The Canadian Light Source is one of the largest science projects in Canada’s history, producing the brightest light in the country—millions of times brighter than even the sun.

More than 1,000 academic, government and industry scientists from around the world use the CLS every year, in innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research.

CLS employs more than 250 people including scientists, engineers, technicians and administrative and business personnel.

Since the start of user operations in 2005, CLS has enabled over 4,000 scientists from 171 Canadian academic institutions and from 41 countries, to publish over 6,000 scientific papers highlighting discoveries in a wide variety of fields, in over 874 international scientific collaborations.

As a valued Canadian voice for innovation, our leadership and world-class talent achieve excellence in light source services and solutions.

We enable science, learning, and socio-economic benefits through the provision of synchrotron light.

• Safety: We make safety paramount.
• Innovation: We expand the boundaries of what is possible.
• Leadership: We are leaders in light source applications, global science, and organizational excellence.
• Collaboration: We enable collaboration among users, and sectors across academia, industry, and government.
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Accountability: We utilize resources responsibly and hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

A synchrotron light source produces extremely bright light -- millions of times brighter than the sun -- by using powerful magnets and radio frequency waves to accelerate electrons to nearly the speed of light. This infra-red, ultraviolet and X-ray light is shone down beamlines to experimental stations where scientists can select different parts of the spectrum to "see" the microscopic nature of matter, right down to the level of the atom.

• Learn more about the synchrotron

Health

COVID-19, cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, HIV, cystic fibrosis, new drug development, antibiotic resistance, malaria, stroke and toxoplasmosis.

Agriculture

Food security, crop development, fertilizers, drought, heat and disease resistant crops, and soil management.

Energy and Environment

Climate change, mine remediation techniques, groundwater contamination, heavy metal contamination in soil, renewable resources, and energy storage and generation.

Advanced Materials

Next generation batteries, high-temperature superconductors, fuel cells, eco-composite materials, solar power, new catalysts for more efficient industrial processes and energy conversion, microdevices, nanotubes, additive manufacturing and tools for the factories of the future.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, National Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan fund our operations.

• Our Partners