Royal Society paper and symposium celebrates Diamond

Twelve years after Diamond Light Source was set up, and seven years after it began operations, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A has published a themed issue bringing together 14 articles from leading academics celebrating all that the facility has done for scientific research.

 

The special issue, entitled Diamond Light Source: status and perspectives, comes in the wake of Diamond’s Royal Society 10-year Anniversary Symposium which was held in 2012. The symposium showcased Diamond’s achievements over the period 2002-2012, featuring speakers highlighting major thematic areas in which Diamond had made an impact.

 

This special issue of Philosophical Transactions follows on from the symposium, highlighting Diamond’s work over the past twelve years, right up to 2014. The issue contains insights from academics across a range of disciplines, including structural biology, materials science, and environmental research.

 

Diamond was met with glowing support from a number of prominent academics, including Ian Burke, Associate Professor of Environmental Geochemistry at Leeds, whose investigations into global biogeochemical processes and environmental remediation interventions are supported by Diamond’s spectroscopy beamlines. Yvonne Jones, Professor of Protein Crystallography and Joint Head Division of Structural Biology at Oxford, also praises Diamond in her article, which discusses the significance of Diamond’s crystallography facilities in her research on cell-to-cell signalling mechanisms and their impact on biological processes. Diamond Light Source: status and perspectives also contained an article from Nobel Prize-winner, Venki Ramakrishnan, whose work in complex structural biology depends heavily on X-ray crystallography using synchrotron radiation.

 

The issue was compiled and edited by former Diamond CEO, Gerhard Materlik, alongside Physical and Life Science Directors, Trevor Rayment and Dave Stuart. The introduction to the issue contains a description of Diamond’s history, mechanics, beamlines, and village structure. The introduction also highlights Diamond’s close relationship with industry, and goes on to look forward to the next 10 years of Diamond’s operation.

 

The introduction to Diamond Light Source: status and perspectives, can be read here. To see the individual articles from leading scientists, follow this link.