On 10th February 2019, Nobels Ada Yonath and Jerome Friedman, together with astronaut Ellen Baker, visited the ALBA Synchrotron.

Cerdanyola del Vallès, 11th February 2019.

The "City and Science" Biennal, organised by the city of Barcelona, has gathered well-known researchers who are participating in more than 80 workshops to bring scientific knowledge to citizenship.

After their participation in a roundtable for discussing the current challenges of science held at the CCCB in Barcelona, scientists Ada Yonath, Jerome Friedman and Ellen Baker visited the ALBA Synchrotron.

Accompanied by Caterina Biscari, director of ALBA, Ramon Pascual, honorary president, and other members from the ALBA management, they could visit the experimental hall and two beamlines, devoted to macromolecular crystallography and X-ray microscopy.

Ada Yonath, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Ramakrishnan and Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, could exchange some ideas about the field with ALBA researchers from XALOC and XAIRA beamlines, both devoted to X-ray crystallography. Jerome Friedman, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics together with Kendall and Taylor for the discovery of quarks, lively discussed with ALBA scientists about future discoveries. Ellen Baker, NASA astronaut, was also keen to visit the facility and showed interest in the new developments at ALBA.

Ada Yonath at the XALOC control hutch together with Caterina Biscari, director of ALBA, Judith Juanhuix and Roeland Boer, scientists at ALBA, and astronaut Ellen Baker.

At the left, Caterina Biscari and Ada Yonath at the ALBA experimental hall. At the right, Jerome Friedman visiting the experimental hutch of XALOC beamline together with Roeland Boer.