Last call for UM18!

Welcome to the 30th MAX IV User Meeting – Coherent Visions (UM18) in Lund, 
24-26 September 2018. The meeting venue for all the presentations and sessions is the Scandic Star hotel in Lund.

We look forward to welcoming you to the present and future MAX IV user community!

Project management, organisation and communication highest priority for MAX IV beamline programme.

A total of 16 beamlines are funded to date, BioMAX, Hippie and NanoMAX are operational and receive regular users. Bloch and FinEstBeAMS are receiving first friendly users for commissioning. Balder and Veritas will receive first friendly users for commissioning early 2019.

We also have users at labs working without synchrotron light – the STM lab, MAXPEEM using the LEEM instrument and SPECIES using the APXPS endstation with another X-ray source.

From January 2017 to August 2018 more than 300 individual users did 450 visits at MAX IV.

However, there is a delay in delivering beamlines to users compared to the timelines in the funding applications. This has, and rightfully so, led to criticism from users and funders.

Through three separate reviews, internal and external, it has been clarified that the reason for the delay is deficiencies in project management, unclear decision paths and lack of clear communication. 

The Board of MAX IV has presented an action plan to address these shortcomings. As a first step a project management office will be set up, staffed with experts in delivering complex projects such as the big beamline portfolio of MAX IV.

BioMAX has successfully performed the first serial crystallography experiments at the beamline. This new method is performed at room temperature which allows structural biologists to study their molecules at more biologically relevant conditions. The technique can also be used on smaller crystals which will alleviate some of the restrictions for molecules such as membrane proteins, that do not typically form large crystals. Eventually, it is hoped that this technique will allow users at the BioMAX and MicroMAX beamlines to take snapshots of the dynamic states of proteins in rapid succession giving a dynamic view of protein movement and activity.

In an article published in the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, the 3 GeV ring team led by Pedro Tavares describes the results for the first year of operation. This important milestone in the MAX IV project provides validation for many of the brand-new concepts that were implemented in the MAX IV design in order to push the source brightness.

Neon venting is a new procedure used in the 3 GeV storage ring to minimise downtime during shutdowns. Normally it takes between two to four weeks just to get the vacuum levels back to operating values after maintenance or installations. With this new procedure the vacuum was restored after only six days of machine operations.

The Chair of the Board, Hans Hertz and the Director, Christoph Quitmann have chosen to leave their positions during 2018.

Interim Chair of the Board is Professor Marianne Sommarin, Umeå University. Interim Director is Dr Ian McNulty. Ian was hired as Physical Science Director early spring 2018. 

Lund University, host university of MAX IV, are in charge of recruiting a new Chair and the Board of MAX IV are in charge of recruiting a new Director. The processes for doing so have started.

Please follow us for the latest new!