Tag: Director appointment

Dr. Chia-Hung Hsu Assumes Position as NSRRC Director

Dr. Chia-Hung Hsu Assumes Position as NSRRC Director

Dr. Chia-Hung Hsu officially assumes the position as the NSRRC Director on August 1, 2022, for a four-year term. Chairman Minn-Tsong Lin of the NSRRC Board of Trustees (BOT) presided over the directorship handover ceremony between the outgoing Director Gwo-Huei Luo and incoming Director Hsu. The BOT started searching and selecting a new director from January, 2022. Dr. Hsu earned a unanimous decision from the BOT for her wealth of experiences in management and exemplary accomplishments in science.

Director Hsu received her PhD degree in physics from Boston University, and possesses expertise in surface science and thin film X-ray scattering. After completing her postdoctoral research at Harvard University in 1993, she joined the NSRRC and took an active role in building the first X-ray beamline in Taiwan and Taiwan beamlines at SPring-8, Japan. Beside conducting scientific research and developing experimental techniques, she also teaches at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Tsing Hua University. She is highly experienced in administrative management through her previous roles as Head of Scientific Research Division, Chief Secretary, and BOT Executive Secretary at NSRRC, as well as a review panel member for physics at the National Science Council, and a council member of the Physical Society of Taiwan.

“NSRRC’s mission is to develop advanced light source technologies and to operate a science user facility that are both excellent and accessible,” said Chairman Lin. “After decades of efforts, NSRRC has empowered the nation through fruitful scientific results from fundamental, innovative and industrial research.”

Read more on the NSRRC website

Image: Dr. Chia-Hung Hsu Assumes Position as NSRRC Director

Welcome Jeney Wierman – New MacCHESS Director

Welcome Jeney Wierman – New MacCHESS Director

Jeney Wierman started as the new MacCHESS Director on July 1st, 2022.  Below is a welcome message to the whole CHESS Community. 

Jeney takes over the MacCHESS directorship from Marian Szebenyi, who will be retiring later this year after 30 years at MacCHESS.

Dear CHESS Community,

It is (hopefully) no secret that I hold a very special place in my heart for CHESS, the people working here, and the community it supports. With that, I am honored and delighted to join CHESS this summer as Director of MacCHESS! First, I must thank Marian Szebenyi for continuing to work with me into the fall startup – I have large shoes to fill and appreciate the overlap support. Second, I would also like to thank all who were a part of the hiring process over the past few months, plus onboarding over the last week. Much appreciated.

It is thrilling to return to the CHESS family! The ingenuity and tenacity of the CHESS spirit (the can-do attitude) speak volumes of its brilliant people.

Read more on the CHESS website

Image: Jeney Wierman has started as the MacCHESS Director on July 1.

New Director for massive upgrade into Diamond-II

New Director for massive upgrade into Diamond-II

To cement its position as a world-leading research facility, Diamond Light Source recently revealed plans for a large upgrade called Diamond-II and that is set to strengthen the UK’s global scientific leadership. This will be a transformational upgrade that will enable a huge expansion of UK science capabilities as it involves a coordinated programme of development combining state-of-the-art technology in a new machine, five new flagship beamlines and a comprehensive series of upgrades to its Instruments.

To lead this programme, Diamond has appointed Rob Walden, a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in delivering business and process improvement programmes in the aerospace manufacturing engineering industry. This was followed by several years as a senior projects advisor in central government where he was involved in, and delivered, nationwide policy projects as well as helping to develop the programme delivery framework for government. Rob was also part of the Cabinet Office’s Gateway Assurance review team and conducted a number of forensic assurance delivery reviews for programmes of national interest. Additionally, he helped to set up the national programme office structure for Highways England and ran two busy Project Management Offices.

Rob joined Diamond Light Source from Sellafield Ltd where he focused on raising the standards of the programme delivery framework, which included the appointment and development of the SRO (Senior Responsible Officer) function for major projects of national interest. Rob comments:

For over 15 years Diamond has been a leading centre for synchrotron science on the world stage, supporting UK business and academia to undertake cutting-edge research in a diverse set of areas and sectors. I am delighted to join a team of such esteemed colleagues as we move into the next chapter in Diamond’s life, the detailed planning of the delivery of Diamond-II to secure long-term funding, pushing the boundaries of scientific research even further and keeping the UK at the forefront of scientific research.

Read more on the Diamond website

Image: Rob Walden, programme director for Diamond-II

Credit: Diamond Light Source

ESRF appoints two new Directors of Research

ESRF appoints two new Directors of Research

Gema Martínez-Criado and Annalisa Pastore have been appointed new ESRF directors of research. Martínez-Criado will cover Condensed Matter and Physical and Material Sciences and Pastore Life Sciences, Chemistry and Soft Matter Science.

In its statement, the ESRF Council « unanimously approved the appointments, for a five-year period starting on 01 January 2022, of Dr Gema Martínez Criado, from the Spanish Research Council’s Materials Science Institute of Madrid, as Director of Research for Condensed Matter and Physical and Material Sciences, and of Professor Annalisa Pastore, from King’s College London University, as Director of Research for Life Sciences, Chemistry and Soft Matter Science. » The ESRF Council also « acknowledged the fact that both of these positions were being filled by female candidates of high calibre and expressed the full trust of the Council to continue to lead, in the coming year, the efforts required to fully capitalise on the world leading performances of the EBS storage ring and suite of beamlines.”

Read more on the ESRF website

Image: Gema Martínez-Criado (left) and Annalisa Pastore (right) have been appointed new ESRF directors of research

Credit: ESRF

Aymeric Robert appointed Physical Sciences Director at MAX IV

Aymeric Robert appointed Physical Sciences Director at MAX IV

Aymeric comes to MAX IV from the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, where he was the deputy division director for the Science and R&D Division for four years.

His research focuses is the structure and dynamics of amorphous and disordered systems. These types of systems can be investigated by developing advanced X-ray instrumentation that uses the X-ray properties from high brightness and coherence beams.

Aymeric earned an M.A. in physics in 1998 and, in 2001, a PhD in physics at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility from the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble (France). During his PhD, postdoctoral studies, beamline scientist positions at the ID10A Troika beamline at the ESRF, he was among the European team of scientists pioneering the use of X-ray coherence to develop X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy. This coherent scattering technique uniquely allows probing dynamics in complex systems in ways never achievable before.

Read more on the MAXIV website

Image: Director at MAX IV

Laurent Chapon to lead Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source

Laurent Chapon to lead Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source

Laurent Chapon has been appointed director of the Advanced Photon Source (APS). Chapon will lead the Photon Sciences Directorate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory through a massive upgrade of the user facility.

Lemont, IL – October 7, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has named Laurent Chapon as associate laboratory director for Photon Sciences and director of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Argonne. He will begin his new role on January 10, 2022.

Chapon will join Argonne from Diamond Light Source in the United Kingdom, where he has been the director of physical sciences since 2016. Chapon led the scientific strategy in this division and oversaw five of Diamond’s eight science groups, which encompasses 22 X-ray beamlines and two electron microscopes. He led groups dedicated to technological advancements in optics, metrology and detectors technology at the facility and oversaw the Project Office, User Office, and Experiment Hall groups.

As part of Argonne’s senior management team, Chapon will lead the APS through a time of extraordinary change. The APS Upgrade project will result in a transformed facility that will generate X-ray beams up to 500 times brighter than those it currently delivers. This will require a year-long shutdown of the APS, currently scheduled to begin in April of 2023, and will keep the facility at the forefront of the world’s light sources for scientific discovery.

Read more on the Argonne National Laboratory website

Image: Laurent Chapon

Credit: Lise Chapon