[SA_Scat] Off topic: (well sort of) Please help save SSRL

[Mooers, Blaine H.M. (HSC)]

Dear sa_scat mailing list

I serve as the 2016-2017 chair of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) Users Executive Committee (UEC). This is a volunteer group that is independent of SSRL.

You probably have heard that the proposed Department of Energy (DOE) budget absorbs a large cut in part by shutting down SSRL. SSRL is one of four DOE synchrotron radiation labs in the US. SSRL has the very productive biological SAXS beamline BL 4-2. The closure of SSRL will shift a massive workload onto the remaining three synchrotron radiation labs that are run by DOE. This will reduce access to synchrotron radiation for all scientists. One lab, (APS), is scheduled to be shutdown for several years for a major upgrade, thereby further reducing access to synchrotron radiation. This situation will further reduce the productivity of US science. The UEC is asking all concerned scientists to go to the SSRL UEC facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/ssrluec/ ) for more information about what they can do.

If you are not a US citizen, please do not contact the US Congress. Instead, please ask your US colleagues that use or rely on the products of synchrotron radiation to contact Congress.

Please make your concerns known in June before Congress deliberates the budget in July. Early pressure is usually move effective. The negotiations over the budget may run into September or even latter. US Science has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, but I am not so confident this year for obvious reasons. We cannot afford to be passive and complacent.

The above are my opinions as a private citizen and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer nor of SSRL.

Best regards,

Blaine

Blaine Mooers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
975 NE 10th Street, BRC 466
Oklahoma City, OK 73104-5419
Faculty webpage<http://www.oumedicine.com/department-of-biochemistry-and-molecular-biology/faculty/blaine-mooers-ph-d->   X-ray lab (LBSF)<http://http://research.ouhsc.edu/CoreFacilities/LaboratoryofBiomolecularStructureandFunction.aspx>   Molecular Graphics<https://www.oumedicine.com/docs/default-source/ad-biochemistry-workfiles/moleculargraphicslinks.html> Links <https://www.oumedicine.com/docs/default-source/ad-biochemistry-workfiles/MolecularGraphicsLinks.html>  Small Angle Scattering <http://www.oumedicine.com/docs/default-source/ad-biochemistry-workfiles/small-angle-scattering-links-27aug2014.html?sfvrsn=0>
office: (405) 271-8300   lab: (405) 271-8313   e-mail:  blaine-mooers at ouhsc.edu