G. N. Greaves of Aberystwyth Univesity and co-authors write in a Commentary in Nature Materials 7, 827-839 (2008):

“The world’s first dedicated X-ray synchrotron radiation storage ring, the Synchrotron Radiation Source or SRS (Fig. 1), is closing down this autumn after 27 years of operation. Designed, built and commissioned at Daresbury Laboratory in less than four years, it thrust the United Kingdom into a world-leading position in 19801, delivering the first uninterrupted beams of intense X-rays. Since then, the use of synchrotron X-rays has led to major advances in both fundamental and applied science, which at the SRS has ranged from the structure of glass to catalysts in operation, from the crystallography of proteins to elements at high pressure, and from semiconductor surfaces to the magnetism of atomic layers, to take just a few examples. The SRS has had a substantial role in what has truly become a revolution in characterization science. With over 5,000 papers published, research and instrumentation from the SRS continues to influence facilities across the world.”

The authors review the range of fields of science in which the SRS has made significant contributions, calculating that since 1981 “the SRS has served a staggering 11,000 individual users from 25 countries, and been the training ground of over 4,000 doctorate students and 2,000 post-doctorate researchers. With materials research making up around 40% of this research programme, the legacy of the SRS in this field is enormous. We have picked out examples where the international impact of the SRS has been particularly impressive, but there are many more: developments in industrial materials, biomaterials, electrochemical materials and, very recently, heritage materials. The international conference series, ‘Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science’, which began in Chester, UK, in 1994, charts this progress and involvement of the SRS over the years. Indeed, many of the new concepts, experiments, theory and instrumentation in X-ray science owe their origins to research at Daresbury, starting 27 years ago when the SRS heralded the age of dedicated synchrotron radiation.

It is worth reflecting on the relatively short time taken for authorization to build the SRS by the then Science Research Council. The decision in the late 1970s followed the briefest of approval procedures compared with the current process-driven practice of seeking the widest consultation before dipping into the public purse. If the gut-reaction decision to build the SRS had taken any longer, it would have jeopardized its place as a world-first and, more importantly, the confidence to build new science over the next generation — much of which has been internationally leading and continues to influence the synchrotron radiation community worldwide.”