"At the turn of the twenty-first century, there were about sixty synchrotron-light sources in the world (including those in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Thailand, the UK and the USA).The use of synchrotron radiation is considered an important means of promoting many modern technologies, as well as of fostering interdisciplinary activities. Yet no such facility existed in the Middle East, although a need had been recognized by eminent scientists, such as Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, more than twenty years earlier. It was in 1997, during a workshop organized by the CERN-based Middle East Scientific Cooperation (MESC) group headed by the world-renowned Italian physicist Sergio Fubini, that a concrete proposal to set up an international synchrotron source in the Middle East was first put forward......."

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Opening SESAME was a contribution by Clarissa Formosa Gauci to Sixty Years of Science at UNESCO 1945-2005, UNESCO, 2006, (695 pages) UNESCO Publishing, Click for direct purchase

For more information contact: c.formosa-gauci@unesco.org