Advanced Light Source



The Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California is a synchrotron light source. Built from 1987 to 1993, it currently employs 210 scientists and staff. Part of the building in which it is housed was completed in 1942 for a 4.67 m (184 in) cyclotron, designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. (designer of the Coit Tower in San Francisco) and built by Ernest O. Lawrence. Today, the expanded building houses the ALS, a U.S. Department of Energy national user facility that attracts scientists from around the world.

The ALS is a national user facility that generates intense light for scientific and technological research. As one of the world's brightest sources of ultraviolet and soft x-ray beams--and the world's first third-generation synchrotron light source in its energy range--the ALS makes what were thought to be impossible studies possible. The facility welcomes over 2000 researchers every year from universities, industries, and government laboratories around the world. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

The ALS has over forty beamlines which simultaneously perform a wide range of science. Any qualified scientist can propose to use the ALS beamlines. Proposals are peer-reviewed and top-ranked proposals are allocated beam time. The ALS does not charge for beam time if the user's research is nonproprietary (results are published in open literature).

The Advanced Light Source's current director is Roger Falcone.

History
When the Advanced Light Source was first proposed in the early 1980s by former Lawrence Berkeley Lab director David Shirley, skeptics dubbed it "Shirley's Temple" and doubted the use of a synchrotron optimized for soft x-rays and ultraviolet light. According to former ALS director Daniel Chemla, "The scientific case for a third-generation soft x-ray facility such as the ALS had always been fundamentally sound. However, getting the larger scientific community to believe it was an uphill battle"

In the 1987 Reagan administration budget, President Ronald Reagan allocated $1.5 million dollars for the construction of the Advanced Light Source.