Commonwealth Newsroom | 27 October 2012
The agreement announced in March to secure the future of the Australian Synchrotron through a $100 million, four-year funding arrangement has been formally signed off by the Australian and Victorian governments. Under the deal the Synchnotron will become a “national” facility under the aegis of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
Former Monash University vice-chancellor Richard Larkins has been appointed as Director and Chair of the Australian Synchrotron Holding Company and the Australian Synchrotron Company, replacing Catherine Walter AM whose term expires this month.
The Synchrotron, at Monash University’s Clayton campus, accelerates electrons to create light beams a million times brighter than the sun. These intense beams allow hundreds of scientists every year to examine sub-microscopic structures, improving research outcomes in medicine, agriculture, bioscience, engineering, forensics and environmental science.
Minister for Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans, says the agreement will enhance the capacity of the Synchrotron and ANSTO to deliver important scientific outcomes for Australia. Neutron scattering science at ANSTO and accelerator science at the Australian Synchrotron tell researchers different stories about how things work at the molecular level.
When combined, these two complementary science disciplines give a more comprehensive view which will enable new Australian discoveries from better ways to fight disease to how industrial processes operate.
See
Synchnotron to go federal
Funding for synchmotron initiative
Synchnotron funding deal
