Users Group: Board of Directors Minutes
Minutes of the meeting on Friday, March 29, 2002
BOD Members Present:
Alan Nathan (Chair)
Charlie Glashausser (Past Chair)
Haiyan Gao
Douglas Higinbotham
Mark Jones
Dave Mack
Curtis Meyer
Clara Perdue
Alicia Uzzle
Jefferson Lab Representatives Present:
Christoph Leemann
Larry Cardman
Swapan Chattopadhyay
Allison Lung
Kees DeJager
Andrew Hutton
Bernhard Mecking
Dennis Skopik
1. Executive Session
The Jefferson Lab Users Group Board of Directors meeting began with an executive session. Discussion of search for chief scientist and composition of Director's council.
2. Reports from JLab Management
- 2.1 Operations Review
Christoph Leemann reported on the Operations Review. The Operations Review was chaired by Dan Lehmann who has a reputation for complete and tough reviews. The Review recognized that constant funding would lead to a slow decline in accelerator availability. An additional issue is that when money from SNS ends then there will be an increase in overhead and potential loss of engineering talent. Operations review validated the need for an increase in funding of $6-9M over FY02 to address these issues. The Review also suggested the formation of a Scientific Policy Committee to advise the director.
2.2 Leadership Positions
Larry Cardman will chair a committee to identify candidates for the Chief Scientist position.
2.3 Accelerator Operations
Andrew Hutton reported on accelerator operations for this past year. In general, routine operation at 5.759 GeV beam energy. With time the hardware is being stressed and recovery from down times takes longer. This is leading to policy of trying to reduce number of times beam is taken off line for maintenance.
In FY01 accelerator ran 33.5 weeks at 51% efficiency with 3 halls running most of the time. The availability of accelerator for FY01 was 68% which was below the goal of 77%. So far in FY02 overall efficiency is 56%. Plan to run 28 weeks in FY02.
Years of sub-inflation budgets have reduced the number of engineers supporting the nuclear physics program. This has meant that the accelerator division is lacking in in-depth failure analysis, predictive maintenance, long-term engineered improvements due to loss of engineers. With SNS funding these engineers have been moved to support SNS and hopefully if the President's FY02 budget holds the engineers can be moved back to supporting the nuclear physics program.
Injector upgrade to the Ti-Sapphire laser was successful. At high current running, the accelerator was able to run a one spot on the laser for 300C. At low current running, 600C at one spot was achieved. Getting ready to HAPPEX running in Hall A is taking a backseat to preparing for G0 running in Hall C.
Goal for Hall A is to be able to provide 140 uA beam current. Currently,the problem is beam noise from the Ti-Sapphire laser causes trips of the Beam Accounting System, so present status is 100uA possible though it impacts low current running in other Halls.
At the present time, one of the main problems for the accelerator is60Hz movement of the Hall B beam. The cause is ground loops in the injector. This was especially a problem when delivering 100uA to Hall A. With small Hall B slit size the fluctuations of beam intensity are about 30%. If the Hall B slit size is increased, then the leakage from Hall A is a problem. During the present down, work is being done to eliminate the 60Hz noise by cleaning up grounds and also preparing a "feed-forward" system in the injector.
G0 beam test was performed on March 17 and 18th. Bunch structure at 31.2 MHz at 11uA was achieved (40uA is required by G0 experiment), but the pulse length of the laser was too long. One fix involves a new laser but that requires more money ($120K). This new laser is being checked out. Simultaneous bunching of high and low charge bunches is difficult and more work needs to be done in this area in terms of simulations and beam tests.
2.4 12 GeV Upgrade and Plans for CDR Preparation
Claus Rode reported for Leigh Harwood. The NSAC 2001 Long Range Plan strongly recommends the upgrade of CEBAF at Jefferson Lab to 12 GeV as soon as possible even within a constant-effort budget.
Accelerator upgrade adds 10 100MV cryomodules and supporting rf systems (These modules are 3.3x present performance). For upgrade need to double cryogenic capacity and increase LCW capacity and site power network. Beam transport to halls has to be upgraded and beam transport to Hall D has to be built. The 2001 Science and Technology Review report finds that all major technology questions have been addressed. The proposed timeline for the upgrade is R&D funding starting in FY02 in accelerator and all halls. Project Engineering and Design (PED) funding starting in FY04 in accelerator and all halls. Civil construction for accelerator and Hall D in FY06. In FY07, construction would start on accelerator and all halls with installation started for the accelerator. In FY08, installation would begin for Hall D. In FY09, there would be a six month down to finish installation and commission the accelerator. Also in FY09 installation of equipment for one hall would start. In FY10 , Hall D and one hall would be commissioned with installation of equipment in the other two halls beginning depending on funding.
Near-term activities are approval of CD-0 and JLab is working with DOE Nuclear Physics program on final scope, cost and schedule. Users Group meeting in June is an important part of discussions. Near-term activities for project management are to support DOE Nuclear Physics for CD-0 decision and begin preparations of CDR and supporting documentation for CD-1. Near-term the Physics Division is expected to work on R&D for detector concepts and data acquisition approach and Accelerator division on R&D for cryomodule upgrade and RF control. Source of funding for the 12 GeV upgrade: (1) DOE nuclear physics "add-on" for PED and construction (2)JLab has committed to redirect funding from the 6 GeV program to the 12 GeV upgrade with the level of the redirection depending on thelevel of funding to JLab. (3) Other funding from non-DOE sources. Presently 4 proposals waiting for CD-0 status for the JLab upgrade.
2.5 CEBAF Center Expansion
Rusty Sprouse detailed the planned expansion of CEBAF Center. The first phase of construction would be to build a three story expansion (about 59,000 sq. ft.) to house computer equipment on 1st floor and offices of the next two floors. The typical office is planned to be about 130 sq ft. After the expansion, the trailers will be removed. The trailers represent about 20,000 sq. ft. so there should be room for users in the new office space. But plans for the expansion are moving fast and the BOD was concerned that users interest might be left out of consideration. Clara Perdue agreed to get an accurate count of the desks used in Trailer City, so that information can be used to allocating space in the new expansion.
The CD-0 was approved Nov 01. Rusty is preparing the CD-1 documents which are due within the next couple of months. A designer is expected to be hired on Oct. 1 and a budget of $0.55 M for design and $0.95 for construction in FY03 has been requested. Building is expected to start in FY04 and finish in late FY05 with an additional budget of $9M. A request for funding of the second phase of construction is being put together. The second phase would be another 3 story expansion to mirror the first 3 story expansion and a two story wing adjacent to C wing.
The BOD will work with the JLab management to assure that the desk space available to users in the Cebaf Center addition is comparable to the users space given up as a result of the decommissioning of the trailers.
2.6 JLab Publication Policy
Dennis Skopik presented the new JLab publication policy. For users publishing in refereed journals, JLab wants them to have their publications in the JLab database. As of now this is done through the Hall secretaries, but soon JLab will have a method so users can put their publications in the JLab database themselves and update the status of the publications. Publications with JLab staff scientist as lead author are subjected to JLab's internal review process.
There was a discussion of the publishing of JLab articles in Physical Review C versus Physical Review D and which section of Physical Review Letters. Since JLab is funded through the nuclear physics, it seems natural that the articles should be published as nuclear physics. There was no clear outcome of what the BOD policy or action should be on this topic.
2.7 JLab Annual Report
Dennis Skopik discussed the JLab Annual Report. There were positive comments about having the bulk of the report on CD and that this style of annual report should continue. Dennis also asked for BOD opinion on whether separate Hall reports should continue. BOD suggested that individual Hall reports stop and only have the JLab annual report.
2.8 Security Issues at JLab
Dennis Skopik reported that new users will need signatures from both User Liaison and their sponsor and will need a government issued (I.e. passport, visa, drivers license, etc.)ID with photograph to get a badge. JLab is formulating a policy to automatically terminate badge access if the user has not access the lab after a certain time period. Dennis suggested one year as the time period and the BOD agreed with this idea.
3. Area Reports
- 3.1 Graduate Students
Doug Higinbotham reported that he is looking into the possibility of health insurance through JLab for post-docs who might need it. Doug determined that JLab versus university membership in Sigma Xi honor society is a non-issue and will talk to Larry Cardman about having Sigma Xi honor society at JLab. Doug found success in recruiting students to give "Pizza Seminars" by asking students one-on-one instead of in groups. One idea that resonated with graduate students was being able to show movies in the CEBAF auditorium during the evening for groups of graduate students. The lab is looking into the possibility.
Clara Perdue reported that Bob Welsh is now automatically scheduled to meet new graduate students as part of signing up as new users. Bob is also making sure that he has met all graduate students previously signed as new users.
3.2 PAC Issues
Curtis Meyer reported on the last PAC. He was impressed by the hard work of the PAC. He felt that the interaction before the presentations between the PAC and spokespersons was good. The PAC felt that the PAC presentations were at a higher level because of these interactions which cleared up a lot of minor issues and allowed the PAC presentations to concentrate on the main issues of the experiment. Given the demand for beam time, Curtis repeated the comments on proposal preparation in the " Letter for the PAC Chair" in the PAC 21 report. The main comments were:
- Be careful to submit a complete package that can standalone.
- Give justification for the uncertainties of the final results.
- Be sure to include a detailed table showing how you calculated the number of days requested.
- Include experimental details and simulations
- Indicate how the project relates to other approved proposals.
Dave Mack reported on end-of-run reports.
In Hall A, 16O(e,e'p) (E00-102) , Real Compton Scattering experiment (E99-114) were successfully completed. The high energy part of p(e,e'K+) (E98-108) was done which successfully completed that experiment.
RCS suggested that a cryotarget test facility would be a good idea. No report for E00-102. E98-108 received only 50-60 uA compared to the requested 100 uA. The RF trip rates reduced uptime by 25%. A requested pre-experiment target survey wasn't done due to lack of installation time. A post-experiment target survey wasn't done due to a target failure.
In Hall B, experiments for groups g6c and E1-6 were completed. No report from g6c. E1-6 report success and no major problems.
In Hall C, E93-026 , measurement of GeN using a polarized target met its proposed goals at Q2 = 0.5 and 1 . Problems with alignment between beam and target. Several days lost to BPM problems which indicated that Accelerator division is losing institutional memory about its hardware. The 30 Hz raster provided by Hall C didn't provide an uniform beam spot which necessitated a scramble to reinstall the old 1 Hz raster driver.
Still using the polarized target, E01-006 was completed in Hall C. Measurements of A1 and A2 for polarized proton and deuteron targets at Q2 = 1.5 were completed. Insufficient time to measure Att at Q2 = 5.2. A new wire target was added to polarized target insert which helped resolve alignment discrepancies noticed during E93-026. Some problems with aligning the polarized target and beamline indicate better communications between experimenters and support groups is needed.
3.4 Computer Issues
Mark Jones reported on computer issues. The main issue is that space on the tape silos will run out around the end of the year, so each hall needs to develop a policy for removing tapes from the silo to be put in storage. The removed tapes would still be available, but access to them would be on the order of a few days. Plans for the computer center involve CPU upgrades to 20-25 older farm machines and adding 5 cache servers and 4 work servers.
4. Planning for Annual June Meeting
J. P. Chen, V. Burkert, T. Keppel and E. Smith representing Halls A, B, C, and D and Hall leaders took part in the discussion. The focus of Users Group meeting is Conceptual Design Report for the 12 GeV upgrade. The outline of the meeting was agreed upon. It is:
- 1st Day morning: Talks on "usual" lab and UG business. Brad Keister and Brad Tippens give NSF/DOE reports. The thesis prize winner will talk.
- 1st Day Afternoon: Talks on
- 12 GeV milestones
- Accelerator overview talk for 12 GeV
- Each hall gives a overview talk which outlines the physics that drives the desired instrumentation.
- 1st day evening: reception
- 2nd day morning and afternoon: Parallel workshops for each hall
- 3rd day: Talks on
- Each hall has a summary talk on parallel workshops
- 3 to 4 talks which concentrate on a particular physics topic and discuss the overlap and complimentarity between the different Halls. This is very much in the discussion stage in deciding on speakers and topics.
- Summary talk.
- After the meeting it was decided to have the meeting June 10-12th.
5. Hall Issues
Hall A : Finished 16O, RSC and Kaon electro-production experiments. This summer plan to run Super-Rosenbluth and D(e,e'p) . Septum magnets still on schedule for arrival in July/August.
Hall B : Finished e6 experiment. Reached PAC approved goals, but accelerator had problems delivering high polarization with large beam intensity fluctuations, because of 60Hz beam movement. As mentioned in Andrew Hutton's talk , accelerator is working on this problem. During down, work is being done on the drift chambers. By the end of the year the original program in Hall B should be completed.
Hall C : Finished Gen with polarized target and resonance spin structure experiment which also used the polarized target. The polarized target has been removed and work on G0 installation is in full swing. G0 detectors and electronics have been installed and the G0 magnet has been shipped and is in the hall. The G0 target has passed test of the target motor and is ready for installation. Overall installation will continue until Oct. 1 with a break of 10 days in late August for running G0 beam into Hall C as a test.
6. Congressional Contacts
Deborah Dowd made a presentation about lobbying Congress. She stressed the importance of timing visits to the Congressional Budget cycle. User involvement as advocates can come through links to Congress members in the user's district or state and getting their university's Congressional lobbyist help in promoting the need for nuclear physics funding. Deborah had many practical tips for interacting with Congressional staff. Users who are interested in learning more and being advocates should contact Deborah Dowd (dowd@jlab.org).
7. Other Business
The BOD approved changing The Users Group Savings Account which is
with the Bank of America (the account number is 0041 160 98407) to a
checking account with the same bank.
Alan Nathan reported on the Administrative Peer Review. He found
that administrative staff was lean and very professional.
Haiyan Gao reported on the SURA Fellowship Selection Committee.
There were 18 applications with half being theory. Eight fellowships were
awarded. Two awards for faculty sabbaticals were made.
Alan Nathan reported on progress in getting candidates for the
upcoming BOD elections. The decision was made to add a new member to the
Users Group Board of Directors who would represent theory users.
Alan Nathan reported that five thesis had been submitted for the
SURA Thesis Prize. Reading assignments were made.