Physics Lecture: Synchrotron Light Sources: A Fundamental Tool for all Fields of ScienceNovember 17, 2011 at 7:30–9 p.m.

Alejandro (Alex) Aguilar, Scientist at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California will deliver a lecture entitled "Synchrotron Light Sources: A Fundamental Tool for all Fields of Science eon Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 pm in Olin 103. The lecture is free and open to the public. The abstract is below.

More than 60 synchrotron radiation light sources exist in the world, and many more are currently under construction. Light sources are fundamental tools for scientific research that produce high-flux, high-brightness photon beams that can be tuned from the infrared to the hard x-ray region. Each year, more than
30,000 scientists from around the world use these light sources for research in chemistry, biology, physics, and materials, energy, and environmental sciences. The principles of synchrotron radiation and its use in research in diverse scientific fields will be discussed using results from recent work performed at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, California. These highlights include studies of oil degradation by microbes, combustion chemistry, and studies of atoms trapped in carbon cages.