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The Spanish Secretary of State for Science and Technology visits the ESRF

26-01-2004

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Last week the ESRF welcomed the Spanish Secretary of State for Science and Technology, Mr. Pedro Morenés. The Secretary visited the two Spanish beamlines at the synchrotron, and afterwards met with the Spanish scientists at the facility. The Secretary was accompanied by the General Secretary for Scientific Policy, Gonzalo León Serrano, as well as the Chairman of the ESRF Administrative and Finance Committee, José Luis Martínez Peña.

The Secretary had the opportunity to see the synchrotron from close-up. The visit started in the storage ring tunnel and continued with a visit to the Spanish beamlines, BM25 and BM16. According to Pedro Morenés, "it is very important that Spain has two beamlines here".

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The Secretary of State giving a speech to the Spanish community

BM25 is a beamline belonging to the Spanish Government and is currently under commissioning. It was designed with the aim that Spanish users can experiment in materials science. Beamline BM16 is funded by the Spanish Government as well as the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government). Since it became fully operational in September 2003, Spanish users have performed experiments in structural biology. For the Secretary of State, "it is very gratifying to see the work that Spanish scientists do here".

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Ana Labrador and Germán Castro showed Pedro Morenés BM16 and BM25 respectively. 

Spain is the country in the European Union with the greatest number of synchrotron users in facilities abroad. The ESRF has around 100 Spanish users a year and is the nearest synchrotron to Spain. There is also currently a synchrotron facility under construction in Spain, which is due to be operational in 2008.

For further information, please contact Montserrat Capellas, ESRF press officer, tel. +33 476 88 26 63 (email).