Media

Media Summary and Tip Sheet:
Joint Conference of the 11th Canadian Light Source Annual Users’ Meeting and MEDSI-SRI

Discoveries by some of Canada’s brightest researchers will be the focus of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) 11th Annual Users’ Meeting. The meeting is part of a joint conference that also includes the fifth International Workshop on Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation (MEDSI) and the 15th Pan-American Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI) conference in Saskatoon from June 9 to 13 at TCU Place. Experts from over 14 countries will discuss the latest advances in the design and use of synchrotron light sources – one of the most versatile tools available to modern science.

Highlights include:

The plenary session of the Users’ Meeting is Monday, June 9. Seven part-day workshops take place on Tuesday, June 10, jointly with the MEDSI-SRI conference. The workshops will discuss advances and issues regarding the design and use of synchrotrons, including safety systems, microscopy and remote access of synchrotron facilities by the internet.

Sessions of the international MEDSI-SRI conference run from Wednesday, June 11 to Friday, June 13.

All sessions take place at the TCU Place Arts and Convention Centre, 35-22nd Street East, Saskatoon. Sessions run daily from 8:30 am to 5 pm, except Friday June 13, where sessions end at noon. To arrange to attend a session or interview a researcher outside of their scheduled session, contact Matthew Dalzell.

For more information contact:
Matthew Dalzell
Communications Coordinator
Canadian Light Source Inc
Ph: (306) 657-3739 Cell: (306) 227-0978
matthew.dalzell@lightsource.ca

Program Highlights

Monday, June 9

CLS 11th Annual Users’ Meeting

8:35 am – 5:00 p.m. Salons A & B, TCU Place
   
      Complete Schedule
   
8:35 – 9:05 a.m. CLS Facility Update
Dr. Bill Thomlinson, CLS
   
10:00 a.m. to 12 noon Science Highlights from the CLS
   
10:00 – 10:30 a.m. XANES studies at the PGM and SGM beamlines
Grant Henderson, University of Toronto
Using the CLS, Henderson and his team are researching the structures of glasses that could be used in the future to store nuclear waste.
   
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Infrared Functional Spectromicroscopy of Intact Rod Cells
Luca Quaroni, CLS
For the first time, researchers are using infrared light to understand the function of proteins inside living cells – in this case the rod cells from the eye of an American bull frog.
   
12:00 – 12:30 p.m.  Synchrotron-based research on sulphate and selenate transport in plants
Derek Lydiate, Agriculture Canada, Saskatoon
Sulphate is a macro-nutrient essential to plant growth and selenium is an important nutrient for plants and animals in small amounts, but toxic in large amounts. Synchrotron research is shedding light on the ways plants take up both chemicals, someday leading to the development of crops that can grow on land that would otherwise be toxic to the plants or grazing livestock.
   
1:00 p.m. Meet Josef Hormes, New Executive Director of the CLS
   
1:45 – 2:25 p.m.   The CLS – View from the CFI
Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation
   
2:40 – 5:00 p.m. Results from Young Scientists
   
Note:  Presenters may be available for interviews earlier in the day. Please call to confirm.
   
3:20 – 3:40 p.m. Black carbon characterization in soils
Karen Heymann, Cornell University
Black carbon (such as charcoal and ash) makes up a significant portion of the terrestrial carbon pool. Defining the characteristics of black carbon is important to understanding the roles different types of black carbon play in controlling the fate of pollutants, nutrients and even the composition and quality of soil. Note: Heymann is a collaborator with Johannes Lehmann, featured on the May 31 broadcast of CBC Radio One’s Quirks & Quarks.
   
3:40 – 4:00 p.m.  Crystal structure of the beta subunit of tryptophan synthase from Myobacterium tuberculosis
Bindu Pillai, University of Alberta
Tryptophan synthase is an enzyme important to the survival of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Understanding the structure of the enzyme provides targets for new kinds of drugs to stop the bacteria – and TB – in its tracks.
   
4:40 – 5:00 p.m.  Soft X-ray analysis of mono-floral honey
Andrew Shaw, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School
Students from Lloydminster Comprehensive High School won the chance to use the CLS after they proposed an experiment to see what, chemically, makes honey from different flowers look and taste different.

 

Tuesday, June 10 Joint Workshops
   
8:20 am – 5:00 p.m.   Remote Beamline Access                     
The latest ideas and developments to make synchrotrons accessible to researchers over the internet.		 Grand Gallery A
     
8:20 am – 5:00 p.m.  Challenges in Beamline Optics  Grand Gallery B
     
8:20 am – 12 noon Engineering for Low Emittance Grand Gallery C
     
8:20 am – 12 noon Future Directions for Synchrotron Radiation Photoemission Grand Gallery D
     
8:20 am – 12 noon Safety Critical Synchrotron Software Grand Gallery Suite 1
     
1:20 – 5:00 p.m. Cryogenic Systems for Light Sources Grand Gallery C
     
1:20 – 5:00 p.m. Correlated Microscopy Grand Gallery D

 

Wednesday, June 11

8:40 – 9:20 a.m. A New Light Downunder: The Australian
Synchrotron and Australian Synchrotron Research
Richard Garrett, Australian Synchrotron		 Salon D
     
9:20 – 9:40 a.m. SESAME Status   
Maher Al Shehab, SESAME, Jordan
SESAME – Synchrotron light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East – is a synchrotron being built outside of Amman, Jordan with the collaboration of countries throughout the Middle East.		 Salon D
     
1:00 – 2:40 p.m. Applications: Imaging 
A number of experts report on how synchrotron-based microscopy is pushing back the boundaries of what is too small to see – from inside cells to nanotechnology.		 Salon D

 

Thursday, June 12

8:40 – 9:20 a.m. NSLS-II: Status, Plans and Opportunities
Steve Dierker, NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Lab, U.S.A.		 Salon D
     
11:40 – 12:00 noon A New Hard X-ray Source for the Siberian
Synchrotron Radiation Centre
Konstantin Zolotarev, Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Novosobirsk, Russia		 Salon D

 

Friday, June 13

8:40 – 9:20 a.m.  Recent Progress in Diffraction Enhanced 
Imaging at the X15A Beamline of NSLS
Zong Zong, National Synchrotron Light Source		 Centennial Hall A
     

Last modified: 2012-02-02 17:02:36