2008 ALS Users' Meeting and Workshops

The 2008 ALS Users' Meeting, held on October 13–15, looked back on several notable achievements over the past year, including the successful triennial Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Review, full-energy injection (from 1.5 to 1.9 GeV), increased photon flux (from 400 mA to 500 mA), the near completion of top-off (ETA early 2009), the installation of the meV-Resolution Spectroscopy Beamline (MERLIN) insertion device, and the installation and successful testing of the quasi-single-bunch operation system. Approximately 400 people attended the conference, which included plenary and poster sessions, a student poster competition, and ten workshops (including a joint ALS/SSRL workshop). At the banquet, held on Tuesday, October 14, awards were presented for scientific achievement, instrumentation, user services, and student posters. Thanks go to program co-chairs Wayne Stolte and Phil Heimann for organizing this 15th anniversary meeting.