General
The ESRF, located in Grenoble, France, is one of the world’s most advanced synchrotron facilities. It is about 270 meters in diameter and includes 44 beamlines for simultaneous use. The facility began operating in 1994 and has grown to include 22 member countries. Each year, about 9,000 scientists use the facility to conduct experiments that explore the frontiers of world science. The ESRF has provided the basis for research that has led to four Nobel Prizes, including the research of Academy member Prof. Adat Yonath on ribosome structure.
Timeline
- In the mid-1980s, Prof. Jortner – then serving the Academy’s vice president – formed an advisory committee on the topic of synchrotron radiation and pioneered Israel’s participation in the international synchrotron facility, which was still only in its planning stages.
- As a community of synchrotron users began to form in Israel, Prof. Jortner and Prof. Jacob Ziv, president of the Academy from 1995 to 2004, worked to bring Israel into the ESRF.
- In the mid-1990s, an international community of experts determined that the Israeli scientific community was fit to join the ESRF and recommended that the Academy invest the resources Israeli scientists would need in order to access the facility.
- In 1998, Israel joined the ESRF as a Scientific Associate and committed to fund 1% of the facility’s operational expenses, in accordance with the scope of activity by Israeli researchers at the site.
- During the first decade, the National Infrastructure Forum for R&D (the TELEM Forum), funded Israel’s participation; Prof. Ziv chaired the forum.
- Upon joining the ESRF, the Academy established the National Committee on Synchrotron Radiation to represent Israel at the facility, to promote and support the work of Israeli scientists there, and to liaise with funding sources in Israel to ensure budgetary support for this activity.
- A comprehensive report by the National Committee on Synchrotron Radiation in 2008, describing the excellence of Israeli research at the ESRF, convinced the Planning and Budgeting Committee of Israel’s Council for Higher Education to commit to funding Israel’s ongoing activity at the facility.
- In 2009, Academy member Prof. Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her findings on ribosome structure, based on her work at the macromolecular crystallography beamline at the ESRF.
- In recent years, in light of the growing use of the facility and the spectacular success of Israeli scientists there, the National Committee on Synchrotron Radiation has worked with the Planning and Budgeting Committee to increase Israel’s share in funding the facility to enable a greater scope of activity. Israel is currently funding 1.75% of the synchrotron’s operational expenses.
- During the years 2018-2020, the ESRF underwent a comprehensive upgrade based on an Extremely Bright Source (EBS) program, at a cost of 150 million euros. The upgrade increased the brilliance of the beams by a factor of 100, making it the world’s brightest source of synchrotron radiation. This increase enables research with spatial / time filtering capabilities and precision of measurement that are much higher than before. For example, it is now possible to monitor processes at the nanometer and macromolecular level in real-time and produce videos which document the processes.
The success of Israeli scientists at the ESRF:
Professional evaluation committees allocate usage time at the facility, solely based on strict criteria of scientific excellence. Throughout the period of Israel’s participation at the ESRF, Israeli researchers have been top recipients of usage time. Thanks to the scientific excellence of Israeli synchrotron users, Israel is ranked among the top of the 22 member countries in this regard. The usage time allocated to Israeli researchers has been constantly greater than Israel’s share in funding the facility.
For more information, see the ESRF website: esrf.eu.