Large-scale facilities offer unique opportunities to explore materials and living matter. It is sometimes difficult to grasp to what extent these facilities can be valuable to solve scientific issues related to global health. With this in mind, the EUGLOH Alliance is organizing a 4-day intensive course on large-scale facilities (SOLEIL synchrotron, MAX IV synchrotron and ELI-ALPS laser centre) to raise awareness of students and staff on the possibilities of facilities that contribute to the European research landscape. In depth overview of career opportunities, operations, techniques and applications (biomedical and environmental) of these light sources will be given. The last two days of the school will be dedicated to practical sessions to apply for beamtime allocation.
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Programme
Please note that all times refer to Central European Time
Monday June 29, 2020 9:00 - 9:10 Welcome by Scientific Director of Life Sciences at SOLEIL synchrotron, Andrew Thompson 9:10 - 9:30 Introduction of the school by organizers, Slavka Kascakova from Université Paris-Saclay and Matthieu Réfrégiers from SOLEIL synchrotron 9:30 - 10:00 History of synchrotron light. Presentation of SOLEIL synchrotron (France)
Stefan Kubsky, SOLEIL synchrotron, France
Utility of synchrotron light for society: Research on the COVID-1910:00 - 10:30 SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: What have we learned so far?
Joakim Esbjornsson, Lund University, Sweden10:30 - 11:00 COVID-19 under the synchrotron light
Leonard Chavas, SOLEIL synchrotron, France11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break & Socializing 11:30 - 12:00 Presentation of MAX IV synchrotron (Sweden)
Marjolein Thunnissen, MAX IV synchrotron, Sweden12:00 - 12:30 Presentation of ELI-ALPS (Hungary)
Dimitris Charalambidis, ELI-ALPS, Hungary12:30 - 14:00 Lunch break Illustrated applications of these light sources in Biomedical Research 14:00 - 14:30 X-ray microCT tomography in Biology
Timm Weitkamp, SOLEIL synchrotron, France14:30 - 15:00 Antibiotic resistant bacteria under UV light
Muriel Masi, Université Paris-Saclay, France15:00 - 15:30 Diagnosis of Wilson disease by X-ray fluorescence
Slavka Kascakova, Université Paris-Saclay, France16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break & Socializing 16:30 - 17:00 XRF imaging of pancreatic islets to explore disease mechanism in diabetes
Jens Lagerstedt, Lund University, LINXS, Sweden17:00 - 17:30 Biomedical research in large laser facilities
Katalin Hideghéty, ELI-ALPS Laser Center, Hungary17:30 - 18:00 Toward radiooncological application of laser based technology
Katalin Hideghéty, ELI-ALPS Laser Center, HungaryTuesday June 30, 2020 Illustrated applications of these light sources in Food and Environmental Science 9:30 - 10:00 X-ray fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy in food and environmental science
Camille Rivard, INRAE, SOLEIL synchrotron, France10:00 - 10:30 Enzymatic activity for green chemistry with UV and infrared light
Frédéric Jamme, SOLEIL synchrotron, France10:30 - 11:00 Synchrotron radiation brings a new light on food flavour mechanism
Francis Canon, INRAE, France11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break & Socializing 11:30 - 12:00 X-ray tomography for adaptation of trees to global warming
Eric Badel, INRAE, France12:00 - 14:00 Lunch break 14:00 - 14:30 Career orientation: Overview of professional opportunities in large-scale facilities
Garance Aubry, SOLEIL synchrotron, France14:30 - 15:30 Networking with people of different professions working in SOLEIL synchrotron, France
Céline Lory (Industrial Liaison Officer)
Stefan Kubsky (Surface Lab Manager)
Franck Wien (Beamline Scientist)
Gabriel David (Responsible for Biosafety issues)
Hernan-Gabriel Pais (Coordinator)15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break & Socializing 16:00 - 17:00 Interested by an experiment at a large-scale facility? Practical information on the procedure of access will be given with remote access control on a crystallography beamlines.
Matthieu Réfrégiers, SOLEIL synchrotron, France
Marjolein Thunnissen, MAX IV synchrotron, Sweden
Zita Varadi, ELI-ALPS Laser Center, Hungary17:00 - 18:00 Virtual tour of large-scale facilities Wednesday July 1, 2020 Practical sessions on writing proposal application for synchrotron beamtime
Divya Madhavan, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay, France
Daniel Graziadei, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany9:30 - 12:30 Practical session (Part 1/4)
- How to write as a serious scientist
- How to convey an idea
- How to synthesize a flow of ideas12:30 - 14:00 Lunch break 14:00 - 18:00 Practical session (Part 2/4)
- What is the art of persuasion and why is it important to science?
- Thinking about a proposal for large-scale facilities and how to portray it convincingly
- Discussion on the informal art of persuasionThursday July 2, 2020 19:30 - 12:30 Practical session (Part 3/4)
- Assignment feedback (on the overnight assignment) in breakout sessions with a feedback template
- Review (+ open questions)12:30 - 14:00 Lunch break 14:00 - 16:00 Practical session (Part 4/4)
- How to do an accuracy read
- How to give written feedback on a paper
- Peer-to-peer accuracy read
- Feedback16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break & Socializing 16:30 - 18:00 Assessment of what has been learnt so far and general discussion and feedback on the summer schoolAssessment of what has been learnt so far and general discussion and feedback on the summer school
Slavka Kascakova, Université Paris-Saclay, France
Matthieu Réfrégiers, SOLEIL synchrotron, France -
Registration
Registration is open at: https://admin-sphinx.u-psud.fr/v4/s/0748k0
Registration deadline: May 31, 2020
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Report
Large-scale facilities for the benefit of all
From 29 June to 2 July 2020, the faculty of medicine of Université Paris-Saclay and the SOLEIL synchrotron, organised entirely online the first summer school of the EUGLOH alliance, dedicated to large-scale facilities for global health. The EUGLOH alliance is the only European university to have so many large-scale facilities available for their students and researchers. Yet, the public are unaware of their many areas of application as well as their accessibility. It is with this in mind that the idea of the school came to light, organised by two researchers who have been working together for many years, Dr. Slavka Kascakova, from the faculty of medicine, and Dr. Matthieu Réfrégiers, from SOLEIL.
Targeting a broad audience, both by level of study (students, doctoral candidates, researchers, engineers, staff…) as well as nationality and career path, the school brought together 72 participants, with 61 connections at a given time, from the 5 members of the alliance. Thanks to the school, participants were able to discover in detail the career opportunities, operations, techniques and range of applications (biomedical, environmental and nutrition) of electromagnetic radiation sources such as SOLEIL at Saclay and MAX IV in Lund, and of lasers such as ELI-ALPS in Szeged.
Innovative methods and education at the heart of the school
In the light of the Covid crisis, the school had to be entirely transferred online, without nevertheless losing the rich programme, which was a blend of technical presentations, workshops (data extraction and analysis, shaping ideas, writing articles and complex projects), but also included business speed dating, virtual visits and the essential social programme.
To face the new situation, the organisers were able to count on the mobilisation of all EUGLOH partners, speakers and students alike, as well as on the decisive support of the UPSaclay innovative education department, the CentraleSupélec Academic Writing Center in cooperation with LMU, and of the international relations department at UPSaclay.
A special session on the Covid was organised at the beginning of the school by 2 specialists from the Lund virology centre with a talk given by a researcher from SOLEIL. The social programme was also maintained, enabling participants to meet, open up to the cultures of the different universities (cooking recipes, intercultural quizzes, movie night followed by a debate with the producer…) and to relax (stretching and yoga exercises, for example). Furthermore, the virtual visit of large-scale facilities was possible thanks to the many tools already developed by the communication department of SOLEIL (virtual visit, 3D reconstitution of beamlines…).
An adventure to be continued
The school was a success as several students testified. Réka Eszter Szabó, pharmacy student at the University of Szeged, explains: “I learned a lot and had fun at the same time. I was able to create in collaboration with other international students (…) all the while benefitting from the advice of highly-qualified teachers. Furthermore, I didn’t think the social programme could work online. And yet, it was great fun, just like a traditional summer school.”
Doctoral candidate at the ISMO, Mai D.L. Vuong particularly appreciated the business speed dating with SOLEIL researchers, opening up new possibilities for her professional orientation. What is more, in spite of the distance, she was able to use the facilities at SOLEIL to carry out research in biomedicine in order to submit a project for beamtime.
“I hope that participants have understood that large-scale instruments used in physics can also be used by other communities (for biomedicine, the environment or nutrition for instance),” concludes Matthieu Réfrégiers. On another note, in spite of the virtual event, Slavka Kascakova made new contacts, namely with a lab director from Lund who attended the school. They should be starting a new research collaboration in the near future. Building on the success of the school, both organisers are already thinking about a new edition for next year, blending distance and face-to-face learning this time, and other EUGLOH schools should soon follow.
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Impressions