PRISMAS, Ph.D. Research and Innovation in Synchrotron Methods and Applications in Sweden is launched. The programme includes hands-on training in cutting-edge synchrotron skills that is applicable in various research areas at MAX IV in Lund, Sweden. It combines practical experience with courses covering all aspects of synchrotron radiation to produce researchers who are experts in these methods and their fields.
Students from diverse scientific backgrounds will be recruited through partner universities to learn to use and develop synchrotron methods in their research while acquiring the skills to tackle some of the most critical sustainability development goals and future societal challenges in their projects led by selected Principal Investigators from around Sweden. This 5-year intersectoral and interdisciplinary project will create a connected network of next generation X-ray experts, enabling a wider range of stakeholders to take full advantage of world-leading synchrotron facilities such as MAX IV, while tackling current societal challenges in the same breath.
Lightsources.org was delighted to welcome over 500 attendees to our live virtual symposium to mark the 75th Anniversary of the first direct observation of synchrotron light in a laboratory. The event, which was chaired by Sandra Ribeiro, Chair of lightsources.org and Communications Advisor for the Canadian Light Source, was held on the 28th April 2022 and you can watch the recording via the YouTube link below.
We received some lovely feedback after the live event, including this comment from Jeffrey T Collins at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
“I have worked at the Advanced Photon Source for over 32 years and I learned many things during this event that I never knew before. It was quite informative. I look forward to re-watching the entire event.”
Jeffrey T Collins, Mechanical Engineering & Design Group Leader at Argonne National Laboratory
The symposium began with a historical introduction from Roland Pease, freelance science broadcaster who has been an enthusiastic support of light sources for many years.
Roland’s talk was followed by experts from the field giving talks on their perspectives of synchrotron light related achievements that have been made since the 1st laboratory observation on the 24th April 1947.
Speakers were:
• Nobel Laureate Prof. Ada Yonath (Weizmann Institute of Science)
• Prof. Sir Richard Catlow (University College London)
• Prof. Henry Chapman (DESY)
• Dr Paul Tafforeau (ESRF)
• Dr Gihan Kamel (SESAME and member of the AfLS Executive Committee).
There followed a panel discussion with special guests who all made huge contributions to the development of the field. Our special guests were:
Herman Winick – Prof. of Applied Physics (Research) Emeritus at SLAC)
Ian Munro – Initiator of synchrotron radiation research at Daresbury Laboratory ,Warrington UK in 1970
Giorgio Margaritondo – one of the pioneers in the use of synchrotron radiation and free electron lasers
Gerd Materlik – former CEO of Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron science facility
Lightsources.org is hugely grateful to all the speakers, special guests and attendees who contributed to this event and made it such a special anniversary celebration for the light source community.
If you have any feedback or memories to share, please do contact Silvana Westbury, Project Manager, at webmaster@lightsources.org
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Synchrotrons and free electron lasers (FELs) look stunning. The experimental equipment is state-of-the-art, which makes being a light source user both exhilarating and nerve racking. A key ingredient for success is excellent support from the beamline staff on the experimental station you are using. As Kuda Jakata, a postdoc who supports users at the ESRF in Grenoble, France, says in this #LightSourceSelfie, “The light sources community, they are very helpful people and they actually want to push boundaries and so they work hard and they do a lot of really interesting science.”
A team of scientists led by the University of Surrey used Diamond’s B16 Beamline, a flexible and versatile beamline for testing new developments in optics and detector technology and for trialling new experimental techniques, to better understand the structure of cancer cells.
By using the synchrotron, the team were able to complete sophisticated examinations of the characteristics of cell structures at a nano level and even at an atomic scale and to investigate how cells and materials interact with each other.
To improve cancer screening and treatment, researchers need accurate models of cancer tissues on which to experiment. Previous research made significant progress in building accurate, novel 3D models which mimic features of a pancreatic tumour, such as structure, porosity and protein composition.
