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THE CASE FOR AN AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON
5 September 2003

The Australian Academy of Science notes that an editorial in The Age, 4 September 2003, questions the wisdom of the Bracks’ government in backing an Australian Synchrotron.

The Academy of Science strongly supports the construction of a properly financed synchrotron in Australia. This support is based on a fifteen-year program, started in 1987, to grow the national capability of the R&D user base in synchrotron research in scientific and business communities.

Professor John White, Chair of the Academy’s National Committee for Crystallography, welcomed the Victorian government's initiative to fund a first rate, third generation synchrotron for Australia.

Professor White said 'The Synchrotron has been a long time in the planning. The Australian Synchrotron Research Program (ASRP) was started in 1996 with federal government funding, to help Australian scientists access synchrotrons overseas.

The ASRP undertook an international study of synchrotron machine options leading to a technical specification in 1999.

On the basis of the growth in the current R&D user community and the projection of these numbers to at least several hundred by 2004, the National Committee for Crystallography strongly supports construction of an Australian Synchrotron.'

The Academy applauds the efforts of the Synchrotron’s National Science Advisory Committee to find funds for the Synchrotron’s operating expenses, once the Synchrotron is constructed. The Academy urges cooperation of all funding agencies to optimize the success of this project.

Professor White said, 'The Victorian government initiative is Australia's best chance to provide synchrotron facilities comparable to those in virtually every other country in the developed world.'