SRC Funding Update
The NSF withdrew funding for the University of Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center in 2011. This decision was made in spite of a history of outstanding evaluations. Unusually, the SRC community of scientists was not given the opportunity to openly discuss the closure of the facility with a peer review committee. In fact, there has never been a peer review committee recommendation to end NSF support, and the only peer review committee statement on closure (December 2008, as an aside in a report on a separate R&D proposal) was that "closing the University of Wisconsin accelerator complexes would be a terrible mistake."
With the NSF ending its stewardship of the SRC, the University of Wisconsin has stepped in with funding through the end of 2013. In January of 2012, user fees were put into place to supplement the University contributions. The superconducting RF electron gun, as a vital component of a next generation light source based on free electron lasers, is moving forward vigorously with first beam tests, and a renewal proposal for this program has been submitted to the Department of Energy. The idea of a user consortium and/or participating research teams to fund continued operations of Aladdin is being actively pursued. Interested parties should contact SRC User Gary Findley, findley@ulm.edu, or User Advisory Committee chair Tomasz Durakiewicz,tomasz@lanl.gov.