UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
Canadian Light Source celebrates 20th anniversary of its launch

"This unique-in-Canada research centre arose from an unprecedented level of collaboration among governments, universities, and industry in Canada, and represents the single largest investment in Canadian science," said USask President Peter Stoicheff. 

"Strongly endorsed two decades ago by many other universities across Canada and by an international scientific panel, the CLS has made possible cutting-edge research that benefits human and animal health, agriculture, advanced materials, and the environment. For USask's research community, it has helped us be the university the world needs." 

Construction of the synchrotron facility on the USask campus began in 1999 and its official opening was held Oct. 22, 2004. Since then, thousands of scientists from across Canada and around the world have come to the CLS to run experiments that could not be done elsewhere in Canada.

"We know the science we do here at the CLS is very complex," said Chief Executive Officer Robert Lamb. "Most people don't think about the world and everything in it at the atomic level, the level at which we operate. But the breakthroughs we've seen since we began operating are the building blocks for advances that directly and positively affect people's lives, such a new drugs, more nutritious crops to feed the world, environmentally friendly mining processes, and better batteries for our cell phones."

Lamb said the breadth of research done at the CLS since 2004 by both staff scientists and scientists from both universities and industry has been extraordinary, "and it has built Canada's reputation around the world as a leader in synchrotron-based science."

Part of the anniversary celebration involves highlighting a few of the remarkable projects undertaken using synchrotron techniques, he said. Among them:

• a study of bone and teeth from Franklin Expedition crew members that showed that lead poisoning, long assumed to have caused their deaths, was in fact not a major contributor;
• use of synchrotron-enabled science to confirm the effective performance of an engineered tailings management facility built by Orano at its McClean Lake, Sask. uranium processing mill; and
• discovery of a compound that prevents the formation of the plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's, opening the door to new treatment for a disease that affects over 747,000 people in Canada alone.

"These are among the outstanding projects that demonstrate for Canadians the value this facility brings to leading-edge research that is both life changing and world changing," said Lamb. 

In addition to cutting-edge research, the CLS has helped to train thousands of students from around the world. Over 3,000 scientists and 1,200 students from 40 countries and 300 institutions have used the CLS in the last 20 years.

The synchrotron operates by accelerating streams of electrons to 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, fast enough to reach the moon in 1.3 seconds. Giant magnets bend the electron beam, creating a light millions of times brighter than the sun. When directed down beamlines, that light enables scientists to do analysis of physical samples such as plants and engine oil that is more detailed than with any other process, as well as to create images of structures at the molecular level.