The Australian Synchrotron's Science Advisory Committee (SAC) was established by the Australian Synchrotron (ASCo) Board to advise the Board on the strategic scientific direction of current and future scientific programs to ensure that these are of the highest quality and of continuing relevance to the requirements of the Australian scientific community.

The SAC held its inaugural meeting on 30 May 2008. It is currently chaired by Professor Ted Baker, Professor of Biological Sciences, the University of Auckland.

International members

• Prof. Hongjie Xu, Director of Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Member Chinese Synchrotron Radiation Special Committee
• Prof. Soichi Wakatsuki, Director, Photon Factory Synchrotron Radiation Facility Tsukuba, Japan
• Prof. Janet Smith, University of Michigan Medical School, Life Sciences Institute, USA
• Prof. Michael Hart, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Manchester, UK
• Assoc. Prof. Lisa Miller, National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA
• Dr Harald Reichert, Director of Research, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble France
• Prof. Chi-Chang Kao, Associate Laboratory Director, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University.

Australia/New Zealand members

• Prof. Ted Baker, Professor of Biological Sciences, the University of Auckland, NZ (Chair)
• Prof. Mitchell Guss, Professor of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney
• Prof. Brendan Kennedy, Professor of Chemistry, The University of Sydney
• Prof. Mark Ridgway, Head of Department, Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University.

Prof. Ted Baker (Chair)

Ted Baker pioneered the establishment of structural biology in New Zealand, and has made international contributions in many areas, including protein structure refinement, hydrogen bonding, and the function of proteins involved in infectious disease such as TB. A recent highlight was his publication in Science in 2007 of the structure and assembly of a protein that forms pili on streptococci. His laboratory pioneered New Zealand’s use of overseas synchrotron facilities, including remote data collection, and provides a national resource in structural biology.

Ted is a former president of the International Union of Crystallography and has served on the Scientific Advisory Committee of BIOXHIT, a multi-country European project aimed at developing high-throughput synchrotron capabilities in structural biology. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Protein Data Bank. In 2006, he was awarded the Rutherford Medal, New Zealand’s highest science award. Ted is currently Distinguished Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Auckland.

Prof. Mitchell Guss

Mitchell Guss is Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Sydney, where he has been on staff since 1975. He has worked in England and the US, and served six years on the advisory committee for the BioCARS beamlines at the APS, the last three as Chair. He is currently President of the Asian Crystallographic Association, a co-editor of Acta Crystallographica Sections D and F, and an editor of the Journal of Molecular Biology. Mitchell’s research career has been concerned with using diffraction methods to determine structures of biological interest, including metal complexes of peptides, polysaccharides and proteins from bacterial, plant and human origins. He has helped developed new methods of structure solution refinement. Highlights include solving the structures of hyaluronic acid, plastocyanin and copper amine oxidase. The solution of the structure of the basic blue copper protein from cucumbers was the first time multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) was applied to a novel metalloprotein structure.

Prof. Michael Hart

Michael Hart’s distinguished career includes research, management and advisory appointments in engineering and physics at Cornell, Bristol, London, Manchester, De Montfort and Warwick universities, NASA Electronics Research Center and Daresbury Laboratory. He was Chairman of the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1995-2000. A Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Michael was appointed Commander of the British Empire for services to physics in 1992.

Prof. Brendan Kennedy

Brendan Kennedy obtained his PhD from Monash University in Melbourne and is currently the Professor of Solid State Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney. He has over 20 years experience in x-ray and neutron diffraction of inorganic materials, including studies of phase transitions, and is the author of over 230 refereed scientific publications. He played a leading role in the design of the powder diffractometers at both the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne and the OPAL research reactor in Sydney. Brendan is currently President of the Australian Neutron Beam Users Group.

Assoc. Prof. Lisa Miller

Lisa Miller is the Life and Environmental Sciences group leader at the National Synchrotron Light Source and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University. A biophysical chemist, she obtained her PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1999, Lisa became a staff scientist at BNL, where she is currently focusing on applications of synchrotron x-ray and infrared imaging to diseases such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Lisa’s work has two primary research areas: (1) examination of the chemical composition of bone tissue in diseases such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, and (2) correlation of metal ion content and protein structure in brain tissue in protein-folding diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and scrapie. She is also spokesperson for Beamline U10B and X27A. Beamline U10B specialises in mid-infrared microspectroscopy of materials such as biological tissues, polymers, coated and corroded surfaces, soils, minerals, and plants. Beamline X27A specialises in x-ray fluorescence microprobe analysis of trace metals in similar materials.

Prof. Mark Ridgway

Mark Ridgway is Head of the Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics and Engineering, at the Australian National University. His research interests include the processing and characterisation of technologically relevant materials and span semiconductors, metals and insulators. He combines transmission electron microscopy with synchrotron-based XAS and SAXS measurements for the study of materials in crystalline, nanocrystalline and amorphous forms.
 

Hongjie Xu*	Soichi Wakatsuki	Janet Smith

 *Photo by Sandra Morrow.