These are the dewars that shipped on Monday May 5, the first day of the ALS shutdown. Thirty of those are from the BCSB beamlines!
The last week before shutdown was extremely busy, and it wasn’t just the usual “oh-my-god-the-als-is-shutting-down-I-have-to-run-my-samples-NOW” kind of busy. The week *before* that, the ALS ring went down due to a major power supply failure. Long story short, the ALS managed a miracle and got the ring back up in a week. Meanwhile, however, all our users had lost a week of beamtime. We shaved everyone’s shifts to the bare minimum they needed, offered SSRL time to others, and managed to fit everyone in. But it meant 11pm and 5am startups. The evening, weekend, and early morning staff did a terrific job (kudos to Anthony, Diane and Nate!). In fact, everyone pulled together really well that last week, working as a well-oiled machine to deliver optimal beamtime efficiently in spite of the above-average demand. Thanks, everyone!