SESAME, the first synchrotron light source in the Middle East
SESAME, primer sincrotrón de Oriente Próximo
- Date
- 2017 · confidence high
- Place
- Allan, Balqa, Jordan
- Credited to
- International consortium under UNESCO (Jordan, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus and Pakistan)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
A 2.5 GeV synchrotron light source in Jordan, open to scientists from the region, with first light in 2017 and user experiments from 2018. It brings together countries in conflict in a shared science project.
Inspired by CERN and proposed in 1997 by Herwig Schopper; the official inauguration was in May 2017. Membership has changed (Iran, Israel, Palestine, Cyprus, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey).
What it led to
- research in materials, archaeology, biology and environment in the region
- cross-border scientific cooperation in the Middle East
- training of researchers in the region on the CERN model