“My daughter’s first impression of the Australian Synchrotron is that it is ‘awesome’,” says Mike James. “Who am I to contradict her?”

Professor Michael James is the Australian Synchrotron’s new Head of Science, appointed for 12 months from ANSTO, where he was a senior principal research scientist, team leader and instrument scientist at the OPAL research reactor.

My own impressions of the Australian Synchrotron are of brilliance yet to be discovered and massive potential about to be unleashed.

Despite the uncertainty around funding in recent years, the passion and dedication of synchrotron staff have led to one of the most productive and high-impact user facilities anywhere. Staff have built a truly world-class machine, suite of beamlines and excellent capabilities for Australian research.

The vast array of scientific and industrial research already conducted at the synchrotron is pretty much mind-boggling. Health and nutrition, structural biology, drug design, materials and engineering sciences, geology and mineral processing, new energy technologies, environmental science, studies of culture and heritage, nanotechnology, and studies of materials under extreme conditions are just the beginning. Over the past five years, more than 10,000 researchers have journeyed to the synchrotron to carry out their research, and many others have been supported to travel onwards to synchrotron facilities elsewhere due to over-subscription of the AS beamlines.

My most important task in the next 12 months is to help secure additional funding for the next generation of beamlines, for maintenance and upgrades of the existing infrastructure, and for the expanded operation of the synchrotron’s growing capabilities. I’ll work with my colleagues throughout the facility to manage our assets and capabilities for the overall benefit of the user community.

I’ll also join forces with scientists, engineers, technicians and other staff to tell different groups about the great outcomes from this facility. Our initial audiences are governments and funding agencies as we work to gain funding for the expansion and operation of the facility. We’ll talk with the broader scientific community about how the synchrotron can assist their research, and show the general public how synchrotron research benefits people’s everyday lives.

The synchrotron is a focal point for scientific and industrial research in Australia, with the capacity to bring together researchers from sometimes disparate fields to tackle problems that cannot be solved using other techniques alone. Our goal is to actively engage the broader scientific and industrial research communities, helping to solve big problems of national importance. The scientific teams that build and operate the beamlines are often key collaborators in the major discoveries achieved at the facility. Enhancing the scientific reputation of our staff will be a major focus for me.

As the synchrotron evolves over the longer term, my vision is that teams will be brought together from across the facility, encompassing a range of competencies, to tackle the key problems of our age. Beamline staff will speak the language of their clients; for example, as structural biology becomes more important, we will increasingly engage beamline staff with backgrounds in biochemistry or molecular biology. The same can be said for staff who ‘speak’ engineering, geology, oncology or radiology.

Five years from now, if a stranger on the street asks me: ‘Where do you work?’, and I tell them: ‘the Australian Synchrotron’; I want to hear them reply not: ‘The Australian what?’, but: ‘Oh, I’ve heard of that – isn’t that where they do research into new types of solar cells... or ... diabetes... or ... new anti-cancer drugs... or ...hydrogen-powered cars... or ...new types of computer memory...?’.

In 10 years time, I want to see the technical floor of the main synchrotron building bristling with beamlines; although I suspect there will still be space for a few new ones. The synchrotron will be a hub for associate research institutes across a range of disciplines, staffed with researchers from around the country and bustling with visitors from around the world.