Samar Hasnain is a structural biologist with over 45 years of Synchrotron Radiation experience. He has contributed heavily to the development of experimental facilities at SESAME, a research laboratory in Jordan with the goal of uniting Middle Eastern countries through science and was appointed Chair of the Proposal Review Committee for SESAME in 2016 where he led those assessing the proposals for access to the state-of-the-art facilities.

Further to his applications of science to initiatives bringing nations together, Samar works to increase opportunities for undertaking cutting edge science and has an extensive record as an academic in the field of molecular biophysics. Having obtained a PhD in experimental Physics from the University of Manchester in 1976 on molecular crystals using synchrotron radiation at NINA, he joined DESY in Hamburg as a Fellow working on the Storage ring Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

In 1979, Professor Hasnain joined the UK’s effort of establishing the world’s first dedicated synchrotron radiation source (SRS) as a full-time scientific staff member of the Daresbury National Laboratory. Ten years later he established the Molecular Biophysics group here, before eventually moving to the University of Liverpool as Max Perutz Professor of Molecular Biophysics in 2008.

As a tribute to the Nobel Prize Winner Charles Glover Barkla, Samar named his laboratory here the Barkla X-ray laboratory of Biophysics due to its links with the Rontgen rays (X-rays) that helped to start the field of X-ray Crystallography. Here he works to understand the complexities of biological systems using x-rays from synchrotron sources and X-ray Free Electron Lasers.

As well as his vast experience within the academic research world, Samar is the founding Editor of the IUCr’s Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (1993). He has also acted as the Editor-in-Chief of the IUCr Journals for a 6 years term (2012-2018) during which he launched the IUCr’s flagship journal IUCrJ in 2014 to mark the International Year of Crystallography’.

SESAME is an experimental lab and council based in Jordan, where researchers from the Middle-East come together to investigate the properties of an assortment of products including advanced materials, biological machines sustaining life and cultural artefacts.