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Q&A with Sakura Pascarelli, new scientific director at European XFEL

2019/09/172019/09/23

European XFEL’s new scientific director talks about her career, her new role and her love for swimming.

On 1 September Sakura Pascarelli joined the European XFEL from the ESRF. In her role as scientific director she is responsible for the development of the four hard X-ray instruments. She spoke to Rosemary Wilson about her career, her new role and her love for swimming.

How did you get into science?

I spent part of my childhood in Burma and Indonesia. The American school system there enabled you to do lessons at your level, meaning you stayed interested and engaged. I really liked maths which I did with kids a few years older than me. I remember also doing experiments. I liked seeing things explode and break and try to understand why. Later on in Italy, I studied physics – not because I was particularly talented, but because I enjoyed it.

You joined ESRF at a time when the facility was still being built. What parallels can you see between that time, and now here at European XFEL?

I went to the ESRF to build one of the first beamlines there. We didn’t know what we would be able to discover or measure with this new machine. Here at European XFEL I see some of that same excitement. That opportunity taught me so much about instrumentation, and coordinating the construction of a beamline. But it is a different world now. Back then a good scientist with a solid background in physics, X-ray optics or instrumentation, could build a group and build a beamline. That is not possible here. This is so much more complicated. Here you need experts in X-rays, lasers, electronics, detectors. We don’t really know how to measure a femtosecond pulse let alone synchronise it with another laser! To run these instruments we need group leaders who are really good managers. This is so important. It is no longer enough for someone to be just a good scientist. At European XFEL we need to make sure the groups are well structured, well managed and that the people are happy. That might be difficult in the beginning when things don’t work, but when people see that their work is recognized, satisfaction and productivity increases.

>Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: European XFEL

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has new scientific management

2019/06/042019/06/05

As of 1 June 2019, Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech and Prof. Dr. Jan Lüning are the new scientific directors of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. Bernd Rech is responsible for the “Energy and Information” department and Jan Lüning heads the “Matter” department. Thus the HZB Supervisory Board has appointed two internationally recognised experts at the top of HZB.
For the first two years, Bernd Rech will be the spokesman of the scientific direction of HZB. Then he will hand the role of spokesman over to Jan Lüning. The two scientific directors have been appointed for a period of five years. In November 2018, the HZB Supervisory Board made Bernd Rech and Jan Lüning the provisional scientific directors until final contracts could be negotiated. These have now been finalised, making their appointment permanent as of 1 June 2019.

>Read more on the HZB website

Image: Prof. Dr. Jan Lüning (l.) and Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech (r.) have been appointed as scientific directors of HZB since June 1, 2019.
Credit: HZB/P. Dera

Sakura Pascarelli appointed scientific director at European XFEL

2019/03/072019/03/08

Italian physicist will be responsible for scientific development of hard X-ray instruments

The Italian physicist Dr. Sakura Pascarelli will be the new scientific director at European XFEL. Pascarelli will join European XFEL on 1 September from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF in Grenoble, France. She succeeds Andreas Schwarz who retired at the end of 2018. As one of three scientific directors, Pascarelli will be responsible for the four short-waved hard X-ray instruments at European XFEL: FXE for studying extremely fast processes, SPB/SFX for investigating biomolecules and biological samples, HED for studying matter under extreme pressures and temperatures, and MID for investigating nanostructures or irregularly ordered materials such as glass, liquids and biological substances. In addition, Pascarelli will also be responsible for developing the scientific research program for these experiment stations.

>Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: Sakura Pascarelli
Credit: Chantal Argoud (ESRF)

Yves Petroff takes over as Director of the LNLS

2018/09/062018/10/23

French physicist was Director-General of the largest European synchrotron between 1993 and 2001 and LNLS’ Scientific Director from 2009 to 2013.

In ceremony held on the morning of August 29th, Yves Pierre Petroff became Director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). Yves Petroff was LNLS’ Scientific Director from November 2009 to March 2013. During the ceremony, Rogério Cesar de Cerqueira Leite, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPEM, and Antonio José Roque da Silva, CNPEM’s Director-General and former LNLS Director, highlighted Pretroff’s competence and his history within LNLS.

Yves Petroff is one of the world’s leading specialists in the use of synchrotron light. He received his doctorate in physics from the Ecole Normale Supèrieure of the University of Paris in 1970. Later, he went to the University of California, Berkeley, from 1971 to 1975. During this period, Yves Petroff worked on the investigation of optical properties of solids, having made important developments in the area of Resonant Raman Effect.

In the early 1970s, the first generation of synchrotron accelerators began to be built, focused primarily on particle physics. In 1975, Yves Petroff returned to France to work in the ACO, one of the first synchrotrons in the world, located in Orsay. Pioneering work was performed by Petroff’s team on the use of synchrotron light to understand the properties of solids. His group was also the first in the world to build a Free Electron Laser in the region of visible light.

Dr. Gwo-Huei Luo new director of NSRRC

2018/07/122018/07/19

NSRRC BOT Member, Dr. Bon-Chu Chung, and NSRRC User, Prof. Chien-Hong Cheng Elected as Academician

Dr. Gwo-Huei Luo will officially assume the position on August 1, 2018 as the 5th Director of the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), Taiwan. The NSRRC Board of Trustees started searching for, and selecting, a new director in January, 2018. Dr. Luo has earned recognition and commendation from the Board for his management experiences and his research and development efforts, particularly, in accelerators.

Dr. Luo received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering at University Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Over the years, Dr. Luo has devoted himself to his professional career and become an expert on accelerator physics, microwave engineering, and cryogenic superconducting engineering. Because of his highly-recognized contributions to accelerators, he has served as member of Asian Committee for Future Accelerator (ACFA) and in the international advisory committee of several synchrotron facilities worldwide, such as ILSF, HEPS, SSRF and WHPS. He also served on the Review Committee of the Super-KEKB, an upgrading project of KEKB electron-position collider. In addition, he has been actively promoting and involved in the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC), serving in International Organizing Committee and/or Scientific Program Committee since 2010.

>Read more on the NSRRC website

Maria Faury appointed new chair of the European XFEL Council

2018/07/022018/07/04

As of the 1 July 2018, Maria Faury is the new chair of the European XFEL council, the highest governing body of the company. Maria Faury has an engineering background and is Director of International Affairs and Large Research Infrastructures of the Fundamental Research Division at the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA) in France. She has represented CEA, one of the two European XFEL partners in France, on the council since 2014. She will succeed Prof. Martin Meedom Nielsen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), who, having served two terms as chair, will continue to support the work of European XFEL as vice chair. The current vice chair, Prof. Lars Börjesson from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, will again become a member of the Swedish delegation on the council.

Maria Faury said: “It will be an honor, and a real pleasure for me to chair the European XFEL Council. Since 2014, I have had the chance to witness the progress in the construction of the facility and have been impressed by the unwavering involvement of the staff, the management and the stakeholders. European XFEL is now operating and attracting scientists from all over the world, starting to deliver excellent science. The coming years will be very exciting and all together we will ensure that European XFEL remains a world-leading facility. I fully trust Robert Feidenhans’l and his team and I am very happy to work more closely with them in the future. I would like to thank Martin Meedom Nielson who has chaired the council in such a nice, open and positive way. He has been very inspiring to us and I am happy he will continue as vice chair.”

>Read more on the European XFEL website

Picture: Maria Faury, new chair of the European XFEL Council

New director of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source

2018/06/062018/06/08

After an international search, Stephen D. “Steve” Kevan has been named the new director of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The ALS produces extremely bright X-ray, infrared, and extreme ultraviolet light for more than 2,000 visiting scientists each year. Up to 40 experiments can be performed simultaneously using the synchrotron, resulting in nearly 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific articles each year across a range of fields, from chemistry and materials sciences to biology and environmental sciences. The facility draws on the Lab’s unique and long-standing expertise in designing, building, and operating world-class accelerators to advance scientific research.

Kevan, a condensed matter physicist, has served as ALS director in an interim capacity since January, when the preceding director, Roger Falcone, stepped down after more than 11 years in the role. Previously, Kevan was the ALS division deputy for science for more than five years and has been on the faculty of the University of Oregon’s physics department since 1986.

Kevan takes on the role of ALS director at a pivotal point in its history. The facility, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary later this year, is taking its first steps toward a major upgrade, dubbed “ALS-U.”

Image: Steve Kevan