Howdy!

Today we're in Madison Wisconsin for a workshop on a possible Free-Electron-Laser to be built with the University of Wisconsin. There is already a synchrotron here that is operated by U of Wisc., the Synchrotron Radiation Center. I've never done any work at the SRC personally, but this is an interesting conference on a potential future machine. There's a strong team being led by U of Wisc. and MIT that wish to have such a facility built here. The conference has been to invite scientists that would likely use such a machine to discuss ideas for science that could only be done at such a machine. The cost will be expensive (by science standards), but hardly a blip compared to other things on which the government spends money.

So we're here to help them develope a strong proposal. Strong means many things. It has to be exciting work that's not possible elsewhere. It also must be feasible and realistic enough to actually be realized and not fizzle. On the whole I feel as though my personal contribution to the conference was a bit lacking. I'm very glad I came and I learned a great deal, but it was difficult for me to find my own voice or own opinions. Alot of that is that I've changed areas of focus since leaving graduate school. Had I continued down a very similar track, then I would have been more useful to that subject. But still... I'm pretty new and still very much in the learning phase. I got to hear some very interesting "think big" talks and even got to interject my own questions a few times. My own "think big" ideas turned out to be either totally unrelated to x-ray study or potentially feasible at current light-sources(and that's not a bad thing, it means we've got a nice idea to try in the next few months.... maybe).

I'm glad that we made the trip for another reason. It's been great to be in a university town and setting once again. It really makes me feel as though that's where I'd really like to spend a great deal of time. There's a vibrance and exuberance to a university that I miss at the lab. I also miss the luxury of being able to walk everywhere, having the library, lab, office, coffeeshop, restaurants, and potentially home, all within walking distance, all with a community feel. I think Kerri does as well. The suburbs of Chicago are a bit lacking in that respect. It's certainly something to keep in mind for the future. It's also an interesting carrot to have in front of me during my time as a post-doc.

Madison itself, at least the parts we've seen, is really a beautiful city. It sits between two large lakes, surrounded by others. It's relatively small and built largely around the university. It reminds me of Austin or Seattle(that's a good thing).

We're headed to Urbana-Champaign this afternoon. I've got my first presentation of the gold surface physics we've been observing. I'm certainly a bit nervous about presenting it, but not too much so. I'm comfortable talking about magnetism and coherent x-ray scattering as it's what I've been doing for a number of years. But this will be my first chance to speak before other scientists (potentially not receptive to my message!) about what I've seen at Argonne. It's also an incomplete story at the moment as we don't know everything about what's going on. On the one hand it means there are a large number of questions I can't answer yet. But it also means that I'll have the chance to ask various experts about what they think is happening.