Speaker
Ms
ANA BELEN MARTINEZ
(ALBA SYNCHROTRON)
Description
ALBA is the Spanish synchrotron light source. Located near Barcelona, it
is a complex of electron accelerators to emit synchrotron light in order
to analyse matter at atomic and molecular levels. With eight operational
beamlines and three more in construction, it hosts more than 1,300
researchers per year mainly from Spanish institutions but also from
abroad.
Since 2012, ALBA is celebrating every year the ALBA Open Day, which has
become the flagship of the public engagement of the facility. More than
2,000 people are visiting the infrastructure during the day, running out
the tickets some weeks before. ALBA becomes a kind of museum just for one
day, transforming its beamlines and laboratories into hands-up games or
exhibition areas. However, the key of its success relies in the high
involvement of the staff (with almost half of them as volunteers). The
collaborative organisation has improved the event turning it into a big
science party. Some of these activities are a design competition for
selecting the image of the event or a music band that consists of
scientists and technicians, who cover famous songs for explaining the
benefits and curiosities of synchrotron light.
In this talk, a review of the activities addressed to the internal staff
as well as the visitors will be done with the aim of showing how an event
can joint both targets to share their passion for science.
Primary author
Ms
ANA BELEN MARTINEZ
(ALBA SYNCHROTRON)
Co-author
Dr
Gastón García
(ALBA Synchrotron, Deputy director)
