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Paul Butler is a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he is part of the team working on building the new SANS facilities, and a guest researcher at the NIST Center for Neutron Research where he interacts with staff and users on issues affecting the ORNL facilities and the neutron scattering community in general, collaborates on projects of mutual interest, and tries to find time to have a little fun doing research.

Besides investigating structural problems in colloid science, my primary responsibility is to help develop a world class SANS user facility. That involves helping design and build two of the world's most powerful SANS instruments, but more importantly trying to ensure that users have easy access and that appropriate ancillary equipment, good support facilities, and anything else that might help maximize the effectiveness of the alloted beam time, are available. Given finite resources it is clear we cannot do everything and certainly not all at once, but we intend to do the best we can within those constraints, and this process will continue as we come on line and mature as a facility. In fact, should we ever stop striving to improve, you the users should "bop us over the head."

After the disappointments of the demise of the ANS and the HFBR shutdown, the future of neutron scattering in this country is beginning to look up again with the Spalation Neutron Source (SNS) construction well under way, and the thermal upgrades and installation of a cold source and guide hall at HFIR currently in progress. Meanwhile, NIST continues to provide a wide range of neutron scattering instrumentation to the community with its outstanding user facility. The combination of these resources should revitalize neutron scattering research in this country.

While the new facilities (SNS and HFIR upgrades) are located at ORNL, they should not be thought of as Oak Ridge facilities , but rather as resources which belong to us, the entire scientific community. As such it is important that you, as a member of that communtiy make your voice heard in shaping these facilities. You can do so through the SNS and HFIR User's GROUP (SHUG) or by contacting any staff member. Of course I'm always eager to hear what anyone has to say about user facilities in general or the HFIR SANS facilities in particular and encourage anyone willing to share their thoughts, dreams, and opinions with me to do so, as it is only with your input that these facilities will become "the best that they can be."

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