LAAAMP tasks 

This project is an initiative to enhance AdLS and crystallographic sciences in Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean, SE Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands. The SESAME AdLS will start commissioning in Allan, Jordan toward the end of 2016. Interested parties have launched an initiative in Mexico to construct an AdLS there. The ESRF hosted the 1st African Light Source (AfLS) Conference and Workshop during November 16-20, 2015. At that meeting, participants adopted a set of resolutions, dubbed The Grenoble Resolutions, which enumerated the reasons for an AfLS and a roadmap to chart a path forward, and elected a Steering Committee to drive the roadmap. Cuba in March 2016 hosted a conference in Havana on high brightness beams, where there was a roundtable discussion on the idea of a Caribbean Light Source. Each region can look to AdLS science in Brazil as a model. It designed its first AdLS in 1983 and launched it in 1997. Initially, it was difficult to convince key parties of an AdLS’s benefits. At its opening, researchers submitted only a few proposals, but the number of proposals grew quickly by orders of magnitude. Brazil is now internationally recognized for the quality of its research, particularly in structural biology, and currently, it is constructing a fourth generation AdLS called Sirius. Brazil and similar experiences in Korea and Taiwan are examples of how excellent scientific research centres can improve local scientific and private enterprise opportunities.

AdLSs have revolutionized research in many science and technology disciplines, leading to a proliferation of facilities worldwide. The website lightsources.org has links to some 47 facilities in 23 countries in various stages of operation, construction or planning. Unfortunately, no AdLS facility operates in Africa, Mexico or the Caribbean. To start the process of growing and enhancing AdLS and crystallographic sciences in those regions, the LAAAMP project will undertake the following tasks: