The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

Haeffner, Sandy Appointed XSD Associate Division Directors

The goal of replenishing and strengthening the management team of the Argonne X-ray Science Division (XSD) in the Advanced Photon Source has been achieved with the appointment of Dean Haeffner as Associate Division Director for Beamline Development, and Alec Sandy as Associate Division Director for Beamline Technologies. Haeffner and Sandy join Stefan Vogt, the XSD Associate Division Director for Beamline Operations.

The XSD Director, Jonathan Lang, said, “These appointments broaden and refine our Division’s ability to continue providing support for the Advanced Photon Source user program while enhancing synergy with the all-important beamlines component of the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade [APS-U] Project.”

In his new role, Haeffner will take on responsibility for the beamline developments for the APS, and in particular, serve as the XSD interface to the APS-U Project.

For his part, Sandy will lead the X-ray Science and Technology Section within XSD, spanning beamline instrumentation engineering, nano-positioning instrumentation, x-ray optics, x-ray detectors, controls and data acquisition, scientific software engineering and data management, and computational x-ray science.

Dean Haeffner is a long-standing member of the APS. After earning a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, he joined the original APS Project as a post doc in 1990 and was promoted to staff scientist in 1992. He served as lead scientist during the commissioning of the first APS x-ray beamline. He led the APS High-Energy X-ray Program from its inception in 1992 until 2009, and was the group leader for the X-ray Physics Group of the APS (1999-2005) and sector coordinator for Sector 1 (1999-2009). During this period, the 1-ID beamline was the only beamline in the Western Hemisphere with energy tunability and high brilliance for photons in the 50-120-keV energy range. From 2009 until 2018, Haeffner was an Associate Project Manager for the APS-U Project in charge of experimental facilities.   

Alec Sandy also has deep roots at the APS. He earned his B.Sc. in Honors Physics from McGill University (Canada) and his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His career path carried him from a guest-scientist position at Risø National Laboratory (Denmark), back to MIT for whom he made his first stop at the APS as a research scientist, and then to Princeton Consultants, Inc., as a senior consultant. In 2003 he joined the APS full time as a physicist and then group leader with the XSD Time Resolved Research Group. He has led this group in research and development on the optimization of x-ray optics, high-frame-rate area detectors, and high-performance computing applied to high-fidelity time-resolved coherent x-ray measurements, and applying these tools to materials science problems.

The X-ray Science Division enables world-class research using x-rays by developing cutting edge x-ray instrumentation and techniques; pursues research in the physical, chemical, environmental, and materials sciences. To accomplish this mission it fully operates 39 beamlines and is a partner in the operation of 3 more beamlines at the APS. The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory.

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