
Geography: Americas · South America · Brazil
Sirius, located at CNPEM in Campinas (São Paulo), accelerates electrons to nearly the speed of light and uses the resulting synchrotron radiation to image materials at atomic scale. With an emittance of 250 pm·rad, it's among the brightest X-ray sources on Earth.
The facility has 10 operational beamlines serving researchers in materials science, structural biology, environmental science, and industrial applications. It's the only synchrotron light source in Latin America, attracting researchers from across the continent and beyond.
Sirius represents Brazil's most ambitious scientific investment — over $500 million. The project was designed and built almost entirely by Brazilian engineers and scientists at CNPEM, demonstrating capability in precision engineering, vacuum technology, and accelerator physics at the global frontier.