ALBA Synchrotron
On December 3rd and 4th, members of the ALBA Scientific Advisory Committee met at ALBA's premises. This session was focused on the evaluation of the received proposals for phase-III beamlines.
The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of ALBA meets twice per year to participate in the strategic scientific direction of the ALBA Synchrotron with the objective of ensuring the quality and relevance of research performed in ALBA. In the19th session of the SAC, the meeting was dedicated to the presentation and evaluation of future ALBA's phase-III beamlines.
Six beamline proposals were presented by researchers from the Spanish scientific community. Núria Verdaguer and Isabel Usón (both from the IBMB-CSIC) supported the construction of a microfocus diffraction beamline for macromolecular crystallography. During their presentation, they stated that this research area, which is of great importance in Spain, can provide excellence in science as well as to deal with societal challenges like health issues, food-related problems or bioremedation. Researcher Victor López (from Soleil Synchrotron) presented the submicrometer beamline with different techniques available (absorption, fluorescence and diffraction). This beamline may cover multidisciplinary research areas: earth and environment, cultural heritage, materials science and biomedicine. The proposal presented by Eusebio Solórzano (University of Valladolid) and Federico Sket (IMDEA-Madrid) supports the creation of a beamline for fast X-ray tomography and radioscopy, also with applications in multiple scientific areas and with industrial potential. Xavier Torrelles (ICMAB-CSIC) proposed SIRENA beamline, devoted to surface, interface and resonant diffraction which might have impact in health developments, energy studies and electronic properties analysis. Salvador Ferrer, associate director of ALBA, presented Skiron, a beamline for advanced chiroptical spectroscopies. Last presentation was carried out by Josep Nicolàs, head of the Optics, Metrology and Support section of ALBA, who proposed NOTOS, a beamline for developing and testing complex instrumentation.
The evaluation of these proposals by the SAC will be useful to ALBA management for the final decision on the definition of the future beamlines for phase-III, which will be taken once the amount and corresponding delivery of available funding will be known. According to present knowledge this is expected to be defined in the first months of 2015.
Currently, there are seven phase-I beamlines in ALBA, which are in operation at the moment. The construction of phase-II beamlines (MIRAS -infrared microspectroscopy– and LOREA -angle-resolved electron photoemission-) have started this year and they will enter the commissioning phase with friendly users in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Caterina Biscari explaining general status of ALBA. Presentation of Xavier Torrelles (ICMAB-CSIC).