A TALE OF TWO REVIEWS
It’s been a remarkably busy month here at the APS. September was bookended by two important U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reviews that, in essence, will put a bow on the last few transformative years and set us up for the future.
In the first week of the month, the DOE convened a panel of experts from academia, industry and national laboratories for a quadrennial operations review of the APS. This was an opportunity for DOE to assess progress over the review period and interact directly with our staff and stakeholders. During three full days of presentations, questions and breakout sessions, we had the opportunity to present our achievements over the last four years, and plans for the upcoming period.
Without any doubt, this review was very special as we operated two completely different electron storage rings within those years, and in between we shut down for a year to reinvent the facility via the APS Upgrade. We are grateful for the opportunity to engage and look forward to hearing the feedback from the reviewers.
Then just last week, we participated in the close-out or Critical Decision 4 (CD-4) DOE review for the APS Upgrade project. Held virtually, this review aimed to verify that the project has delivered its scope and Key Performance Parameters and is ready to move to the close-out phase. The unanimous recommendation to proceed to project close-out was immensely satisfying. After delivery of a few punch-list items and closing all procurements in the next few weeks, we will be in a position to formally request close-out, within schedule and budget. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in planning, delivering and supporting this project.
In the meantime, another milestone this month has been the start of the third user run of 2025. We now have 49 beamlines accepting users for early experiments, with 32 of those in the general user program, and we’re seeing hundreds of you returning to the beamlines to exploit their new capabilities.
It’s tempting to look at a month like this one, with its twin reviews summarizing years of work, as the end of a chapter. But seeing all of the great work our users are doing and knowing that it’s just the tip of the iceberg, it’s clear that we’re actually at the beginning of the book. The story of what you all do with the scientific capabilities of the upgraded APS has just started, and we’re all excited to help write it.
As always, stay tuned to the APS website for all the latest information. While you’re there, check out this story about how the APS and the Aurora supercomputer are revolutionizing battery research, and read the latest People of the APS profile piece on User Proposal Systems Administrator Jacki Flood.
Until next time,
Jonathan Lang
Interim Deputy Associate Laboratory Director
for Science and Technology
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