Decker’s fellowship recognizes his “outstanding contributions to the design, commissioning, and enhancement of synchrotron light sources, and for innovative developments in the field of particle beam diagnostics. In particular for the accelerator alignment technique necessary to reduce stray radiation background signals from photoemission-type photon beam position monitors and for the subsequent development of the largest deployment in the world of such monitors in a global closed-loop orbit feedback system.”
The alignment technique is known as the “Decker distortion.”
Decker served as Advanced Photon Source storage ring manager during the facility’s construction. He defined many of the technical specifications for ring components, including the structure of the orbit correction systems. He led the team that successfully commissioned the APS linac, positron accumulator ring, booster, associated transport lines and storage ring.
Decker also fully integrated photon beam position monitors into APS orbit correction systems, which now have the largest complement of closed-loop insertion device photon bpms in the world. He extended this technology to canted undulator beamlines.
He was awarded the University of Chicago Medal for Distinguished Performance in 1996 for his work as storage ring manager on APS design and commissioning.
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