Canadian Light Source

The origins of the CLS can be traced back to discovery of X-rays by physicist Wilhelm Rontgen in 1895.

Synchrotrons made their debut 52 years later, when a team of American scientists built the first machine in 1947.

The University of Saskatchewan was home to Canada’s first betatron. This particle accelerator was established in 1948 and used to advance the nuclear physics research and cancer therapy programs already underway in Saskatchewan.

It wasn’t until 1960 that synchrotron radiation was seen as a scientific tool with significant capabilities.

In 1961, it was announced that a Linear accelerator (LINAC) would be built on the USask campus, a milestone in physics research for the university.

The Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory was established in 1964 with Canadian physicist Leon Katz as the founding director.

The Synchrotron Radiation Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison opened in 1968 and housed Tantalus, the first storage ring for synchrotron radiation.

With the help of the National Research Council, the first Canadian beamline was built at the Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility, inside Wisconsin’s Synchrotron Radiation Center, in 1978.

The creation of the Canadian Institute for Synchrotron Radiation in 1990 helped to mobilize the scientific community to champion for a national facility in Canada.

the Canadian synchrotron was officially awarded to the University of Saskatchewan in a 1999 announcement by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Construction of the CLS began in the autumn of 1999.

the experimental hall was completed in 2001.

The official grand opening of the CLS was held on October 22, 2004.

the first user was welcomed into the facility the following May to conduct an experiment on the VLS-PGM beamline.