A signing ceremony was held on April 14 at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan at which the SSRL Division of SLAC and the Photon Factory Division (PF) of the Institute of Material Structure Science (IMSS) at KEK agreed to collaborate in areas of mutual interest.

An annex of the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides the opportunity for scientific users of SSRL and the PF to receive beam time at either facility in certain areas and under certain circumstances (such as the shutdown of one or the other facility for a major upgrade).

Colleagues from KEK and SLAC at Tsukuba, Japan for the joint collaboration signing ceremony. Left to right: Yoji Tatsuka (Director General, KEK), Atsushi Koma (Director, IMSS), Keith Hodgson (Director, SSRL) and Tadashi Matsushita (Deputy Director, IMSS). (Photo courtesy of SSRL)

This agreement will be of immediate benefit to SSRL users working in the area of small angle scattering. Several groups will soon be scheduled for beam time at the PF under their SSRL proposals.

We look forward to expanding scientific and technical interactions with our colleagues at KEK as facilitated by this MOU.