Greetings from the President
Hiroshi Kondoh (Keio University), President of PF User Association (PF-UA)
My name is Hiroshi Kondo of Keio University, President of PF User Association (PF-UA). I took over the position from former President Prof. Yoshio Takahashi in April 2024. I have been a Photon Factory (PF) user for a long time, and I would be delighted to support your research and education activities at PF through the activities of the PF-UA in my new position as President of the PF-UA. I kindly ask for your cooperation.
Synchrotron radiation has become an indispensable tool for understanding materials and life phenomena in nature. I can say that synchrotron radiation is an excellent light to illuminate the material world and life phenomena. I mainly use soft X-ray XAFS and photoelectron spectroscopy to conduct operando observations for functional surfaces, and I feel that the expectations for synchrotron radiation as a tool to investigate the structure and electronic state of functional materials are increasing in all fields. It is my wish that as many people as possible make good use of this precious light.
As you know, the PF-UA is a user organization of the Photon Factory, and the purpose of its activities is to connect users with the facility and to support them so that everyone can have a better experience of using synchrotron radiation. In particular, Photon Factory, as a synchrotron radiation experimental facility operated by an inter-university institute, has a long history of support and friendly competition while both the facility and its users have developed their research activities with a high degree of freedom. I think it is important to make use of this experience while continuing to make progress towards better experiments using synchrotron radiation. Another important thing is that the Photon Factory is a facility with strong links to universities and other educational institutions, and in many cases, it also provides valuable learning opportunities, and I think another important goal of the PF-UA is to help users learn better. The Photon Factory is located at KEK, one of the world's top accelerator research institutes, and has produced many excellent synchrotron radiation technologies. I think it is also an important mission of the UA to help the PF to develop into a better facility from the user side.
With these things in mind, I would like to describe what I see as the most important aspects of the UA's activities over the next three years. The first is to carry on with the activities that former President Takahashi has been promoting with the facility staff and the Executive Committee Members. I will encourage summer schools and various workshops to make the PF a good place for learning. I will also continue to operate the PF-UA Student Paper Award, which was established to encourage research by young people in particular, with the aim of expanding the scale of the award. Furthermore, I will continue to organize PF research meetings on the use and upgrading of the two-beam beamlines and development beamlines that have been set up with a view to the future of PF.
The second is to improve the environment in which users use the facility and increase the benefits of using the facility. The use environment has improved considerably thanks to the efforts of the facilities, but we hope to further increase the value of the users' commitment to PF through mutual exchange between users. I believe that one of the keys to this is the activities of the user groups. We went through a period when the activities of the user group had to be restricted due to the COVID-19 disaster, but from now on I would like to encourage new activities by the user group.
The third is to promote PF to external institutions such as universities. If external organizations can see that users are using the facility with a sense of fulfillment, it will lead to an increase in new users. It will also help to revitalize the user community by increasing opportunities for various collaborations. For this purpose, I hope to appeal to a wide range of external organizations through the PF-UA website and various events hosted by the UA. By doing so, we hope to build stronger ties with the external community of PF.
I am truly grateful to have encountered synchrotron radiation through PF in the course of my research career. I hope that in the future, many people will be able to use synchrotron radiation in their daily lives as casually as they use a ceiling light in a laboratory, and that it will become a ‘familiar and amazing light’ that will afford them the impression of ‘I can see this much! Of course, making and being able to use light is an essential skill for this purpose, and I hope that people who are passionate about this emerge and grow. With the above in mind, I look forward to working with all of you over the next three years to make PF-UA an exciting community for users and facility staff. The cooperation of users and institutions is essential to achieving these objectives. Your cooperation is sincerely appreciated.
