As a center integrating three international scientific communities, SOLARIS stands on the brink of inaugurating a project aimed at constructing a unique research beamline. The exceptional nature of this endeavor lies in the combined efforts of Poland, Ukraine, and Switzerland to finance an experimental beamline that will benefit researchers from a war-torn country and consolidate the scientific community in the Central and Eastern European region. This initiative is coordinated under the auspices of the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources (LEAPS), which includes all European synchrotron centers.

The General Assembly meeting of the CERIC-ERIC consortium took place at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre on June 27-28. CERIC-ERIC (Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium) brings together specialized laboratories and research centers from Central Europe and Italy. These facilities conduct material research using techniques involving photons, electrons, neutrons, or ions.

The first edition of the Crosscarpatian Synchrotron School (CSS2024) was held at the SOLARIS Centre from 10 to 14 June 2024. The school was aimed at students, doctoral candidates, and senior researchers with little or no experience in the field of synchrotron radiation. The program included theoretical introductions with a particular focus on the applications of synchrotron research in various fields, as well as practical workshops on experimental lines. Each participant could choose two stations where they received comprehensive training in experiment design, sample preparation, measurements, and data processing.

A group of scientists from the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology: dr hab. eng. Lucyna Samek, professor at AGH, Ph.D. eng. Paweł Wróbel, and students eng. Patryk Grzywa and eng. Filip Baran, and doctoral student of the AGH Doctoral School, master Romisaa Gamal Mahmoud Abdelrman, conducted interesting experiments using the ASTRA research line. The aim of the research was to identify chemical compounds present in PM_2.5 air pollution. Samples for testing were collected at the AGH station in Krakow in summer and winter in 2018/2019 and 2020/2021 to detect seasonal variability and compare whether the ban on burning coal and wood for heating purposes introduced in Krakow in September 2019 contributed to a change in the nature of pollution air dust.

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