ASI Archives of News and Announcments

News

July 31, 2007: Jonathan Parrish takes a new position in Biochemistry

Dr. Jonathan Parrish, currently the ASI Science Project Leader, will be taking a new position as Faculty Services Officer in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta as of August 1, 2007. He will continue to support the ASI by maintaining his role as ASI Science Project Leader, albeit in a reduced capacity.

December 1, 2006: Ernst Bergmann leaves ASI, new Science Project Leader appointed

ASI's Executive Director Ernst Bergmann is moving to a new position as Business Development Officer for the Institute for Biomedical Engineering Research. He will maintain an active role in the ASI, to assist the staff in the transition period and as a member of the Executive Committee.

Jonathan Parrish has been appointed to the position of Science Project Leader and will manage all ASI activities from here on.

April 1, 2006: ASI welcomes Vera Jbanova and Lisa Trottier

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Vera Jbanova as our new System and Network Administrator/Software Developer and Lisa Trottier as our new Financial and Administrative Assistant. Vera begins where Yannis left off, dealing with the Canarie "Lightpaths to Synchrotrons" project, ASI Sample Submission System administration and our IT and data storage requirements. Lisa replaces Paula at our front desk, providing some sorely needed organisation to keep us functioning smoothly.

Welcome Vera and Lisa!

February 2, 2006: ASI bids farewell to Paula William and Yannis Batsiolas

The ASI is sad to announce the departure of both Paula William, our Financial and Administrative Assistant, and Yannis Batsiolas, our IT Sys Admin and Programmer. Paula has moved over to the Research Services Office in Physical Education at the University of Alberta while Yannis is moving somewhat further to begin work for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

We wish them all the best and have no doubt in their success in their new endeavours.

March 22, 2005: ASI, BigBangwidth, Canarie and Netera Announce "End-to-end Lightpaths to Synchrotrons" Project

The Alberta Synchrotron Institute, Canarie, BigBangwidth, and Netera are pleased to announce their joint project "End-to-end Lightpaths to Synchrotrons" which will connect the Canadian Light Source directly to protein x-ray crystallographers' desktops in Alberta to facilitate real-time data access and beamlime control.

This project entails the investigation of how advanced networks like CA*net 4 can be used to collect the data generated from the synchrotron experiments and distribute it to researchers across Canada so they can use the data to understand important biological processes at the molecular level. The experiments will lead to innovations in environmental, agricultural, and health sciences.

March 17, 2005: Call for Proposals for Experimental Beam Time at the CLS

Canadian Light Source Inc. is pleased to announce a limited Call for Proposals for experimental beam time. The proposals will be eligible for beam time for the period July 1 to December 31, 2005. During the commissioning phase of the CLS and its first suite of beamlines, this is an opportunity to conduct exploratory experiments.

This call includes:

PGM - Variable Line Spacing Plane Grating Monochromator (5.5 - 250 eV)
SGM - High Resolution Spherical Grating Monochromator (230 - 1940 eV)
HXMA - Hard X-ray MicroAnalysis (5,000 - 40,000 eV)
Far IR - High Resolution Far Infrared Spectroscopy (4000 - 10 cm-1)
Mid IR - Mid IR Spectromicroscopy (6000 - 450 cm-1)

Link: "Call for Proposals for Experimental Beam Time at the CLS"

February 25, 2005: Ernst Bergmann Appointed as Executive Director of ASI

The Alberta Synchrotron Institute is pleased to announce that Ernst Bergmann, who has been working at the ASI for the last four years as project leader of the Protein Crystallography (PX) group and during the last year as ASI general manager and project leader of the Industrial Science project, has been appointed as Executive Director of the ASI. Ernst will continue his positions as head of both PX and Industrial Science projects.

February 15, 2005: Two ASI X-ray Spectroscopists are moving to Saskatoon

During the last month two research associates from the X-ray spectroscopy project, Alistair MacReady and Renfei Feng, have resigned from their positions in Alberta to seek new opportunities in Saskatchewan. Alistair now works for the Saskachewan Research Council (SRC) as a research scientist as of February 15, 2005. His will be involved in managing and expanding development projects which are presently heavily focussed on applications in mining and mineralogy, and he will have special responsibility for synchrotron applications at SRC. He will also continue a collaborative relationship with the ASI X-ray Spectroscopy group. Renfei will be working as a beamline scientist at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) starting March 1st, 2005. His primary responsibility will be for technical management of the new Phase II VESPERS beamline; additionally, he will have responsibility for the endstation equipment being installed and tested on the HXMA (microprobe) beamline now under active construction. He will also remain a collaborator of the X-ray Spectroscopy group at the ASI. We wish them all the best in their new endeavours!

February 9, 2005: ASI Continues Operations for One More Year

The Alberta Synchrotron Institute is pleased to announce that we have successfully extended our funding for another year. Our mandate was to have expired at the end of the 2004-5 fiscal year-end this March, concomitant with the opening and operation of the Canadian Light Source (CLS). Both the Alberta Science and Research Authority (ASRA) and Alberta Innovation and Science (AIS) have extended their funding periods to cover the next fiscal year. We look forward to many more rewarding years of working with Alberta's research communities.

February 9, 2005: ASI and Advanced Light Source Sign a New Agreement

The Alberta Synchrotron Institute has been part of a participating research team (PRT) group on beamline 8.3.1 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley, California. We are pleased to announce that this agreement has been extended by one year in order for the Canadian Light Source to finish building and commissioning the protein crystallography beamline PX1. During 2004 protein crystallographers in Alberta have taken advantage of the PRT access to beamline 8.3.1 to collect more than 300 datasets from more than 1000 crystals. We look forward to another successful year of scientific research.

November 20, 2004: 7th Annual CLS Users' Meeting in Saskatoon

The Canadian Light Source 7th Annual Users' Meeting and Associated Workshops were held at the University of Saskatchewan, November 17-21, 2004. The meeting attracted a wide range of users and exhibitors, with a record setting total attendance of 350 people from across Canada, North America and overseas.

Link: "7th Annual CLS Users' Meeting in Saskatoon"

November 1, 2004: ASI Offices and Phone Numbers changed

With the departures of Ron Kratochvil, Lascia Krokosh and Ken Schmidt in the last year, the Alberta Synchrotron Institute is reducing the number of rooms occupied in the Research Transition Facility at the University of Alberta. Associated with this are some minor changes in phone service as well - Ernst Bergmann can now be found in the ASI main office at the same phone number (room 2-080, ph492-8249), while the rest of the protein crystallography project staff, Jo Parrish and Yannis Batsiolas, can now be found in room 2-082 at ph492-2144. Paula William in the main office can still be reached at 492-4309.

April 6, 2004: The Government of Canada Announces New Funding for the Canadian Light Source

The Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Wascana, on behalf of the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC, today announced that the Government of Canada will provide $19 million towards the operation of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) - a state-of-the-art synchrotron research facility located at the University of Saskatchewan. NSERC is providing $16 million to the CLS while Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) will contribute up to $3 million.

Link: "The Government of Canada Announces New Funding for the Canadian Light Source"

April 1, 2004: New General Manager for the ASI

With the recent departure of Ron Kratochvil, the Executive Committee of the ASI Board is pleased to announce that it has chosen Dr. Ernst Bergmann of the ASI to become its Acting General Manager and Project Leader of Science Support Operations with effect from April 1st 2004, for an initial renewable period of 6 months. Ernst will continue as Project Leader of the highly successful Protein Crystallography (PX) Group which he has led for the last three years. A member of the ASI since its outset, Ernst has also been a member of the Beamline Development Team for PX at the Canadian Light Source (CLS), Saskatoon since December 1999. Since his initial training and Ph.D. thesis (Tübingen and U. California) in the field of Biochemistry, during his years in the laboratory of Dr. Michael James, where Ernst is now a Research Associate, he has broadened his areas of expertise widely from macromolecular crystallography (PX), into soft- and hard-ware integrally related to conventional and robotic data collection, storage, and high-speed transmission (IT), as well as beamline design and local-laboratory remote-control. Ernst has publications in several international journals and has been co-responsible for the organisation of several international scientific meetings held in Alberta. His talent for teaching, reflected in two awards at the University of California for Outstanding Service as a Teaching Assistant, and his years as Lecturer at the University of Alberta, matches his capabilities in the training of highly qualified personnel in the use of synchrotron radiation. His contributions in the preparation of Alberta scientists for the synchrotron radiation research era, soon to lift off as the CLS goes online, include significant approved grant applications in the areas of both a new synchrotron PX beamline (PX2) in collaboration with BC), and separately a high bandwidth long-distance (fibre) data channel proposal. Ernst's work is highly appreciated by the Executive Committee and is recognised in this appointment. The Committee wishes him success in the new roles and for his career as a synchrotron scientist.

March 26, 2004: Membrane Protein Crystallization Workshop

This workshop was held March 26, 2004 at the Telus Centre, University of Alberta. Speakers included Randall Bass, Michela Bertero, Joanne Lemieux and Michael Wiener. The workshop was very well received by all attendees and speakers alike.

Link: "Membrane Protein Crystallization Workshop"

December 9, 2003: First Light in the CLS

"On December 9th at at 6:45 pm, the first light was extracted from the synchrotron into the diagnostics beamline. Very preliminary measurements on beam quality (emittance) yielded 100 nm (nanometres)- the expected operational emittance was 40 nm for this particular machine set-up. Tests will continue, as will the optimization of the optics equipment, towards the end of the year." - from the Canadian Light Source website

Link: "First Light in the CLS"

News Archive