Streiffer starts each day by looking at how the electron accelerator complex performed overnight. The APS can run up to 68 experiments at once and often reaches its maximum capacity.
“On the operational side, it’s an extraordinarily complicated machine, so a major part of my job is to make sure it runs smoothly,” he said. “Our typical operational schedule is 24 hours a day, six days a week, with the seventh day used for maintenance and studies of accelerator performance. We run like that for about three months, and then have an approximately month-long shutdown for more extended maintenance and repairs. Putting it all together, we run three cycles like this each year.”
Streiffer loves walking around the experiment hall of the APS, talking with researchers about their work.
“Everyone is really excited about the problem they’re trying to solve,” he said. “They’re doing things that are breathtaking and the results they produce are fabulous.”
He also works on a daily basis with users and other stakeholders to make sure they understand the APS’ capabilities. “This includes providing informational materials to elected representatives at their request so they can understand what we do, as well as generally getting the message out to the public about the science and technology we conduct,” Streiffer said.
But only a portion of his day can be devoted to the daily goings on. About half of his time is spent preparing for the upgrade, which positions the APS to be a global leader among the new generation of storage-ring light sources currently emerging.
“The upgrade is a real game changer,” he said. “It represents the science we are going to do in the future.”
Streiffer can count several APS experiments as among his most treasured.
“One of my current favorites involves the development of treatments for Ebola,” he said. “The structure of one of two new effective therapeutic agents was determined here at the APS. We are supporting work that saves lives.”
Another is a recent experiment involving SUE the dinosaur, the famed Tyrannosaurus rex that graces the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Researchers brought SUE’s forearm to the APS to find out whether she used her spindly arms.
“It turns out that SUE had osteoporosis,” Streiffer said. “That means she probably didn’t use her arms very much, and they may indeed have been vestigial.”
Surprisingly, it was yet another experiment that impressed Streiffer’s now-12-year-old son, Ben, back in 2014.
“It turns out, we don’t really understand where the water on the Earth comes from,” Streiffer said. “We also don’t know how much water is in the interior of the Earth versus its surface: There may be more water locked in the mantle than all of the oceans combined.”
To help solve this mystery, scientists brought in mineral samples to study at high pressures at one of the APS’ powerful beamlines.
“The researchers took samples of certain hydrated minerals and used the APS to study how they release water and melt at high temperatures and pressures representative of the Earth’s mantle,” Streiffer said. “By combining these results with high-resolution images of the mantle obtained from seismometers, they found clear signs of this ‘dehydration melting’ where mantle material is moving downward. This implies that vast quantities of water are cycled into the interior of the earth through minerals that begin their journey in a hydrated state.”
Streiffer’s son heard about the experiment on the radio and was flabbergasted to learn from his father that it was performed where he worked.
“He had no idea the APS was so important!” Streiffer said. “It was just the place his dad went every day.”
“Never limit your horizons,” Streiffer said. “Every day, we find that we can help solve more problems than we ever thought possible. And our capabilities are about to get even better.”
In Fiscal Year 2019, the APS and the other user facilities welcomed more than 35,000 researchers – from academic, industry, and government laboratories in all 50 states and the District of Columbia – to perform new scientific research. For details on the DOE Office of Science User Facilities, go to User Facilities at a Glance.
Please go to Profiles of User Facilities Directors to read more articles on the directors for the Office of Science user facilities.
The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.