The group took an extensive tour of CHESS and met with many members of the technical, engineering scientific and administrative staff, all integral to the success of the upgrade of the facility. After the tour, while enjoying coffee and donuts in Wilson Lab Commons with CHESS and CLASSE staff, Linda Sapochack expressed how impressed the NSF team was with the new facility, the progress made to date, and the professionalism, commitment, and enthusiasm of everyone they met.
NSF recently announced funding of $54Million for the operation of the Center for High Energy X-ray Sciences, CHEXS, at CHESS which includes four beamlines optimized for the structural characterization of high performance metals and quantum materials, Photon-In-Photon-Out X-ray Spectroscopy, as well as the study of the building blocks of life using small angle scattering and crystallography.
During their visit, the NSF team also toured CBETA, met with the directors of NSF funded centers (CCMR, CBB), facilities (CNF, CHESS), platforms (PARADIGM) and other NSF supported activities (PREM-CiE2M, CMS) at Cornell for an informal round table discussion and chatted with a group of students about the impact of science on society.