A bright light and a promise delivered: SESAME Light Source in the Middle East

SESAME is a modern 2.5 GeV electron synchrotron, delivering infrared, ultraviolet, soft and hard x-rays. It is governed by an International Council, and it is funded by its member states. SESAME utilizes its beamlines for general scientific purposes. It has become operational in 2018. Currently there are three operational beamlines which are dedicated to x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy studies. Three additional beamlines are in various stages of development, including a soft-x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, hard-x-ray tomography and imaging, and a macromolecular crystallography beamline. There can be as many as 18 beamlines built at full operations. The beamtime allocation is based on proposal system and it is free of charge for publishable work. Recent examples of published scientific work will be presented.