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Information for Information about Science at MCSS
 

Synchrotron science at Monash

A wide variety of synchrotron research is undertaken by research groups across Monash University including:

Monash researchers also participate in significant external collaborations, including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science and the Cooperative Research Centre for Biomedical Imaging Development (CRC-BID).

Synchrotron science at MCSS

In addition, MCSS researchers conduct their own synchrotron research, under the leadership of MCSS Director, Professor Rob Lewis.

Rob's interests lie in the medical applications of synchrotron radiation, including both diagnosis and therapy. Research is currently being undertaken in the following four areas:

X-ray imaging

Exploiting the unique properties of synchrotron radiation to obtain detailed real-time images of living subjects.

Radiotherapy

Learning how to use synchrotron radiation to treat cancer.

Disease diagnosis

Improving cancer diagnosis with techniques developed at the synchrotron.

Detectors

Designing and building novel X-ray detector systems, data acquisition components and data processing algorithms to support synchrotron research.

Researchers involved in these programs are participants in the the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science and the CRC-BID.


 
What is a synchrotron?

Schematic drawing of the Australian Synchrotron (image provided by the Australian Synchrotron)

A synchrotron is device that accelerates electrons to speeds approaching the speed of light. These fast moving electrons emit a very bright light as they orbit a central storage ring. This synchrotron light is captured in beamlines which can then be used in a variety of ways to investigate the atoms and molecules that make up everything around us.

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