Blending the State of the Art with the Tried and True: Integration of Electronic and Optical Instruments and Techniques

Abstract

The Advanced Photon Source is a third-generation synchrotron X-ray source at Argonne – the first national laboratory in the United States, chartered in 1946 on the site where Fermi produced the first sustained nuclear chain reaction – and it hosts some 3,500 scientists a year across a dozen disciplines. Aligning a machine like that means using whatever works: William Jansma's subject is the integration of electronic and optical instruments and techniques, the state of the art alongside the tried and true, and where each still earns its place.