Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, the former President of the SESAME Council (2008-2017), was one of the speakers at the XXth Edoardo Amaldi Conference, International Cooperation for Enhancing Nuclear Safety, Security, Safeguards and Non-Proliferation held in Rome (Italy) from 9-10 October 2017.
His talk, which first referred to CERN and its major accomplishments in the promotion of a culture of peace, on which SESAME is modelled conceptually, although the scale and scientific aims of the two organisations are completely different, then introduced participants to SESAME and synchrotron light sources in general, and gave them information on the early history of SESAME and the construction phase, as well as science at SESAME and the Centre’s training programme. It finally described some of the challenges the project has faced and its future prospects. This talk, as well as a testimonial by SESAME’s Infrared spectroscopy beamline scientist, Dr Gihan Kamel, were held in the session Role of Science in Technical and International Cooperation chaired by Dr Zehra Sayers, the Chair of SESAME’s Scientific Advisory Committee.
The annual Edoardo Amaldi Conferences are organized jointly by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.