Welcome to the first edition of Lightspeed for 2012. Judging by the buzz in the networking sessions at the User Meeting in December 2011, our users and staff are looking forward to another year of productive research collaborations.

The User Meeting for 2011 was a fantastic success, with a diverse program that included an excellent opening address from James Whisstock (Monash University), who told us how synchrotron techniques are providing information about protein structures that could help us find ways to control immune-related disorders such as transplant rejection. Among other notable presentations, we also heard from Corey Putkunz (PhD, La Trobe University), who won the 2011 Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal jointly with Kaye Morgan (PhD, Monash University).

Some great work continues to be done in developing the planning for new beamlines. User Meeting participants enjoyed several presentations and productive discussions about the development of new beamlines. Given the likely constraints on immediate capital funding, it is good to see that new beamline designs are progressing well and are supported by the community.

Also in December, a meeting of our Science Advisory Committee endorsed the synchrotron’s work overall as world-class, and described some areas of our work as world-leading. At a meeting of our National Science Colloquium headed by Prof Sir Gus Nossal, we discussed strategies for ensuring greater awareness amongst key Australian decision-makers of synchrotron-related achievements and benefits.

For readers who may have missed the news while on holiday, the synchrotron has a new federal minister: Senator Chris Evans is now Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research. Minister Evans will work closely with Greg Combet, the new Minister for Industry and Innovation.

Keith Nugent
Director, Australian Synchrotron