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The first discussions which later led to the creation of the Brazilian National Synchrotron Light Laboratory started in 1981 at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research in Rio de Janeiro. The decisions of the Brazilian National Research Council regarding the foundation of the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory and its location in Campinas, in Sao Paulo State, were taken in 1985. During the second semester of 1986 the activities at this new National Laboratory started from scratch. The construction of a second-generation synchrotron source consisting of a 120 MeV electron Linac and a 1.37 GeV electron storage lasted 10 years. In parallel, eight beam lines were designed and built up. After commissioning, in July 1997, the synchrotron source and the first set of beam lines were opened to users. Later, a 500 MeV booster accelerator and two wigglers were added and, more recently, a first undulator was installed. During the past 20 years several thousand scientists used the different beam lines for applications to many research fields and published more than 3500 indexed articles. During the current decade, a new fourth-generation 3.0 GeV synchrotron source with an extremely low emittance was designed, is under construction, and will be soon commissioned and open to users. The forthcoming availability of this new synchrotron source will allow for experiments with extremely high time, spatial and energy resolutions. Moreover, the coherence properties of the X-ray beams emerging from this source will allow for obtaining lens-free high-resolution images of the structures of inorganic materials and biologic systems. • The first synchrotron light source in the southern hemisphere was built in Brazil. • Users of the LNLS synchrotron source published more than 3500 indexed articles. • Sirius will be one of the most advanced light sources in the world. • The synchrotron source Sirius will allow for X-ray lens-free materials imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]