AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE
in association with
Australian Institute of Physics and Royal Australian Chemical Institute
"Big Science and Little Science at Synchrotron Light Sources in the
Twenty-First Century"
by Professor J
Keith Moffat
(University of Chicago)
at
8:00 p.m.
on
Monday, 28 May
in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 1,
Sandy Bay Campus, University of Tasmania
Synchrotron
light sources are now accepted as essential tools for research in a wide range
of disciplines including chemistry, biology, molecular biology, environmental
analysis, polymer science, surface science and biophysics.
They are also used industrially for X-ray lithography to produce
micro-electronic components, and have clinical applications in new techniques
for the diagnosis of coronary disease by X-ray angiography.
These diverse applications depend on the ability of synchrotron light
sources to emit light of unprecedented intensity at wavelengths ranging from the
very short (‘hard’ X-rays) to the very long (infra-red).
The synchrotron light beams are emitted in short pulses separated by
adjustable intervals, are plane polarised, and are highly parallel.
This
year’s Selby Lecture explores, in non-specialist terms, the reasons why
synchrotron light sources have become such powerful accessories for research and
technology. It also addresses the
question, how the allocation of resources to “Big Science” facilities can be
balanced against the requirements of conventional “Little Science”
experiments in the researchers’ home laboratories.
As an active researcher as well as director of a state-of-the-art
facility, the lecturer is uniquely qualified to describe both recent
synchrotron-based research and the likely trends of further developments.
The 2001 Selby Fellow, Professor J Keith Moffat, is Louis Block Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago. Until recently he was also Director of the Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. He obtained his first degree in physics at the University of Edinburgh, and his doctorate in protein crystallography at the University of Cambridge.
For
more information please contact Prof. Robert
Delbourgo, ph:03-6226 2403