£1 million state-of-the-art Lab opens in Purdie Building

An exciting new state-of-the-art laboratory opened last Friday (11^th April) costing a whopping £1 million funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). The laboratory is home to some of the most sophisticated X-ray technology in the world, making St Andrews, despite being a small university, able to contend with other leading researchers.

Alex Slawin, Professor of Chemical Crystallography at St Andrews, who is directing the lab, stated that, “This is a world-leading facility which places St Andrews at the forefront of the field and enables us to compete with the very best in the world.”

Professor Slawin also officially opened the facility which includes a new art detector and X-ray technology. The laboratory will be used for research and the teaching of crystallography and will include the most advanced X-ray generators, optics and Dectris detectors.

These state-of-the-art tools are supplied by Rigaku Corporation, leading manufacturers of scientific and analytic instrumentation, specialising in X-ray related technologies. Joseph Ferrara, Vice President of the X-ray Research Labaratory at Rigaku, commented that, “Rigaku is pleased to continue to be a partner in the development of the facility and looks forward to a long term relationship with St Andrews.”

Joseph Ferrara accompanied Professor Alex Swalin at the opening of the facility which is located at the Purdie Building on the North Haugh. The facility is home to over 220 researchers from the School of Chemistry and part of the EASTCHEM research pool, which includes a further 200 researchers who are based in Edinburgh. The facility will support exciting new research including new green chemistry, drug discovery and materials applications.

Image courtesy of www.st-andrews.ac.uk