1979

1975 construction commenced...

The final phase in the commissioning of the injector system of the SRS was completed in May 1979 with the successful extraction of a beam of 600 MeV electrons from the booster synchrotron.

View of storage ring installation in progress at the end of 1979.  The roof shielding provides a useful area for the eventual installation of control racks for all the storage ring components; the first of these to be installed were the cavity cooling water panels shown here.

1980

First circulating beam at 21.30 on 30^th June 1980

The official inauguration ceremony to mark the appearance of the first high energy dedicated synchrotron radiation source was held on 7^th November 1980. A commemorative plaque was unveiled by the Right Honourable Mark Carlisle (Minister of State for Education and Science).

An historic photograph of the first beam in the new storage ring, as seen on an oscilloscope in the main control room. The beam intensity appears to grow, but the this effect is caused by the detector efficiency varying subsequent to the beam injection at the left hand edge of the picture. Two consecutive injected beams are shown, with a total loss of previous beam occurring each time new beam enters the storage ring.

1981

The first experimental stations at the SRS were brought into service early in 1981 and research work began in earnest. Over 50 University groups were scheduled.

First regular user beam Spring 1981.

Energy of operation at 1.5 GeV and 1.8 GeV, leading to 2 GeV operation in March 1982.

Experimental programme began – PX, EXAFS, topography. Running on 4 beamlines: 6, 7, 12 and 13.

EXAFS for Inorganic Systems Daresbury study weekend considered the first of the XAFS international conferences.

First paper published in Nature November 1981. Greaves, Durham , Diakun, Quinn.

1982

Running 9 beamlines with 9 stations out of 24 under construction.

6 cycles of user operations, 370 mA at 2 GeV achieved (full operational current).

Single bunch operations established March 1982.

Wiggler 1 brought into operation for users.

Port 8 designated as Dutch beamline with collaboration with Dutch Science Research Council (ZWO).

Three Dutch workers preparing to collect data on the small-angle scattering station.

1983

Running 10 beamlines, with 18 operational stations out of 29.

106 major research projects

Wiggler1 in full operation.

SRS on 24 hour operations.

RF Klystron failure.

First fixed weekly operating schedules.

Undulator 5 installation delayed.

Opening of Biology Support Laboratory.

Introduction of user support scientists.

Christmas Crackers

1984

Running 11 beamlines, with 10 operational stations and 9 under construction.

Cavity window problems over.

2 GeV operations resumed in June 1984.

Undulator installed in October 1984.

First visible light from the undulator

High brightness lattices design project commenced.

Opening of Anglo – Dutch beamline (8).

The undulator magnet in straight 5 of the storage ring.

1985

SRS operated reliably for over 5000 hours.

Monograph on SEXAFS and
Contract microscopy textbook diagrams

Conversion of the SRS to a High Brightness Lattice (HBL) involves a major change to the SRRS storage ring which will result in a smaller electron beam size, and hence synchrotron radiation of increased brightness, in some cases up to a factor of 10.

1986

SRS very reliable operations until 1 st October 1986 when shut-down.

Apparatus for small angle x-ray scattering

1987

HBL (High Brightness Lattice) inaugurated September 1987.

SR staff celebrating the inauguration of the HBL

1988

By March 1988 8 beamlines and 23 stations operational.

6 Tesla wiggler design study.

The foot and mouth virus (FMDV), determined by protein crystallography on the SRS. The first animal virus structure determined.

2nd International Conference on Biophysics and Synchrotron Radiation

SR user meeting poster exhibition

1989

Daresbury Research Services successfully launched October 1989, to promote resources to industry.

CERN Accelerator School, providing a basic course on the principles and practice of radiation sources.

Typical difference 2D diffraction
pattern obtained on station 2.1 -
investigating the changes during muscle contraction.

International collaboration project with NIST and ANL on beamline 3.

Shedding new light on catalysts. First light and test spectra recorded on beamline 1.1.

1990

NWO/SERC Beamline8 station taking beam

Beamline4 stations coming on.
HELIOS commissioning.

Commissioning the new protein crystallography station 9.5.

Equipment in the X-ray Optics Laboratory

1991

Installation in November 1991 of wiggler 2
(6 Tesla wiggler on 9).

TVM test facility established

Steering magnet control system upgraded.

3 year agreement between SERC and MRC for exploitation of the SRS.

4th International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation SRI 91

Beam expander on station 8.4 used to test an X-ray telescope (SODART)

1st Synchrotron Radiation Summer School

New Materials Science Laboratory

Molecular Science Laboratory in use.

1992

Recommissioning following installation of 2nd wiggler

Wiggler 16 construction work.

Advances in metallo-protein research.

New confocal microscope, DL and Utrecht collaboration on Port 13.

Construction work for the new wiggler beamline

1993

Scheduled beamtime for SRS users restored in June
after work on the second wiggler beamline.

Second wiggler magnet

ESRF buy monochromator designed and built at DL

National week for Science, Engineering and Technology

1994

Replacement of electron BPM electronics

Introduction of Global Horizontal Servo operation
Introduction of Local vertical Servo operation using TVMS

W2 stations coming on line

Microamp beam for astronomers

First European Conference on SR and Materials Science

SODART telescope mirrors in test assembly in hutch 8.4

First spin polarised photoemission spectra obtained from station 1.2

Funding for station development, four-circle diffractometer for modified station 9.7

1995

The SRS has performed at its highest recorded efficiency.
Now operating continuously for as long as is technically feasible(around 7000 hours per year).

Introduction of gapped beam.

Igor and Larisa Shpinkov both received Royal Society fellowships to work on the SRS

Biological Spectroscopy group awarded ROPA grant enabling upgrades to experimental facilities for cell biology research.

DL team awarded Royal Society of Chemistry Prize

SRS user Tony Ryan and his collaborators, Ian Hamley and Nick Terrill were awarded two bottles of champagne at the 1995 European conference on Macromolecular Science

1996

SRS gets uninterruptible power supply.

Delivering a high quality service to over 2000 users supported by the UK Research Councils, industry, charities and the European Community

First Synchrotron X-rays in Medicine Conference, use of synchrotron X-rays could lead to a new understanding of many diseases.

	Celebrating the opening of Station 16.5
Technology transfer success marked by payment of first royalties on sales of the Daresbury Double-Crystal X-ray Monochromator.

Science Watch96.bringing researches and the general public together.The Hart family from Barnstaple, winners of a competition spent a week working at the SRS

1997

More than 4,000 visitors enjoyed the tours, lectures
and activities during the DL Open Days.

1997 Nobel Prize share awarded to Dr. John Walker for ATPase. Data collected at the SRS formed a vital part of this research.

DARTS (Daresbury Analytical Research & Technology Service) launched to offer a problem-solving approach to chemical and materials analysis for industrial customers.

INGRID a new ultra-high vacuum INstument for GRazing Incidence Diffraction, commissioned on station 9.4

Taking a look round the SRS.	Protein team success - Royal Society of Chemistry Inorganic Biochemistry Discussion Group poster prize
Professor Harry Kroto practices football skills with a buckminsterfullerene model at the SR User Meeting	Line 5D developed for an advanced vacuum ultra violet (VUV) facility providing polarised radiation.

1998

Year of upgrade shutdown
Stations 6.1 & 6.2 ceased operations in April and May.
Explaining Nobel Prize-winning work carried out at the SRS to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh while at the Laboratory to officially inaugurate the Daresbury Science Centre

	Using the unique SYCLOPS microscope on the SRS to show the breakthrough in making live nerve cells grow on silicon.
Dr.Malcolm McMahon was awarded the ESRS prize for outstanding research by a young scientist working at a European synchrotron and the European Powder Diffraction Award.
One of the new multipole wigglers being lifted into the storage ring	Station 9.8 formally handed over to DL

1999

Work at the lab aims to develop a new technique using
X-rays from the synchrotron light source in a new way.

Objects as small as 50 µm - five one-hundredths of a millimetre, or about one tenth of the size of a full stop in a newspaper - can be seen with the technique. This makes the technique ideal for detecting very small tumours.

upgrade finished...

July - September 1999 stations 14.2 and 14.1 take first beam.

Optics area with 14.2 mirror followed by 14.2 monochromator

Faster, cheaper computer chips could result from a new way of looking at magnetic structures. using polarised X-rays from a synchrotron light source

2000

DARTS re-launch with the objective of over a 1000 potential
customers within three years.

High throughput Structure Genomics (MAD) beamline is planned providing a world competitive MAD facility

Professor Gerrit van der Laan receiving the Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize for pioneering the technique of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism.
RAPID detector under construction
	Optical cavity system designed and built for the SRFEL, Elletra, Trieste

2001

Science case for 4GLS submitted, September 2001.

PHOENIX (MPW6.1 commissioned)

March, building begins for new amenity center aimed at creating a new common area for socialising, relaxing and even keeping fit.

First Light from the CD12 primary mirror

	Dr Adrian Bull, demonstrates the science of fire breathing at the BA mini Science festival held annually at DL
The CD12 monochromator makes its way across the outer hall to the CD12 platform

2002

New Guinness World Record.

The DNA model was built in the Potteries shopping centre, Stoke-on-Trent. A joint venture between Keele University and Daresbury Laboratory.
10.78 metres high and containing more than 1,500 atoms, it represented the sequence of the first 250 base pairs on the first chromosome of the human genome.

SuperSTEM launch by Lord Sainsbury

A dedicated infrared (IR) microspectroscopy beamline IR 11 is now under construction

Lobster Mystery Solved Research carried out by scientists at Imperial College London, the University of Manchester, Daresbury Laboratory and Royal Holloway, University of London, has cracked the puzzle of why lobsters turn pink in the pot.

The Toroidal Energy-and Angle-Resolving Electron Spectrometer (TEARES) has been under development at the lab. The first signal and spectra were obtained in August.

User Amenity Area opened giving users a whole new complex to spend their time away from the beamline when at Daresbury.

Installation of the new klystron power supply.

2003

£11.5M from OST for ERLP (Energy Recovery Linac Prototype)

Station 13.1a performed a world first experiment in measuring fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between two marker proteins.

4GLS got through Gateway 1. The research carried out on 4GLS could help develop the next generation of computer memories, pharmaceuticals and catalysts.

Installation of IR11 front end.
Replacement cryoplant.
MoLES (Mobile Luminescence End-Station), a fully self-contained unit for measuring the photoluminescence emission from solid-state samples, finally commissioned. It can be used on many of the Daresbury beamlines

Close-in view  of the MAD sample area with the monolithic fluorescence detector and automatic sample changer

August 2003 station 14.2 goes robotic with the Rigaku ACTOR sample changer

2004

3 fold increase in the number of crystals screened in
a 24 hour period on station 14.2.

L3T is a new company formed specifically to address the global market for cholesterol testing.

Daresbury led initiative on the role of the protein superoxide dismutase in motor neuron disease was highlighted.

Intelligent materials that can react to external conditions? Future experiments hope to demonstrate the commercial viability of these stimuli-responsive polymer gels.

Collaborative research between Daresbury and the University of Manchester on the biogeochemistry of arsenic, particularly in hazardous arsenic-rich aquifers in Bengal and SE Asia is a significant step forward.

Health related research carried out at the lab.

Beams of synchrotron radiation used to examine a bronze helmet from ancient Greece. The non-destructive techniques have helped to unravel the object's unusual history and could be used to investigate other ancient artefacts.