The Conversion and Operation of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring as a Test Accelerator (CesrTA

In March of 2008, the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) concluded twenty eight years of colliding beam operations for the CLEO high energy physics experiment. We have reconfigured CESR as an ultra low emittance damping ring for use as a test accelerator (CesrTA) for International Linear Collider (ILC) damping ring R&D. The primary goals of the CesrTA program are to achieve a beam emittance approaching that of the ILC Damping Rings with a positron beam, to investigate the interaction of the electron cloud with both low emittance positron and electron beams, to explore methods to suppress the electron cloud, and to develop suitable advanced instrumentation required for these experimental studies (in particular a fast x-ray beam size monitor capable of single pass measurements of individual bunches). We report on progress with the CESR conversion activities, the status and schedule for the experimental program, and the first experimental results that have been obtained