PROPOSAL REVIEW AND BEAM TIME ALLOCATION

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The system functions primarily through written reviews of proposals by expert referees. Normally, several reviews are sought for each proposal, using referees chosen by NIST staff. In addition, NCNR scientists carry out reviews for safety and technical feasibility.

After satisfactory reviews have been obtained, the Beam Time Allocation Committee (BTAC) of the NCNR rank-orders the proposals and assigns the amount of beam time to be allocated to each successful proposal for each experimental station. The BTAC meets twice a year to do this. The actual scheduling of experiments is carried out by NCNR staff. The BTAC has primary responsibility for proposal review, and provides advice to NIST and NCNR management on all aspects of the NCNR operation.

The current BTAC membership is:

• Andrew Allen (NIST Ceramics Division)
• Jeffrey Allen (Michigan Technological University)
• Collin Broholm (Johns Hopkins University)
• Les Butler (Louisiana State University)
• Kalina Hristova (Johns Hopkins University)
• Valery Kiryukhin (Rutgers University)
• Ramanan Krishnamoorti (University of Houston)
• Raul Lobo (University of Delaware)
• Lee Magid (University of Tennesssee, Knoxville)
• Janna Maranas (The Pennsylvania State University)
• Alan Nakatani (Rohm and Haas Company)
• Stephan Rosenkranz (Argonne National Laboratory)
• Lynn Walker (Carnegie-Mellon University)

The percentages of the total amount of beam time available to guest researchers through the proposal system are as follows.

30-m small angle neutron scattering (SANS) instrument*	67
ultra-small angle neutron scattering (USANS) instrument*	67
cold neutron spin-polarized triple-axis spectrometer (SPINS)*	67
multi-angle crystal spectrometer (MACS)*	25**
disk-chopper spectrometer (DCS)*	67
backscattering spectrometer (HFBS)*	67
thermal neutron spin-polarized triple-axis spectrometer (BT7)	67
neutron spin-echo spectrometer (NSE)*	67
polarized beam reflectometer	67**
neutron imaging facility (NIF)	25
MAGIK reflectometer/diffractometer	67**
30-m NIST/Exxon/Texaco/U.Minnesota SANS instrument	43
horizontal-sample reflectometer (NIST/U.Minnesota)	67
high-resolution powder diffractometer	25

*These instruments are partially supported by the National Science Foundation through its Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS) at NIST.
**Because of ongoing instrument upgrading and relocation, time on several instruments is either not available or reduced for the first proposal round in 2012.
MACS will not be available.
MAGIK will not be available.
Only 25% of the time is available to users on PBR.

The relatively low percentages for some instruments may reflect the fact that they were constructed by and are operated by research consortia.

Continuation proposals are usually sent out for external mail review. They are also evaluated critically by the BTAC and NCNR staff, and must be accompanied by a report on the results of the previous beam time allotment. They will only be accepted to complete the work originally proposed and approved.

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Last modified 30-August-2011