Dr. Harry Westfahl Jr. [LNLS, Brazil]

HPSTAR COLLOQUIUM

Title: Science and Innovation at the SIRIUS Light Source

Language:  English presentation

Time: 15:00 - 16:30, Jan. 17, 2025

Place: Onsite: Auditorium B101, HPSTAR (Beijing)

          Online: Tencent Meeting: https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/XXl2uHqNQZdf  Meeting ID: 233-549-659

Host: Drs. Haozhe Liu and Lisa Liu

Abstract:

As Latin America's only synchrotron, SIRIUS offers beamlines spanning from infrared to hard X-rays, accessible to researchers worldwide. SIRIUS storage ring, operating at 3 GeV with a 100 mA current, features a 5BA magnet lattice designed for high transverse coherence. It supports up to 38 beamlines, with ten currently operational, two in commissioning and two in installation. The initial set of beamlines covers scientific programs and experimental techniques such as CDI, XPCS, micro and nano-CT, micro and nano-XRD, XAFS, SAXS, ARPES, RIXS, PEEM, and XMCD. Innovative advancements in optics, precision mechatronics, detectors, and computing technology support these experimental capabilities.

Since its inception in 2012, SIRIUS has leveraged expertise from UVX, Latin America’s first synchrotron. By 2019, SIRIUS had achieved its first stored beam, and by the end of 2021, it had operated at 100 mA with six beamlines open for user commissioning. Regular operations for users began in 2023. Aligned with Brazil's green economy strategy, SIRIUS prioritizes sustainable innovation and facilitates agriculture, energy, environment, and health research. Early publications highlight a commitment to sustainable development. In 2023, the Brazilian government approved SIRIUS’s second phase that will add ten more beamlines, extending SIRIUS’s spectral range into the THz gap and harder X-rays; technical upgrades, such as the current increase to 350 mA; and infrastructure improvements.

Additionally, CNPEM’s ORION project will establish Latin America’s first Biosafety Level 4 (BLS4) laboratory, integrating advanced synchrotron X-ray bio-imaging techniques to allow scientists to see, in tri-dimensions, how pathogens infect animals and cause diseases, from the cellular up to the organism level.Note:SIRIUS, Brazil’s fourth-generation storage ring light source, is managed by the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) at CNPEM and funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations (MCTI).

Biography of the Speaker:

Harry Westfahl Jr. is the director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) since 2020. He also served LNLS as Scientific Director from 2013 to 2019, as deputy scientific director from 2011 to 2012 and, as a researcher since 2001, when he joined the Laboratory after three years of postdoctoral research. Since 2013 he coordinates the project and construction of the beamlines for the new Brazilian synchrotron light source, Sirius. Its main research interests are in the physics of condensed matter systems, in the use of synchrotron radiation for the study of materials, mainly polymers and magnetic materials, and in the development of synchrotron radiation instrumentation.

Ph.D. in Physics, 1998, State University of Campinas (IFGW/Unicamp), Brazil.

B.Sc. in Physics, 1994, State University of Campinas (IFGW/Unicamp), Brazil.