The Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) is an independent laboratory located in Allan in the Balqa governorate of Jordan, created under the auspices of UNESCO on 30 May 2002.

Construction work began the following July, and the facility was finally inaugurated on 16 May 2017 under the patronage and presence of King Abdullah II.

Khaled Toukan, the chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, is the current director and former vice-president of SESAME.

Today, there are almost 60 synchrotron light sources around the world dedicated to exploiting the special qualities, which allow it to be used across a wide range of applications, from condensed matter physics to structural biology, environmental science and cultural heritage.

In his speech at the 1979 Nobel Prize banquet, Pakistani physicist Mohammad Abdus Salam stated that we should "strive to provide equal opportunities to all so that they can engage in the creation of Physics and science for the benefit of all mankind".

In 1997, Herman Winick and Gustav-Adolf Voss [de] suggested building a light source in the Middle-East using components from the soon-to-be decommissioned BESSY I facility in Berlin, during two seminars organized in 1997 in Italy and in 1998 in Sweden by Tord Ekelöf with the CERN-based Middle East Scientific Co-operation (MESC) group headed by Sergio Fubini.

[15] In April 2004, the centre formally came into existence when the required number of Members had informed UNESCO of their decision to join.

The current Members are Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, and Turkey.

Matsuura did not need formal approval to provide the required funds because the Japanese government had given him a budget to be used at his discretion when he was appointed Director General.

UNESCO Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences, Maurizio Iaccarino, and Schopper visited Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Palestine in September 1999.

Additionally, Israel was already heavily involved in the ESRF laboratory at Grenoble, and were contractually bound to provide considerable funds.

Iran, considered a rogue state at the time, though interested in the project, could not guarantee access to scientists from all countries, and so the proposal was ultimately unsuccessful.

In a last ditch effort to save the project, Schopper contacted his former student Isa Khubeis, then vice-president of Al-Balqa Applied University.

King Abdullah formally committed Jordan to the project during the meeting in a signed letter addressed to the Director General of UNESCO.

[17] After long discussions and a series of votes, Jordan was formally approved to be the host of the Centre at the third meeting of the SESAME Interim Council in June 2000.

Jordan was seen as an appropriate location for the project because it was the only country at the time to have maintained diplomatic relations with all other founding members: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, and Turkey.

Because the major components of the laboratory from the decommissioned BESSY I experiment, originally valued at $60 million, were being donated by the German government, funding on that front was not an issue.

In October 2001 chef de cabinet of Commissioner Patten, Anthony Cary, informed Schopper that an independent evaluation by a panel of international experts was needed.

The report concluded that the project was promising and would "effectively stimulate scientific activity and cooperation in the Middle East".

In a subsequent meeting arranged between the Jordanian government, SESAME representatives and the EU Commission, the main of contention was the project's energy level.

[17] The issue was eventually resolved through negotiations started by Director General Rolf Heuer between CERN and the Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas.

[20] The Sergio Fubini Guesthouse that was inaugurated in December 2019 was funded by the Government of Italy represented by the Ministry for Education, University and Research through INFN.

[25][26] The roof of the laboratory collapsed during the 2013 Middle East cold snap due to heavy snowfall, which led to delays.