At Brookhaven Lab: An Exercise In 'Scientific Collectivism'

While the Soviet Union and China seem to be warming up to capitalism's style of doing business, a group of U.S. scientists is, in a sense, going in the opposite direction - pioneering a new social environment for research that might best be described as "scientific collectivism." Indeed, the team of 60-plus scientists running the X-11A X-ray beam line at Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), Upton, N.Y., describe themselves as "communal, even socialist" in style. The group's principal investigator, Dale Sayers, referring to himself as the team's "spokesperson and nominal leader," says he guides the group as a facilitator, rather than a scientific autocrat. Known casually as the "Sayers-PRT" (for Sayers, of North Carolina State University and Participating Research Team, the term used to describe NSLS collaborations), the team, well-known in synchrotron research circles for its work in superconductivity, functions as a collection of equals. "A committee of the whole sets general policy and direction," says Sayers, whose managerial style is decidedly low-key. In addition to providing a unique social atmosphere, the NSLS environment allows unusual collaborations, intermingling academic, industrial, and government scientists who are otherwise unaccustomed to working in situations that facilitate such cooperation and allow for both proprietary and nonproprietary research. "The Sayers team has forged a lot of alliances," says Michael Knotek, chairman of NSLS. Indeed, it has even fostered collaboration between industrial groups, for example allowing Mobil and Du Pont to work together and publish a paper on a subject of mutual interest. The Sayers team, whose membership has evolved since it was created eight years ago, now includes scientists from Du Pont, Hoechst-Celanese Research, Mobil Research and Development, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Lawrence Liv-ermore Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Brook-haven lab itself. Participating universities include North Carolina State, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Notre Dame, Case Western Reserve, the University of Washington, the University of Connecticut, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Within the NSLS, the Sayers PRT is not unique - of the dozens of PRTs, a fair number are "mixed breeds" - but it is one of the oldest, with a long record of accomplishment, publishing about one paper per week during "uptime" on the synchrotron. Uptime translates to about 20 days a month. And individual scientists' shifts run up to 24, 36, and even 72 hours straight - time spent in a maze of magnets, mirrors, wires, tubes, and the ubiquitous computers. When working in such close quarters for days on end, says Tim Morrison, of the Illinois Institute of Technology, they learn a great deal about each other - flaws and all. "You have to be willing to let your intellectual underwear hang out," he says. It is definitely not an atmosphere for the claustrophobic, but for this scientific collective it has worked well. The team is particularly proud of its accomplishments in the fields of superconducting materials, industrial catalysts (which yielded the joint paper for Du Pont and Mobil), electrochemical systems, and ion beam modification of the mechanical properties of alloys. The group formed from the desire to use the NSLS to study metals in living and nonliving systems. The high intensity X-ray radiation emitted by the doughnut-shaped synchrotron is akin in intensity to an extremely bright light, allowing a detailed study of a variety of metal-containing materials. Most recently, the team has published a paper discussing its efforts using neutron scattering and X-ray absorption to describe local electron structures of high-temperature superconducting materials (J.M. Tranquada, S.M. Heald, A.R. Moodemagh, Y. Xu, "Mixed valency, hole concentration and superconductivity in YBa2Cu3O6+x," Physical Review B, volume 38, page 8893, 1988). This type of research is important to developing a theory of why some materials are successful high-temperature superconductors while others are not. The Sayers-PRT has also published in a less sensational field that holds great promise for future applications. The team is working to find a structural explanation of the origins of ferroelectricity (Quazi T. Islam, Bruce Bunker, "Ferroelectric transition Pb1-xGexTe: Extended X-ray absorption fine-structure investigations of the Ge and Pb," Physical Review Letters, volume 59, page 2701, 1987). These studies could not have been done without a synchrotron - and the pricey equipment is not something that just any lab can afford. The NSLS synchrotron cost well over $100 million to build and equip, a price tag far too high for even the most prosperous of industrial and academic researchers. However, a permanent experimental station at the NSLS may be bought for between $1 million and $1.5 million, the cost of constructing a beam line that accesses the radiation. Teams making this investment supply their own staff and equipment, but the synchrotron radiation itself is free if the scientists are performing experiments with the intent of public disclosure. But a distinguishing feature of the Brookhaven synchrotron is that it also facilitates proprietary research. NSLS charges a modest $400 for radiation for each eight hours of proprietary studies on a synchrotron beam. This opportunity encourages industrial researchers to join collaborations at Brookhaven. Says team member Paul Harget of Hoechst-Celanese Research, "I was first excited about the possibilities of using synchrotron radiation some years ago, when visiting the Stanford synchrotron. But my boss - I was then at a different company - said `No way. Industry can't work in an open environment.' " Obviously, Hoechst-Celanese felt differently. "This facility is a blessing for industry," adds Harget. "Brookhaven's openness and receptiveness to industry make the team grow fast. The cohesiveness of our particular team motivates us. You don't find that everywhere." The prime requisite for working with the team is strict commitment to its brand of science - the use of synchrotron radiation to probe metals. The team's approach to administrative matters, however, is looser. "Different deals are done for different scientists (wanting to join the team)," says Sayers. Some bring cash for development or operation. Cash-poor collaborators may bring equipment or special expertise. Mobil, for example, which joined the team to study catalysts related to refining oil, invested $300,000 over two years to help develop the X-11A beam line, and now contributes $30,000 to $40,000 annually for operations. For this, Mobil gets 8% of available beam time. "To foster interaction, we agreed that 50% of our work [at Brookhaven] would be nonproprietary," says Arthur W. Chester, manager of catalyst characterization for Mobil Research and Development. One measure of the success of this endeavor is that Mobil invested in two other beam lines with different teams following its experience at the X-11A beam line. The advantages of a PRT-style of operation are varied. "The teams have access to all major sources of scientific funding," says Knotek. They also have frequent access to equipment that is an "industrial writeoff" but serviceable for experimental needs. Another advantage is the varied skill base in, for example, biophysics, ceramics, and metallurgy, brought to the PRT. At the NSLS, interaction between scientists of very different disciplines is common, whereas in a major research university or industry, physicists, chemists, and biologists may be in different buildings and rarely meet. "This is technology transfer at its finest," says Knotek. The teams also have the advantage of using beam lines designed specifically for their needs. "The downside of that," says Sayers, "is that if something goes wrong, you have nobody to blame but yourself." There are other drawbacks to the PRT system. Scientists often have multiple attachments (to a variety of home institutions and funding agencies), and administrative problems crop up when they jump from one PRT to another. The cross-disciplinary nature of the work can also produce problems for researchers seeking external support. One researcher on the Sayers team had his grant proposal go through four different project officers at his funding agency before finding a final home. "It can be tough for management to keep an intellectual focus when the scientists are all going about different experimental problems," adds Knotek. "They must start with a cohesive goal because you need a critical mass of the right sorts of people." Sayers agrees completely. He attributes his PRT's success to well-defined goals, as agreed on by all members of the team, and to the recruitment of scientists who are very good team players. "We always consider the personalities of prospective collaborators," says Sayers. "One prima donna can split a group." Another key concern in evaluating collaborators, he adds, is the desire that, "all elements of the economy - academia, government, and industry - should have access to synchrotron radiation. Our group is a model for such interaction." And it's a model that works because Sayers, the modest, soft-spoken "nominal" leader carefully cultivates the talents of each member of his scientific collective. Anne S. Moffat is a freelance science writer based in Ithaca, N.Y.

At Brookhaven Lab: An Exercise In 'Scientific Collectivism'

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of