This month marks the official start of user operation at CHESS and all three partner programs: The NSF funded CHEXS, as well as MacCHESS supported by NIH and NYSTAR, and the Materials Solutions Network at CHESS, or MSN-C, funded by the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), all welcomed users to new hutches and beamlines.
Louise Debefve stands outside a hutch on the experimental floor of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, CHESS. She is preparing the experimental equipment for some of the first data to be collected at CHESS since the completion of the CHESS-U upgrade. The platinum samples that she is about to study at the new beamlines will provide insights into the catalytic function of the element, enabling for example the generation of cleaner energy powering everything from cars to laptops.
But for now, Louise is happy to just be using the X-rays again, a familiar occurrence for the former graduate student, who spent years developing her research of catalysts through the use of X-rays at SSRL. As a postdoc at CHESS, Louise initially found herself right in the middle of the feverish construction of the upgrade, with no X-rays available for research.
>Read more on the CHESS website
Image: Louise Debefve, right, works with Chris Pollock and Ken Finkelstein at the new PIPOXS station.