Global light source website launched

Saskatoon, SK – The Canadian Light Source (CLS) and 15 other facilities in the international light source community have launched a website devoted to news and information on the world’s accelerator-driven light sources (synchrotrons and free-electron lasers) and the science they produce.

The web site – www.lightsources.org – was developed and is jointly maintained by the Light Source Communicators Group, whose members represent the world’s light source facilities in Europe, North America and Asia. Funding for the project is provided by science funding agencies of many nations.

Light sources around the world are advancing research and development in fields as diverse as medicine, drug design, environmental science, agriculture, minerals explorations, advanced materials, forensics, engineering, and materials fabrication.

Located on the University of Saskatchewan campus, the CLS officially opened in 2004. This national synchrotron research facility is one of the country’s largest science projects in the last 30 years. It is funded through an unprecedented collaboration among the university and all three levels of government: federal, provincial and civic. Significant funds were also provided by industry partners in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors. The synchrotron will be used by researchers in academia, government and industry.

Sponsors of Lightsources.org include Advanced Light Source (ALS, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA); Advanced Photon Source (APS, Argonne National Laboratory, USA); Canadian Light Source (CLS, Canada); ELETTRA (Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy); European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, France); Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungs Labor (HASYLAB Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany); National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC, Taiwan); National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS, Brookhaven National Laboratory USA); Photon Factory (KEK Laboratory, Japan); Pohang Light Source (PLS, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Korea); Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, USA); SPring-8 (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Japan); Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC, University of Wisconsin, USA); Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (SURF III, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA); Swiss Light Source (SLS, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland); andThe Free-Electron Laser at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab, USA).