Berkeley Lab Responds to Birgeneau Report
October 17, 1997
By Ron Kolb, rrkolb@lbl.gov
The "Birgeneau Report," a Department of Energy-commissioned study of four DOE
light sources headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Science Dean
Robert Birgeneau, urged the continued operation of all four facilities.
However, it placed the ALS fourth in funding priority and cited it for
shortcomings in its science programs, user relations and institutional
support.
"I consider the ALS the top priority activity at this laboratory," Berkeley Lab
Director Charles Shank told about 150 attendees of the annual ALS users'
meeting on Monday. "I place solutions to these challenges at the top of my
responsibility list. My number one goal is to create the most effective program
we can. I'm convinced that together we can."
Shank said he is initiating a review of all ALS science "from top to bottom,"
with the intent of developing a roadmap for dealing with the issues defined in
the Birgeneau report. This "focus path," as he called it, will make the case
for the ALS as an international leader by "taking the technological excellence
and matching it with scientific excellence."
Pat Dehmer, DOE's associate director of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences
(BES), affirmed that the ALS "should be the premier soft x-ray EUV (extreme
ultraviolet) facility in the country. I am absolutely committed to making it
world-class. We're in this together. Let's reflect over the next couple of
weeks how to get where we want to be."
What triggered their reaction was the Report to the Basic Energy Sciences
Advisory Committee (BESAC), presented on Oct. 8-9 at a meeting in Washington,
D.C. The Synchrotron Radiation Light Source Working Group, convened by Office
of Energy Research Director Martha Krebs, had spent a year reviewing the
performance of hard x-ray facilities at Brookhaven, Argonne and Stanford and
the soft x-ray light source here. Its charge was to reassess the need for such
programs in an era of tighter budgets and to make appropriate budget
recommendations.
The good news in the report was the panel's unflinching support for light
sources: "The Committee concludes unanimously that shutdown of any one of the
four DOE/BES synchrotron light sources over the next decade would do
significant harm to the nation's science research programs and would weaken our
international competitive position in this field," Birgeneau stated as his
"most important" recommendation.
The sobering news for Berkeley was the mixed review the ALS received--praised
for its technical performance and its aggressive and innovative industrial
research programs, but questioned for what the report called "underdeveloped"
science programs, user discontent, and levels of support from Lab management
and the university.
"It is clear that science was the most important driver," Dehmer said, "and the
case wasn't as compelling here as it was at other sources."
In reiterating the ALS priority here, Shank pointed out that while the ALS has
represented 10 percent of the overall Lab budget, it has also received 19
percent of Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) grants, 25
percent of University of California Directed Research and Development (UCDRD)
grants, and 25 percent of General Plant Projects (GPP) for ALS-related
property--the most discretionary funding of any activity at Berkeley Lab.
"I'm concerned that the committee didn't have that information," he said.
The Birgeneau report recommended that the ALS receive funding for fiscal year
1998 as requested by the DOE--$35 million. However, it listed as higher
priorities the funding of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab (SSRL), the
National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven, and Argonne's Advanced
Photon Source (APS). The report also suggested $3 million to study a
fourth-generation light source, $11 million in beamline enhancements at the APS
and NSLS, and $27 million in facility upgrades at the NSLS and SSRL--all ahead
of the ALS in priority. Its overall budget recommendation of $188.5 million is
11 percent more than the DOE's requested budget for the four light sources.
Dehmer described these suggestions as a "road map" for the long term rather
than a directive for the next fiscal year, and emphasized the need for
flexibility during budget negotiations for FY98.
ALS Program Director Brian Kincaid reminded the group that the facility has
made significant strides in just two years of full-time beam delivery. And he
pledged, "We will work arm-in-arm with the user groups to find out the issues
and deal with them."
Responding to a federal advisory committee report which analyzed
synchrotron radiation facilities such as the Advanced Light Source, scientists
and managers at Berkeley Lab pledged this week to recommit themselves to making
the ALS the premier facility of its kind in the world.
