Daresbury enters into collaboration with the Institute of Crystallography and Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Moscow

On 29 September 2003, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Daresbury, the Institute of Crystallography and Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Centre to promote collaboration in areas of mutual interest including synchrotron radiation science and technology, protein crystallography, structural genomics, nanostructures and nanotechnology, X-ray optics and imaging.

Figure 1 The 2.5 GeV Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Source. Inset: Dr Hywel Price and Professor Kovalchuck signing the MOU. Professor Samar Hasnain and Professor Svetlana Zheludeva, Deputy Director, are seen in the background.

The Institute of Crystallography in Moscow was founded in 1943 with Aleksei Shubnikov as its founding director and has been served by many eminent crystallographers including Nikolai Belov and Boris Vainshtein. The synchrotron source at the Kurchatov Institute was initiated in the 1980s but the 2.5 GeV source was only completed recently. In late 1999, President Putin inaugurated the Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Centre. This is the first dedicated synchrotron radiation source in Russia and currently several beamlines are being commissioned including one each for protein crystallography, XAFS, small-angle X-ray scattering, powder diffraction and LIGA.

The Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury opened in 1981, was upgraded in 1986 and the late-1990s through the implementation of a high-brightness lattice and several insertion devices, and has had close links with the Soviet scientists since its inauguration. Daresbury Laboratory is developing its science campus with large-scale facilities: SRS, 4GLS, a high-performance computer and a Super STEM.