Synchrotron science showcased at the Windy City

During the past few weeks, you may well have detected an increase in news coverage of synchrotron science and novel experimental techniques, particularly in relation to health and cultural heritage research. This interest has resulted from Diamond’s first foray at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which took place in Chicago from the 12th – 16th February 2009.

Diamond submitted two symposia proposals to the AAAS in April 2008. The first was a Diamond research focused session entitled “Bright Light for Better Health.” The second was a collaboration, led by Diamond, with other synchrotrons within lightsources.org entitled “Casting New Light on Ancient Secrets.” We then waited patiently for the AAAS peer review panel to make their decisions. It was smiles all round when we learnt that both symposia had been accepted onto the programme. The fun really started when, in addition to this, we were granted news briefings for each session too!

Knowing that the AAAS Meeting is attended by several hundred science journalists, including all the UK national press and broadcast media, we set about preparing for what promised to be an outstanding platform for communicating synchrotron science to a wide variety of audiences, from the interested layperson to scientists whose research could benefit from access to a facility like Diamond.

Our impressive line up of speakers included Dave Stuart, our Life Sciences Director, Joanna Collingwood, from Keele University, and Keith Meek, from Cardiff University, on the health side; and Jen Hiller, our in-house archaeologist, who flew the flag for Diamond as part of the lightsources.org session. They all put a huge amount of work into preparing their presentations and assisted with the drafting of press releases that highlighted the most newsworthy elements of their talks. The speaker team was supported by Louise Johnson, Diamond Fellow, our health symposium moderator, Mark Davidson, from the University of Florida, who was on-hand for joint interviews with Joanna Collingwood, Anne Griffiths, the artist involved with Diamond’s World’s largest diffraction pattern project, and Silvana Damerell, from the communications team.

Warm clothes were packed and we headed to Chicago for what turned out to be a hectic but highly rewarding few days. Joanna Collingwood, who presented recent results that she and Mark had obtained at Diamond relating to Parkinson’s disease, recalls her AAAS experience.

Silvana Damerell, Diamond PR Manager, adds “The AAAS is a fantastic meeting and the amount of work that goes into ensuring its smooth running is phenomenal. All in all we achieved five national newspaper articles; two local radio interviews plus an interview with BBC Radio Scotland; an excellent feature on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme; and 57 online news items.”

The AAAS Meeting also gave Diamond the opportunity to interact with people in the exhibition hall. Thanks to colleagues at the Brookhaven National Laboratory who allowed us to come on their stand, we were able to feature the World’s largest diffraction pattern project. Seeing people sewing at a science meeting is a great way to draw a crowd and, while attendees add their stitch, you can talk to them about the science behind the pattern. Anne Griffiths gathered stitches from people of all ages including the President of the AAAS, Prof. James J. McCarthy.

More from AAAS

...towards a reclassification of viruses
Understanding the brain chemistry in Parkinson’s disease
Lightsources.org “Casting New Light on Ancient Secrets