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The Cyprus Institute Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the SESAME Synchrotron Light Source of Jordan

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President of The Cyprus Institute, Prof. Costas Papanicolas and Director of SESAME, Dr Khaled Toukan, shake hands after signing a Memorandum of Understanding

On Thursday 27th, The Cyprus Institute and SESAME signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), agreeing to continue and further develop their close collaboration on issues and projects of common interest related to research and educational activities.

SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) is a “third-generation” synchrotron light source, located in Jordan, and the first major international research Centre in the Middle East. The signing of the MoU took place within the context of a workshop, organized by The Cyprus Institute, on 27th-28th June 2019 at CyI facilities in Nicosia.

The workshop was organized on the occasion of a new beamline being designed for the SESAME synchrotron, and focused on exploring various application domains of high-resolution synchrotron radiation (SR) tomography, and in specific, applications relevant to the SESAME region (Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Palestine).

The tomography beamline will be designed, constructed, and commissioned by the EU H2020 funded project BEATS (Beamline for Tomography at SESAME; https://beats.esrf.fr/), enabling research using tomography from 2022 onwards. Numerous of clear application domains in the SESAME region have already been identified, including Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Health and Biomedicine, Geology and Materials and Nano Science, and Engineering.

The workshop was attended by researchers and interested parties across academic disciplines, industry, governmental services and speakers including Giorgio Paolucci (SESAME), Marco Stampanoni (PSI), Alexander Rack (ESRF), Kirsi O. Lorentz (CyI), Mirjam van Daalen (PSI) and others.

CyI President Professor Costas Papanicolas said: “It’s a privilege and an honor to renew the MoU between SESAME and the CyI, and it’s a particularly happy day for us. Both Institutes started full of hopes, and succeeded and now we have progressed to maturity. Our high vision meets reality in the laboratory. I would say no promises anymore, but realities”.

The Director of SESAME, Dr. Khaled Toukan noted: “It is a pleasure and honor to sign the MoU, which establishes another milestone of cooperation between SESAME and CyI. It’s a long-lasting relationship that goes back many years, and is a manifestation of a great friendship that ties our people in Jordan and Cyprus. We hope that the signing of the MoU, will further strengthen and expand the cooperation between our two organizations.”