Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposed MaRIE facility is slated to introduce the world’s highest energy hard x-ray free electron laser (XFEL).
Roadmap for November 2015 (PDF)
X-Ray Powder Diffraction Beamline at NSLS-II Takes First Beam and First Data
On November 6, Eric Dooryhee walked into a crowd of people excitedly talking at the X-ray Powder Diffraction (XPD) beamline beaming an enormous smile. The group broke into applause for the enormous achievement they had gathered to celebrate: the operators had opened a shutter to the electron storage ring of the National Synchrotron Light Source II and captured light for the first time at the XPD beamline. It was the second beamline at NSLS-II to achieve x-ray beam.
MaRIE Leadership Change
Cris Barnes has been selected as the new Matter-Radiation Interactions in Extremes (MaRIE) Capture Manager. Barnes will assume responsibilities on June 15 from Jack Shlachter, who has done an excellent job as the interim capture manager since November 2013. The MaRIE Capture Manager will direct facility project acquisition, manage the project, plan the integrated lab use strategy and develop and implement experimental techniques and accelerator structures. “Cris’s impressive 32 year career makes him uniquely qualified to head this important Laboratory initiative,” said Mary Hockaday, Associate Director for Experimental Sciences where the position will report, “his broad technical background, advisement in Washington D.C. and management know-how, embrace our vision and expectations of what we need the MaRIE Capture Manager to do for us.”
“In this time of rapidly evolving national security challenges, MaRIE will become a cornerstone experimental science facility for the advancement of materials research for Los Alamos, the Nuclear Security Enterprise, and the nation,” said Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. “Cris’s scientific and technical expertise, coupled with his experience in driving programs from start to finish is the leadership we need to pursue this facility capability that is integral to our future. The attainment of MaRIE would accomplish strategies in all four of our strategic planning goals for enabling mission delivery through next-generation facilities, delivery of nuclear and global security solutions, innovative science and engineering excellence and attracting and retaining a vital future work force”.
Barnes is a graduate of the University of Chicago with a PhD. from Princeton University in Astrophysical Sciences, where he was a National Science Foundation fellow. He has spent the last eight years between NNSA in Washington D.C. as a technical advisor and Los Alamos as a manager and weapons physics liaison, most recently providing technical assistance to Don Cook of NA-10. He was drawn to a Lab career from 1981 through 2006 that allowed him to contribute to a broad range of research, with interests spanning from science program management, to technical work in weapons physics, materials research, computer modeling and simulation and science-based stockpile stewardship.
Letter to Cook Signed by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Directors
In March 2014, a joint letter from Director Charlie McMillan (Los Alamos) and Acting Director Bret Knapp (Lawrence Livermore) was sent to Donald Cook, Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, NNSA. This letter was a recommended outcome of the NNSA new facilities process that included a February 2012 proposal submittal, review by an external committee for NNSA and then a decision letter from Cook in December 2012 praising the MaRIE proposal and requesting this joint letter from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.