Our Mission

The Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS) is a department-level center within The University of Chicago that manages the operation of three sectors (currently comprising 7 beamlines) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a high-brilliance synchrotron X-ray source at Argonne National Laboratory.  The APS is the only light source of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.  Our cutting-edge facilities are available to users worldwide.

The Center carries out these functions:

• Operates APS Sectors 13, 14, and 15.  These three national user facilities together have a user base in excess of 2,500 researchers.
  • Sector 13: GSECARS
  • Sector 14: BioCARS
  • Sector 15: NSF’s ChemMatCARS
• Maintains a core staff for beamline research and development, collaboration, and user support.

Research and development is focused in two areas:

• Design of novel optical components, such as x-ray monochromators, mirrors, shutters, slits, windows and beam stops.
• Development of new experimental strategies in such areas as high-speed data acquisition and reduction and x-ray phase determination.

Operations are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

The Center operates as an interdisciplinary resource that includes an extensive central design and technology team.  We believe that the best science is carried out in an interdisciplinary mode and that the substantial design and technological problems each discipline faces are best addressed in a central, cooperative manner.