[Neutron] Accepting Proposals/Applicants for the Instrument Development Fellowship Program at SNS

[Parish, Bradley]

Website - http://www.orau.gov/orise/edu/ornl/sns/ 


Overview


The Instrument Development Fellowship Program was founded in order to
nurture the creative development of neutron scattering instrumentation
in the United States. This initiative is viewed as a critical part of
keeping the neutron scattering instruments at American institutions on
the cutting edge of design and scientific functionality and, therefore,
competitive worldwide. 

The idea behind this Program is to provide an environment in which a
small, select group of early career scientists can propose innovative
concepts for neutron-related instrumentation, and then to develop some
of the more viable ideas into full-fledged instruments or component
concepts under the overall guidance of some of the recognized experts in
the field.

Fellows in the Program will conduct their research at the Spallation
Neutron Source, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee.


Program History


The vision for this Program emerged from discussions at an international
workshop on Novel Instrumentation Techniques held in February 2006. A
pilot Program based directly on the ideas that evolved from that meeting
began later in 2006 with the full-fledged Program launching in 2007.

The Program incorporates minor refinements based on the experiences with
the pilot program as well as input from the DOE Office of Basic Energy
Sciences. 

Administration of the program is managed by the Oak Ridge Institute for
Science and Education.


Qualifications


The Program is designed for scientists within 10 years of their Ph.D.
who are located at academic, industrial, or government institutions.
Candidates who are able to obtain a leave of absence or sabbatical from
their home institution are welcome to apply. 

Fellows will be selected based on

*	the creativity they exhibit, 
*	the depth of understanding of the field that they demonstrate,
and 
*	an assessment of their ability to make outstanding contributions
to the development of neutron scattering or imaging instruments and/or
components. 

In order to make the selections based on these criteria, the following
process will be used.

Initial evaluations to select finalists will be based solely on a review
of the submitted material (proposal, CV, and publication list). This
review will be carried out by e-mail by a small panel (four to six
members) with a mix of ORNL and outside personnel.

The members of the review panel will be approved by the Department of
Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES). They will consider
educational background, experience, publications, originality/creativity
of the proposed project, relevance/potential value of the proposed
project, feasibility of the proposed project, and depth of understanding
exhibited in the project proposal. 

These last 4 items, all of which deal with the project proposal, will be
weighted most heavily, and together will count for 70 to 80 percent of
the candidate's rating. Unless there is an exceptionally talented group
of applicants, no more than three will be selected as finalists in any
given year.

Finalists will be invited to ORNL to be interviewed by the selection
committee and other scientists as appropriate. Information provided by
persons serving as references for the finalists will also be included in
each candidate's rating. The formal interview process will include not
only individual meetings with panelists and other scientists, but also a
short, prepared presentation by the candidate, followed by extensive
questioning by the panel to further assess the extent to which the
candidate fulfills the selection criteria.

Fellowship selection will be based on ratings generated by this peer
review process and result in a prioritized ranking of the finalists with
concurrence by ORNL's Neutron Scattering Sciences Directorate. The
rankings and final documentation will be submitted to DOE-BES for final
selection and determination of funding. 


Proposal Process


Proposals are requested to develop novel concepts for neutron
instrumentation that will enable studies in areas of science hitherto
unexplored by neutrons to be addressed or which will significantly
improve current methods in the field. The proposals may describe an
entire instrument concept or a major component of an instrument
including, but not limited to, detectors, polarization techniques,
optical components, analysis software, or source components. 

Each candidate proposal should include both scientific and personal
sections:

*	the theoretical basis for the proposal, 
*	the research needed for the expected advances to occur, 
*	the new science that might be enabled by these advances. 

The personal section should be a resume of the candidate including
contact information, education, citations of recent significant
publications, honors and awards and references. 


Duration of Appointment


Fellowships will be in the form of one- to three-year term appointments
as Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) staff members
to work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff and with other
experts in the field to further develop their ideas and to build and
test prototypes if necessary.  

In order for such a limited duration development project to be
successful, the Program will make available a reasonable amount of
capital and operating funds to facilitate these development projects,
and the ORNL Neutron Sciences Directorate will make available adequate
laboratory space, computer resources, and technical expertise and
support as necessary. 

A significant aspect of new techniques, instruments, and components
development is numerical simulation, and the extensive simulation
capabilities used and maintained at ORNL will be made available to the
Fellows as well. Fellows will be expected to actively collaborate with
relevant experts at ORNL and elsewhere whenever appropriate.

It is recognized that some Fellows may wish to continue to pursue their
prior scientific research program at some level in addition to carrying
out the development project for which the Fellowship was awarded. In
such cases, the Fellowship can be structured to support such activity
for up to 25 percent of the Fellow's time in cases where this appears to
be appropriate.

Application:
https://www2.orau.gov/ornl_Post/Registration.aspx?Type=Register&Position
=ORNL08-51-NSSD 

Brad Parish, PHR
Program Manager, ORNL Postdoctoral Recruitment
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
bradley.parish at orau.org
phone: 865-576-2311
fax: 865-576-0287

U.S. Department of Energy's
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008
Building 5100, MS-6173
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6173

 

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