Looking Back at International Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation

With the 11th International Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation coming up in July 2012 in Lyons, France, we thought it might be of interest to our readers to review all the past meetings in this series. We thank Denny Mills of the APS, Argonne for putting the list together. Prior to these larger meetings, and in the early days, facilities held their own meetings similar to the user meetings of today. However, the meeting held at ACO in Orsay, France in 1977 was the first such meeting with an international flavor and so it is on the list. However it is not counted as number 1 since it was agreed way back to start the numbering with the 1982 DESY meeting. The 2005 USA National Meeting scheduled at CAMD in Baton Rouge had to be canceled due to Hurricane Katrina. It was ultimately held in 2007, with the CLS hosted meeting the following year. And a personal note from the magazine - Synchrotron Radiation News was born at the 1987 meeting in Madison, Wisconsin with a proposal that was put to a special session of the meeting organized by Susan Lord. Initial proposals were to model it after the CERN Courier, but it soon adopted its own distinct flavor.