Communication and Newsletter input
COMPRES Contacts
Information Update
1. Progress of COMPRES projects and the first annual report
The COMPRES management mechanism requires that each COMPRES related project be administered and reviewed by each corresponding committee. A recent review by Infrastructure Development Committee and Community Facilities Committee indicates that all the administered projects are making satisfactory progress. The first annual report regarding the project progress and the second year projection has been submitted to the NSF. The annual report is currently available at the COMPRES web site: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/Publications.
2. The proposed second-year (2003-2004) COMPRES Budget (in k$)
| COMPRES Central Office (Stony Brook): | $424k | |
|
Salaries for the President and Administration Assistant | |
| New Student Intern Program* | ||
| Meetings/Workshop | ||
| Supplies | ||
|
IDC: | $132k |
| Infrastructure Development |
|
|
| Development of Laser Heated Diamond Cell (Princeton): | $180k | |
| Neutron Studies at National Facilities (Virginia Tech.): | $ 70k | |
| Multi-anvil Cell Assembly Development and Production (ASU): | $156k | |
| Pressure and Temperature Calibration | ||
|
$125k | |
|
$ 80k | |
| Brillouin Lab at Advanced Photon Source: A Community Resource | ||
|
$229k | |
| Community Facilities | ||
| Multi-anvil High Pressure at National Synchrotron Light Source (SB): | $331k | |
| West-Coast Synchrotron Facilities (UC Berkeley): | $175k | |
| Megabar Synchrotron Center at the NSLS (GL): | $298k | |
| Total: | $2,200k |
* Student Intern Program.
This year we are seeking support for two student internships. This experimental educational program had to be cut from the first year budget, but was well received by NSF and has been restored to the year 2 budget. The funding of this project is added to the budget with no harm to ongoing programs. Graduate students in 2nd or 3rd years with interests in high pressure Earth sciences will be recruited from Earth science departments. They will work, at employee salaries, at one of the national facilities. They will support outside users as well as master techniques using the system. They then return to their graduate program and resume their PhD study. The new internship program is designed with the following goals:
· Provide needed beamline support for users at the national facilities.
· Provide in-depth training to individuals with PhD level career goals in high-pressure research in the use of national facilities.
· Provide expertise at many Universities of national facilities upon return of the intern to the graduate program.
3. Notes of the first-year (2002-2003) COMPRES Central Office Budget
The first-year COMPRES Central Office budget included personnel expenses for the President (Jay Bass) and the Administration Assistant (Ann Lattimore). In addition, $84k (68% rest of the direct cost) was used to support the participants of COMPRES workshops and meetings, $15k was used for cost sharing of internet video conference system purchase, $14k was used for COMPRES central operation (advertisements, visitor accommodation, computer and printing services, etc.), and $9k went to COMPRES education program.
4. COMPRES workshop on High Pressure Earth and Planetary Sciences
Upon the request by NSF, a COMPRES workshop on High Pressure Earth and Planetary Sciences: Our Planet from Surface to Center and Beyond was held on March 22-23 at Miami, Florida. Over 50 scientists from universities, national labs and overseas institutions attended the workshop. Dr. David Lambert from Earth Sciences Division of NSF also attended the workshop and gave a brief introduction to the division and NSF’s expectation from the workshop. Discussions were focused on four major topics: Near Surface Processes, Subduction and the Mantle, the Core and CMB, and Planetary Geology and Impacts. The participants reviewed the scientific advances in these areas in the past decade, significant technologies that enabled the advances, and the current most important issues for future research. Expertise gathered at the workshop extended beyond mineral physics and included seismology and synchrotron x-ray instrumentation. A brief report of the workshop to NSF was sent in on May 1, and a published brochure on the Future of High Pressure Earth and Planetary Sciences is expected in August.
5. The conference on Mantle Composition, Structure,
and Phase Transitions was held on April 2-6 in Frejus, France
Over 60 scientists from a number of countries discussed topics in geochemistry,
mineral physics, geodynamics, and seismology. Presentations included broad
state-of-the-field review, and latest research results on a diverse range
of subjects including the core-mantle boundary, core-mantle interactions,
composition of the lower mantle and transition zone, geochemical reservoirs,
seismic structure of the mantle, plumes, mantle convection, high P-T phase
transitions, electronic transition in minerals, etc. Invited speakers included
Stan Hart, John Brodholdt, Denis Andrault, David Bercovici, Mike Brown, Geoff
Davies, Rob van der Hilst, Don Helmberger, Yannick Ricard, Guillaume Fiquet,
Don Weidner, Michael Weber, Michael Manga, Kei Hirose, Philippe Gillet, Alex
Rocholl, and Renata Wentzcovitch. The meeting was co-sponsored by COMPRES
(
6. COMPRES executive committee members meet biweekly through internet video conference system
Internet technology has brought COMPRES executive committee members together twice a month for steering the COMPRES operation since beginning of this year. To avoid exhausting travels, interruption of teaching and high costs of operation, COMPRES executive committee has started to hold the business meeting through internet video conference system. Every other Monday, the committee members meet together from their home institutions to discuss the operation of COMPRES. “It has been very successful.” said Weidner, Chair of the Committee, “Not only has it saved the travel and the cost, but also, most importantly, this makes it possible for the committee members to meet as often as twice or three times a month which is absolutely needed to ensure success of COMPRES.” He also suggests the other subcommittee should also set a similar routine for meeting. Currently COMPRES is renting a central video conference bridge system from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on an hourly basis for the biweekly meeting. COMPRES are buying such a system so that other committees may also hold their business meetings on a regular base through the internet video conference system.
7. New High-Pressure Beamlines at the NSLS nearing completion
The conversion of the medical beamline to two new high-pressure facilities at the National Synchrotron Light Source is now complete. Both X17B2 (Large Volume Multianvil) and X17B3 (Diamond Anvil Cell) have passed their radiation surveys. When installation of the high-pressure equipment is complete, they both should be ready for business. We have been accepting proposals for experiments after the May shutdown (May 1-19). The deadline for submitting proposals for the next scheduling period (Sept-Nov) is May 31, so get your applications soon. Remember, if you wish to do Diamond Anvil Cell work, submit to X17B3 or X17C; for DIA, Tcup, or D-DIA experiments, submit to X17B2.
Inside X17B2 hutch. Large Volume press shown at left. At the right is the hydraulic pump, and in the back, the control electronics. At the far left, the movable backstop through which the beam can pass to the B3 hutch is seen.
Inside the X17B3 hutch. Round opening at the center is the beam inlet from X17B2 hutch. DAC table is seen beneath the beam inlet.
8. Searchable Directory for High Pressure Scientists
Upon requests from the community, COMPRES central office has been working on creating a directory of scientists and other professionals throughout the world working in high pressure. We currently have about 300 names with fairly complete information. The link to the COMPRES website page for this database is: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/People Use of the database involves searching by last name. If a match is found, then the rest of the information will be displayed.
This database also has a facility for individuals to update their entries. To use this, enter your email address in the appropriate box and, if that email address is in the database, you can change all the other entries.
We plan to have a facility for individuals to add their names. In the meantime, if you wish to have your name added, please send an email to michael.vaughan@sunysb.edu. The desired information to be included for each individual is:
- Last (family) name:
- First (given) name:
- Middle initial, if you use one:
- Preferred first name, if different from that above
- Prefix (Dr., Mr., Ms., etc.):
- Title (Professor, Research Associate, etc.):
- Role (Faculty, Graduate Student, Post Doc, Staff Scientist, Administrator, Educational Specialist, etc.):
- Area of Interest:
- e-mail address:
- Institution: (University, Government Lab, Company, etc.):
- Department:
- Mailing Address (Street address, City, State or Province, Postal Code, Country):
- Web site address:
- Telephone:
- Fax:
Note: The email address is critical because the security of future updates will be maintained using your email address. Therefore, if you have more than one address, use the one that is most stable.
9. COMPRES membership status
COMPRES central office has received many membership applications from US and oversea institutions. So far, sixteen institutions have been approved as COMPRES members. More applications from Miami workshop attendees are expected. If your institution has not yet applied, please send in the application now. All institutions conducting Earth Science / High Pressure Science related research are welcome to join COMPRES. Members’ rights, benefits and membership application procedure can be found at COMPRES web site: http://www.compres.stonybrook.edu/People/Membership/
10. COMPRES Education and Outreach: Networking with National Organizations
For the past year, COMPRES has been collaborating as a partner in the development of a Program Plan for EarthScope’s education and outreach effort. Glenn Richard, COMPRES’ Educational Coordinator, attended a meeting in Boulder, Colorado in February, 2002 and in Tucson in August, in order to contribute to the development of this plan, which calls for a distributed set of partners and local alliances working with the EarthScope facilities and a central office to develop and disseminate resources and offer workshops. The local alliances and partners bring stakeholders such as educators, scientists, students and the general public into the program. As a partner, COMPRES can provide a materials properties context for educational tools that are developed as part of the education and outreach effort. For example, interactive digital models of fault mechanisms can be developed that include a representation of phase changes that take place in materials during seismic events. Education programs on plate boundary phenomena can include content of the role of Earth Materials in these processes.
In 2002 and again this year, COMPRES has contributed to the planning of the Annual Meeting of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). As Chair of the Skills Workshop Committee, Glenn Richard has been working with members of the committee to plan a series of workshop sessions for educators, designed to familiarize them with computer-based tools that can be used for Earth Science education on all levels. The sessions also provide participants with opportunities to meet with developers of educational materials. In the future, COMPRES will be able to offer Skills Workshops that focus on its own educational tools. These computer-based tools in this collection can be offered to the educational community as the “Deep Earth Digital Library”.
11. COMPRES president search
The Search Committee chaired by Dave Walker of Columbia University has made great efforts in recruiting candidate for COMPRES President from the community. Advertisements have been put up in Science, EOS, the Lattice, and on internet web sites. The committee has also widely solicited the community and contacted the potential candidates. Half of the applicants are from the contacted candidates. Now the committee has narrowed down the search to two strong candidates. Names of the candidates have been submitted to the Executive Committee. Interviews will start in May, and the final decision is expected to be made in near future.
Our thanks to the Search Committee members: Raymond Jeanloz, Charles T. Prewitt, Nancy Ross, Dave Walker (Chair), Donald J. Weidner.
12. High-pressure facilities at the ALS: Call for proposals.
An approved program is in place at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California to allow access to synchrotron radiation for the COMPRES user community. Initially two beamlines will be available under this program: one for high-pressure powder diffraction and one for high-pressure infrared measurements using diamond anvil cells. The high-pressure diffraction beamline (11.3) will utilize 16keV x-rays and be equipped with a CCD detector for wide-angle monochromatic powder diffraction (further details contact Simon Clark). The infrared beamline (1.4.3) will allow high-pressure measurements using a low profile dac on the existing infrared bench (http://infrared.als.lbl.gov). Further details please contact Michael Martin.
Applications are invited and the deadline for submission is June 1, 2003. To apply for beam time allocation, please go the following web site http://alsusweb.lbl.gov/ and open the “General Sciences Proposal and Request for Beamtime Form”, fill it out and submit the form. In the abstract section, please first type the word COMPRES followed by the abstract.
General information for new users and Proposal Wring Guidelines are located at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/becomealsuser.html
Reports
COMPRES Multi-anvil Cell Assembly Development
Kurt Leinenweber and James A. Tyburczy
Many of the members of COMPRES are operating multiple anvil high pressure
laboratories, both in individual or small group laboratories and at synchrotron
beam lines. We estimate that there are 25-30 multianvil labs in the
Every multi-anvil experiment uses a cell assembly, an experimental arrangement including a ceramic pressure medium, a semiconducting ceramic or metal furnace, thermal insulation, sample sleeves, a wire thermocouple, and various other parts. All of these parts have to fit within the cubic centimeter or smaller-sized volume that is held at high pressure during the experiment, with the sample contained inside it. All of these parts are pressed and sintered together during the experiment, so a new assembly must be used for each experiment. Each pressure and volume range requires a different assembly design. Finally, for each assembly the pressure efficiency must be carefully calibrated, a process that can require as many as ten or twenty runs.
Needless to say, careful calibration requires a great deal of effort on the part of individual researchers, and consumes time and resources for each laboratory. The main purpose of this project is to develop cell assemblies in a collaborative fashion, as a Consortium and community, in order to pool and save resources and to enable laboratories to extend their capabilities.
Some of the goals of this project are:
