Working with Diamond Light Source
Thursday, 06 December 2012
Dr Roger Bennett, Department of Chemistry whoÔÇÖs group were the first users of a section of the light source in 2012. Dr Bennett was also on the user working group to build the beamline. [Image courtesy of Diamond Light Source]
Diamond Light Source, the national synchrotron facility, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2012 and University of Reading researchers have been involved with the facility from the very start.
Based only 30 minutes from the University in South Oxfordshire, the Diamond synchrotron is a vital resource for the University's research in Biological Sciences, Pharmacy and in particular, Chemistry.
The synchrotron accelerates electrons up to very high speeds, producing very bright focused beams of light, around 100 billion times brighter than a standard hospital X-ray machine or 10 billion times brighter than the sun. Scientists use the light to study a wide range of chemical and biological structures at the atomic and nanoscale.
The University of Reading's partnership with Diamond Light Source facilitates high profile fundamental scientific research at the University. This strong partnership and the proximity of the facility to Reading provides world class facilities and training for a number of our postdoctoral research staff and postgraduate students.
Several leading Reading research groups spend some of their time working at Diamond. Typically, a team includes at least one academic and several research students, along with postdoctoral scientists. Some of the students are co-funded by Diamond Light Source, which provides an excellent experience for the student, both by giving them superb facilities, but also because they learn teamwork and good communication skills. Currently, 12 Reading academics make regular use of the facility, as well as 11 co-funded joint postgraduate students.
See images of University of Reading research teams at the Diamond Light Source on the flickr stream here: here >>>
Find out more about some of the Reading research that has been aided by the use of Diamond's facilities:
Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy
Structures of medicinally important biomaterials
Surface Crystallography and Dynamics