User Program Director
Dear Molecular Foundry Users,
Thank you very much to all the users who completed the Fiscal year 2024 User Survey. Your partnership is so valued and important to our center as we continue the work of supporting impactful research at the nanoscale. Your voices are important to us here at the Molecular Foundry and beyond at Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy. This letter shares a summary of the survey results, and some of our progress toward addressing your suggestions.
This year, the Foundry again rated high on user marks for four operational and five culture questions.
- 97% were very satisfied or satisfied about the fraction of the year the Foundry operates
- 93% were very satisfied or satisfied about scheduling and instrument availability
- 96% were very satisfied or satisfied about the performance of equipment and facilities
- 98% were very satisfied or satisfied about user support provided by facility staff
Figure 1- User ratings on operational survey questions, 2024
- 96% strongly agree or agree that the culture at the Molecular Foundry is enriching and scientifically stimulating
- 97% strongly agree or agree that they feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and contribute to discussions
- 92% strongly agree or agree that they feel like they belong at the Molecular Foundry
- 97% strongly agree or agree that all users are made to feel welcome
- 94% strongly agree or agree that all users and staff are treated fairly and with respect
Figure 2- User ratings on culture questions, 2024
These overall levels of satisfaction are slightly higher overall compared to FY2023. We are proud to provide a high level of service to Molecular Foundry users, and we strive to maintain a similar level of satisfaction in FY2025.
Users’ feedback for improvement is essential to keep us growing in our mission. Here are some of our responses to your suggestions:
- Instrumentation: Users consistently provide suggestions about the best ways to invest Foundry funds on new equipment or upgrades to existing equipment. We appreciate this input, as it supports Foundry staff efforts to prioritize these investments. We made the following investments in instrumentation during FY24 and early FY25:
- An Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Sceptroscopy (ICP-OES) tool was purchased in FY24 and is now in service in our Inorganic Facility.
- We received three Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEMs) and two dual beam Focused Ion Beam / SEM microscopes (FIB/SEMs) recently. Several are already operational, and installation of the fifth is underway.
- The new SPECTRE Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) in NCEM, funded through the Nanoscale Research Center Major Items of Equipment (MIE) project, was delivered in September and is undergoing final testing and commissioning.
- The Biological Facility now has a Thermo Orbitrap Exploris 480 Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer (LCMS) to support the X-ray footprinting workflow.
- A custom Ultra High Vacuum Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscope has been built and is fully operational in the Imaging Facility. An associated helium recovery system and advanced optics are in the works.
- A high-throughput JEOL F200 STEM, acquired through the MIE project, will be delivered in FY25.
- Two new ALD chambers are on their way to the Nanofabrication Facility, due in May.
- Also coming soon is another tool funded by the MIE project: a gas-phase deposition cluster tool featuring robotic sample transfer, PVD, pulsed laser deposition, ALD, molecular layer deposition, and analytical capabilities in high vacuum system, compatible with 8-inch wafers, due to be delivered in FY25.
- We are pursuing procurements addressing needs in MS and XRD capabilities, and we hope to be able to tell you more about those in the future.
- New user onboarding and safety training: Some users requested a more streamlined process for beginning their user work, including onboarding communications and safety training before they can begin their project work. This theme has continued from the previous year, and the Molecular Foundry kicked off a team to review these processes in January 2024, and is implementing changes in 2024 through 2025.
- The proposal activation email now provides clearer next steps.
- The team has mapped various pieces of onboarding and training information that new users need to receive, to avoid redundancies.
- We are pilot-testing a new onboarding checklist for facility-level orientation.
- The team is reviewing web content to make the tone more action-oriented for new users, and to close any gaps in information for new users.
In related functions, the Molecular Foundry continues close partnership with our colleagues in the Human Resources groups to facilitate the fastest-possible review of new affiliate appointments for international researchers, with some short-term visitors eligible for expedited processing. If you are an international researcher coming from abroad to work at the Molecular Foundry, please reach out to the User Program Office for additional support ahead of your visit. Furthermore, the User Program Office is piloting a new effort to streamline the extension process for user affiliate appointments that are scheduled to terminate prior to the end of an accepted user proposal.
- Increased staffing: While the quality of staff support overall rated very high this year, we receive several comments communicating a need for more technical staff in particular.
- During Fiscal Year 2024, we were pleased to hire two technical staff members, Hari Jayakumar (Senior Scientific Engineering Associate, Imaging) and Tom Darlington (Scientific Engineering Associate, Imaging).
- We also onboarded Bianca Garcia (Administrative Assistant III), Deirdre Olynick (Senior Business Manager), Alexander Stibor (Staff Scientist, Imaging), and Katherine Sytwu (Staff Scientist, NCEM) in Fiscal Year 24. We also have a new team of resource analysts supporting Foundry operations this year, currently: Jason Dillon (Principal Resource Analyst) and Alex Ricci (Senior Resource Analyst).
- New Director Ashfia Huq starts in March We have a search underway for a new staff scientist in the NCEM Facility.
Thanks again for all your feedback in FY2024. While we are pleased to receive such helpful feedback, we received 14% fewer responses this year compared to the previous year. We are setting an ambitious goal of 500 responses to the user survey in FY2025, and we welcome your feedback through a new mobile-friendly form, available here.
You can complete this survey at any time. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Shannon Ciston, PhD
User Program Director
Molecular Foundry
