European XFEL Council appoints Elke Plönjes-Palm and Jakub Szlachetko
German physicist Dr. Elke Plönjes-Palm and Polish physicist Prof. Jakub Szlachetko will become scientific directors at European XFEL on 1 January 2027. Following a decision by the European XFEL Council, the research organization’s highest governing body, Plönjes-Palm will head Development and Instrumentation, Szlachetko will take responsibility for Operations and Data.
Elke Plönjes-Palm has held senior positions in photon science at the research centre DESY in Hamburg. In 2002, she joined the world’s first short-wavelength free-electron laser, FLASH at DESY, as a senior scientist. She is currently group leader of Beamlines and Optics at FLASH. In this capacity she has been responsible for the photon beamline development for FLASH2 and the FLASH2020+ upgrade project. Her particular interests are beamline characterisation and automation. Prior to joining DESY, she spent six years as a visiting scientist at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, working on the generation and spectroscopy of highly non-equilibrium plasmas and their applications. Beyond her work at FLASH, Plönjes-Palm has actively represented FLASH in international collaborations such as the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources (LEAPS) and FELs of Europe, at FELs of Europe currently also as the chairperson. For many years, she has been scientific coordinator and principal investigator in large collaborative European and Helmholtz initiatives.
Jakub Szlachetko is an experienced scientific executive and leader of research infrastructures with more than 20 years of international experience in photon science, accelerator-based facilities, and advanced X-ray technologies. He currently serves as director of the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he leads a multidisciplinary organization and holds overall responsibility for scientific programmes, facility operations, technical infrastructure, IT and data-related activities, and strategic development. Before becoming director, he served as head of the Applied Spectroscopy Division at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His international scientific career includes positions at the Swiss Light Source and SwissFEL at Paul Scherrer Institute and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF. Szlachetko has also held senior roles at European research organizations and infrastructures, including Chair and Vice Chair of LEAPS, representing Europe’s synchrotron and free-electron-laser facilities, and as a Polish Delegate to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
Read more on the European XFEL website
Images and credits: Jakub Szlachetko (Image: Joanna Kowalik/SOLARIS) Elke Plönjes-Palm (Image: DESY)