Exploring user facilities
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Exploring user facilities By Lori A. Wilson
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ser facility events and exhibitors took a front seat at the 2019 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston. A growing number of earlycareer members seeking career paths outside of academia in both government and national laboratories and industry, and also students seeking access for their research and internships led to large attendance numbers at various events. Many students struggle to gain access to external facilities for their research sometimes without guidance to write effective proposals to perform experiments. There are several types of user facilities across the United States and internationally that feature many capabilities and expertise that researchers can utilize and access. Typically, a federally sponsored research facility is available for external use to advance scientific or technical knowledge. “The main thing we want people to know is that we exist,” said Heather Brown, program manager at the user facility Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, which is a joint center between Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). “These facilities are national resources. They are free of charge for those doing nonproprietary research, with excellent expertise capabilities. They were built to further research, so they are an external face to the community.”
Focus on research opportunities
The MRS Student Engagement Subcommittee hosted a workshop, “How to Develop an Effective Proposal for User Facilities.” Simranjit Grewal, University of California, Merced, led the workshop. The event helped attendees to properly research facilities to attain their goals, develop a support system to navigate the proposal process, and receive advice on writing a successful grant. DOE user facilities overview
Linda Horton, from the US Department of Energy, said the Office of Science supports the majority of DOE’s user facilities. The mission of the DOE Office of Science is to deliver scientific discoveries and major scientific tools to transform the fundamental understanding and to advance energy, economics, and national security. There are 27 facilities serving more than 36,000 researchers annually. Some examples include supercomputers, high intensity x-rays, particle accelerators, and atmospheric monitoring capabilities. The Idaho National Laboratory hosts the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF), which provide access to worldclass nuclear research facilities, technical expertise from scientists and engineers, and assistance with experimental design, assembly, and post-irradiation examination. NSUF has 49 user facilities at 21
The Careers at Government Laboratories and User Facilities panel discussion at the 2019 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit.
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partner institutions, including a microscopy and characterization suite, transient reactor test facility, and an irradiated materials characterization laboratory. Each DOE user facility manages the allocation of facility resources through merit-based peer review of submitted res
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