On 22nd March 2010, ALBA was inaugurated becoming one of the most important scientific infrastructures of Spain.
Since then, its synchrotron light has been a great ally for numerous advances in a huge range of scientific fields, such as biomedicine, materials science, nanotechnology or archaeology. The ALBA Synchrotron represents a formidable return of knowledge, development and well-being for society.
Cerdanyola del Vallès, 23rd March 2020 10 years have passed since the inauguration of ALBA, the Spanish synchrotron light source. InMarch 2010, it was celebrated the launch of an unprecedented scientific project whose aim was becoming an essential tool for science and technology. Ten year later, ALBA has far exceeded its initial expectations, also being an international reference among worldwide light sources. It is currently under a continuous growth process byinstalling new equipment and updating its instrumentation to meet both present and future scientific challenges. In particular, ALBA is helping in the fight against COVID-19 to advance in the knowledge of the virus and in the development of vaccines and treatments.
The number of synchrotron light users in Spain has reach, from the initial 200 at the time of the project approval, to more than 5,000 users, almost half of them international; as well as more than 50 private national and international companies. In total, ALBA has provided synchrotron light for research groups belonging to 1,850 institutions from 45 different countries. The result has been more than 1,500 experiments performed that have been reflected in around 1,100 scientific publications.
Currently, the ALBA Synchrotron has 8 beamlines and 5 more are under construction, all equipped with different techniques for analyzing matter at an atomic and molecular level thanks to the high quality of the synchrotron light produced. Since the beginning, 37,722 hours of light have been generated. In this time, the electrons inside the accelerators would travel 2.7 million times the distance from Earth to the Sun!