User Community Building Workshop in Synchrotron Radiation Techniques available for Cypriot academia and industrial users at SESAME

Asia/Nicosia
Conference Room (Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus)

Conference Room

Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
Description

 

User Community Building Workshop on Synchrotron Radiation Techniques available for Cypriot Academic and Industrial Users at SESAME

The team of the project SUNSTONE (SESAME's Upgrading Network for Scientific User Training and Outreach into the Next Era) is delighted to invite you to participate in the “User Community Building Workshop on Synchrotron Radiation Techniques available for Cypriot Academic and Industrial Users at SESAME".

This major two-day event will take place on 24-25 November 2025 at the SEMELI Hotel (Nicosia, Cyprus). It is organised within the framework of the Horizon Europe SUNSTONE project by The Cyprus Institute (CyI, Cyprus), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI, Switzerland), the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME, Jordan), and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY, Germany), under the auspices of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy (DMRID, Cyprus).

About the SUNSTONE Project
SUNSTONE, co-funded by the European Commission and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), aims to strengthen the long-term sustainability of SESAME, a pivotal synchrotron Research Infrastructure (RI) in the Middle East. SESAME serves eight members — Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, and Türkiye — and is expanding its collaborative focus toward Africa. One of SUNSTONE’s key goals is to expand the Cypriot user community of both academic and industrial researchers at SESAME.

This workshop is designed to:
• Introduce Cypriot researchers to SESAME’s synchrotron capabilities
• Provide knowledge, tools, and scientific expertise for potential users
• Support participants in preparing beamtime proposals at SESAME.

The program will feature:
Scientific presentations by Cypriot researchers and analytical experts from two nationally funded Research Infrastructures-SESAME and the BioMERA Platform microCT facility
Networking and mentoring sessions, grouped by research topics, where participants will collaboratively develop “crazy scientific ideas” into actionable proposals for SESAME beamtime applications.

All are welcome to join the workshop (no attendance and meal fees for participants).  

Venue
SEMELI hotel
10, Petraki Yiallourou Str
1077 Nicosia, Cyprus

Workshop organisers
Kirsi Lorentz (CyI), Anis Fatima (CyI), Mirjam van Daalen (PSI), Annick Froideval Zumbiehl (PSI), Andrea Lausi (SESAME), Jessica Ahedor (SESAME), and Frank Lehner (DESY), and the local teams
Hosted by The Cyprus Institute
Under the auspices of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of Cyprus. 

Further Information on:
• The SUNSTONE project: https://sunstone.sesame.org.jo/
• The SESAME synchrotron facility (Jordan): https://www.sesame.org.jo/

Funding Statement
The SUNSTONE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe framework program for research and innovation under grant agreement number 101177314 and from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 24.00352. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA) or the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

 

Annick Froideval Zumbiehl
Registration
User community building workshop in Cyprus
Participants
  • Monday 24 November
    • 09:00 09:30
      Registration & Welcome Coffee 30m Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
    • 09:30 09:50
      Welcome Adresses Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      Conveners: Dr Konstantinos Kleovoulou (Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and digital Policy Cyprus), Prof. Stavros Malas (The Cyprus Institute), Dr Mirjam van Daalen (PSI - Paul Scherrer Institut)
    • 09:50 10:10
      Building bridges with light: The SESAME story 20m Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      Speaker: Prof. Atef Elkadime (SESAME)
    • 10:10 10:30
      High Brilliance, High Impact: Science at SESAME 20m Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      Speaker: Dr Andrea Lausi (SESAME)
    • 10:30 11:00
      Coffee break 30m Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
    • 11:00 13:00
      Connecting research ideas and needs relevant for Cypriot scientists with analytical synchrotron techniques and services offered at the SESAME user facility: Session 1 Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 11:00
        National strategic research infrastructures BioMERA Platform microCT and the new BioMERAplus XRF and labXAFS: Twinning with SESAME beamlines 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speakers: Dr Kirsi Lorentz (The Cyprus Institute), Dr Anis Fatima (The Cyprus Institute)
      • 11:20
        Revealing the Unseen: Exploring New Research Horizons for Cyprus with the BEATS Beamline at SESAME 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Abdellatif Saadaldin (SESAME)
      • 11:40
        Educational activities with SESAME in the context of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie ENGAGE program 10m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Prof. Constantia Alexandrou (The Cyprus Institute)
      • 11:50
        Deep Learning for 3D Synchrotron X-ray Tomography Data 10m Online

        Online

        Speaker: Haider Shah Syed Muhammad (The Cyprus Institute)
      • 12:00
        Recent Advances in XAS/XEOL at BM08-XAFS/XRF: Machine Learning-Driven XAFS Data Analysis 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Latif Ullah Khan (SESAME)
      • 12:20
        Identification, spatial distribution, and speciation of relevant trace elements in manganese umbers from the Troodos Mountain in Cyprus: a combined X-ray fluorescence and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy study 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: George Chadjigeorgiou (Geological Survey Department Cyprus)
      • 12:40
        Leveraging the power of exposomics to study the impact of environment on human health 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Prof. Konstantinos Makris (Cyprus University of Technology)
    • 13:00 14:00
      Lunch break 1h DEMETRA restaurant (Semeli Hotel, Nicosia, Cyprus)

      DEMETRA restaurant

      Semeli Hotel, Nicosia, Cyprus

    • 14:00 16:00
      Connecting research ideas and needs relevant for Cypriot scientists with analytical synchrotron techniques and services offered at the SESAME user facility: Session 2 Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 14:00
        Synchrotron X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging: Opportunities and Applications 20m Online

        Online

        Speaker: Dr Gianluca Iori (Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI))
      • 14:20
        ANAXAM: How industry profits from applied material analytics using Neutron and Synchrotron radiation 20m Online

        Online

        Speaker: Dr Christian Grünzweig (ANAXAM, Switzerland)
      • 14:40
        Utilizing Synchrotron Radiation to Explore Material Properties 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Melita Menelaou (Cyprus University of Technology)
      • 15:00
        Coffee break 30m Conference Room (Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus)

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 15:30
        Discussions and networking 30m
        Speaker: All
  • Tuesday 25 November
    • 09:00 10:30
      Connecting research ideas and needs relevant for Cypriot scientists with analytical synchrotron techniques and services offered at the SESAME user facility: Session 3 Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 09:00
        Why Synchrotrons Make Powder Diffraction Powerful 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Andrea Lausi (SESAME)
      • 09:20
        Micro-Computed Tomography of Mouse Bone Tissue: Applications in Ex Vivo and In Vivo Studies 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Antonia Sophocleous (European University Cyprus)
      • 09:40
        ID11-L HESEB: Soft X ray Absorption Spectroscopy at SESAME and Scientific Opportunities 20m Online

        Online

        Speaker: Dr Mustafa Genisel (SESAME)
      • 10:00
        SESAME BM02-IR Beamline: Present & Future 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Gihan Kamel (SESAME)
    • 10:30 11:00
      Coffee break 30m Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
    • 11:00 12:30
      Connecting research ideas and needs relevant for Cypriot scientists with analytical synchrotron techniques and services offered at the SESAME user facility: Session 4 Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 11:00
        TXPES: A New Soft X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Beamline at SESAME 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Zeynep Öztürk (SESAME)
      • 11:20
        Synchrotron Radiation Techniques applied to Salt Crystallization Studies in Building Materials 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Prof. Ioannis Ioannou (University of Cyprus)
      • 11:40
        From Beginner to Beamline: A Journey into Synchrotron FTIR Research on Ancient Human Remains at SESAME 20m Conference Room

        Conference Room

        Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

        10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
        Speaker: Dr Yuko Miyauchi (SESAME)
      • 12:00
        Introduction to the mentoring sessions of the afternoon - Q&A - 30m
        Speaker: Dr Andrea Lausi (SESAME)
    • 12:30 13:30
      Lunch break 1h DEMETRA restaurant (SEMELI hotel)

      DEMETRA restaurant

      SEMELI hotel

      Nicosia, Cyprus
    • 13:30 16:30
      Develop your scientific idea(s) and write your SESAME proposal for beamtime request under the scientific guidance of mentoring teams Conference Room

      Conference Room

      Semeli Hotel Nicosia Cyprus

      10, Petraki Yiallourou Street 1077 Nicosia Cyprus
      • 13:30
        Introduction to proposals writing 30m
        Speaker: Dr Annick Froideval Zumbiehl (Paul Scherrer Institute)
      • 14:00
        Mentoring sessions on “crazy scientific ideas” by research topic: ◦ 1: Geology, Soil Science ◦ 2: Building materials ◦ 3: Biology, Medicine, Pharmaceutics ◦ 4: Energy, Catalysis ◦ 5: Cultural Heritage, Archaeology ◦ 6: Other topics 2h

        Mentoring sessions on “crazy scientific ideas”:
        ◦ Session 1: Geology, Soil Science
        ◦ Session 2: Building materials
        ◦ Session 3: Biology, Medicine,
        ◦ Pharmaceutics
        ◦ Session 4: Energy, Catalysis
        ◦ Session 5: Cultural Heritage, Archaeology
        ◦ Session 6: Other topics

        Speaker: All
      • 16:00
        Wrap-up and conclusions 30m
        Speaker: All