Around 130 engineers and scientists from around the world met recently in Melbourne to discuss the hottest new developments in synchrotron hardware design.

MEDSI is a biennial forum for international experts in beamline and accelerator technology. The 2014 event was hosted by the Australian Synchrotron in October at the Hilton on the Park in Melbourne.

Mechanical engineer Brad Mountford, who headed the local organising group for MEDSI 2014, said the extremely high quality of the conference presentations showed that MEDSI was now the go-to conference for beamline and accelerator technology.

A major highlight was half-day tutorial sessions on specialist topics presented by international experts:

• Properties of Synchrotron Radiation and High Heat Load Challenges – Dr Lin Zhang (SLAC/ESRF)
• Mechanical Stability of New Generation Light Sources – Prof June Rong Chen (NSRRC)
• Optical Design and Mechanical Engineering Challenges – Dr Tony Warwick (ALS)
• Magnet Designs for Low Emittance Storage Rings – Dr Animesh Jain (BNL).

The next MEDSI conference will be held in 2016 in Barcelona, hosted by the Spanish Lightsource ALBA.