The unassuming frontage along Blackburn Road in Clayton, Victoria, masks a hidden gem of Australian research infrastructure. Long gone is 1957’s iconic Clayton Metro Twin drive-in theatre. Today, the twin projectors have been replaced with a state-of-the-art light source a million times brighter than the Sun; a particle accelerator the size of a football field, the Australian Synchrotron.

Microscopes with lasers, screens filled with complex equations. These are things we often see in media reports about a scientist’s latest research breakthrough. But behind all the impressive, specialised infrastructure are people we don’t often see: technical experts who help other scientists make their research projects a reality.