Middle East synchrotron

On 3 November SESAME celebrates an inauguration to mark completion of and staff moving into the facility’s building in Allaan, Jordan. SESAME—Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East—has the dual goals of facilitating good science and good relations in the region (see Physics Today, February 2007, page 29 ). Iran joined the project earlier this year, bringing the number of partners to nine.

“One of the big problems that worried me was the funding of beamlines,” says SESAME founding council president Herwig Schopper. “A miracle happened! This year we received the components for five complete beamlines from Dares-bury [Laboratory in the UK].” With other equipment from France and the US, he adds, “we have all the components for the first generation of beamlines.” What’s more, he says, a community of several hundred users has been established. “The big worry by some people that SESAME would become a white elephant can be definitely discarded.” SESAME is slated to open in 2011.

Coinciding with the inauguration, the project’s council presidency is changing hands from one former CERN director general to another: Schopper’s successor is Chris Llewellyn-Smith.