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JSPS and KEK support the SESAME School in Jordan

13 Dec, 2011

From November 14 to 16, the SESAME–JSPS School was held in Amman, Jordan. This school brought together world experts working in various synchrotron application fields along with the students and young researchers who have the potential to become SESAME users. About 50 young scientists from seven different countries/regions (Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority) attended the school, participating enthusiastically in both lectures and hands-on sessions.

This school was held as one of the projects approved under the JSPS Asia-Africa (AA) science platform program, namely, “the promotion of the SR (synchrotron radiation) sciences through collaboration with SESAME.” KEK is the core laboratory involved in this project. The AA science platform program is designed to contribute to the solution of problems in the Asia and Africa region and is funded by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This is Japan’s leading funding agency which provides funding to domestic and international scientific projects and programs.

Chaired by Osamu Shimomura, Director of the Institute of Materials Structure Science, KEK, 14 Japanese scientists gave lectures and supervised hands-on practical sessions during the school, covering a wide range of synchrotron-related fields including beamline, X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), structural physics, and imaging. Dividing into five groups, students also took part in the practical sessions, and a representative from each group gave a presentation on the final day of the school.

“I was impressed that students from the Middle East had the motivation to study actively and seriously. Almost all the students wanted to give a presentation as the representative of their group. I learned many things through my participation in this school,” said Wataru Yashiro from University of Tokyo, one of the lecturers.

SESAME stands for the Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and its Applications in the Middle East, and the synchrotron facility being built in Jordan under the auspices of UNESCO is the first such facility in the Middle East.