears to be in the fall. A suggestion was made to get together
then, but it was agreed that sooner would be best. It was decided that
people would check their schedules and come back later to choose a time
in the end of May early June time frame.
There being no
further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:45PM EDT
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Butler
SHUG Secretary
Note 1: Angus distributed
a copy of the writeup for a proposed “short duration” fast
access to the group via email after the meeting.
Note 2: In subsequent
balloting, Joanna Krueger was elected vice chair.
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