7 When I came back to the SPring-8 campus about a year ago to succeed Dr. Kira, the former president of JASRI, I was very much delighted to see the big progress SPring-8 has accomplished so far in the field of synchrotron radiation science and technology. I personally recall back in the 1990’s witnessing day by day the progress of SPring-8 under construction as the director of the Planning and Research Division of JASRI, although at that time it was just too early to establish concrete prospects upon how best SPring-8 could contribute to synchrotron radiation science and technology. Since then, SPring-8 has been rapidly increasing its importance not only in academia but in industry and is now regarded as an indispensable research infrastructure for promoting science and technology in Japan. - On June 5, 2009, the number of total user visits to SPring-8 reached 100,000. - Construction of new beamlines is still going on to reach 55 beamlines operational toward the end of March 2011. - Remarkable scientific achievements in synchrotron radiation are continuously being obtained at SPring-8 and have been reported in prestigious scientific journals, such as Nature and Science. - The XFEL project in the SPring-8 campus is going well and construction is expected to be completed by March 2010. These are the major developments that are covered in SPring-8 Research Frontiers 2009, which I sincerely hope will provide useful and timely information about SPring-8 for all its readers both in Japan and abroad. Tetsuhisa Shirakawa President SPring-8 / JASRI Preface
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