Conference On Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

MEDIA RELEASE from GNS Science
20 MARCH 2011
Scientists Gather For International Conference On Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

About 240 scientists from 30 countries are in Wellington this week attending a conference on the many uses of accelerator mass spectrometry.

Accelerator mass spectrometry is the technique of using particle acceleration to measure ultra-low concentrations of isotopes and their ratios, for a range of science and industrial applications.

It is the twelfth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). The conferences are held every three years and it is only the second time the Southern Hemisphere has hosted one.

Frank Bruhn, of the host organisation GNS Science, said the conference was an outstanding opportunity for the New Zealand science community to build relationships with leading international scientists.

“Hosting this conference is the icing on the cake following a significant level of investment in research infrastructure at GNS Science’s National Isotope Centre in the past five years”, Dr Bruhn said.

“This includes investing $3.5 million in the latest generation compact accelerator mass spectrometer, the only one of its type in Australasia. This facility provides a modern platform to conduct excellent science, which helps to strengthen collaborationand the scientific research culture in New Zealand.”

One of the main applications of AMS is radiocarbon dating, and New Zealand has a long tradition in this area of research.

“Exactly sixty years ago, in 1951, the Dominion Physical Laboratory, the forerunner to today’s National Isotope Centre, carried out its first radiocarbon measurements, a method discovered only a few years earlier by American nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate Willard Libby and his colleagues.”

The radiocarbon laboratory at GNS Science is now considered the oldest continuously operating commercial radiocarbon laboratory in the world. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry was established in New Zealand in the 1980s, and it provided a quantum leap by enabling much smaller samples to be measured and greater precision to be obtained.

Dr Bruhn said, like the eleven previous AMS conferences, this one would be a major forum for discussion of recent developments in the way AMS is applied to many scientific disciplines. Among the topics up for discussion are technical
advances of accelerator mass spectrometry and applications in archaeology, astrophysics, biomedical sciences, geology, environmental sciences, radiocarbon dating, hydrology, ocean sciences, and nuclear forensics.

“During the next five days there will be an opportunity to hear more than 200 leading scientists present the latest findings in their respective disciplines.”

The conference is being held at Te Papa.

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