Diamond’s socio-economic impact of over £2.6 billion on UK science and economy revealed

The importance of Science to world economies highlighted at ICRI

Presenting at the prestigious International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI) in Brno, Czech Republic on 19th October, Diamond outlined a cumulative monetised impact to date on UK science and economy of £ 2.6 billion rooted in the delivery of almost 12,000 published journal papers on findings from research carried out at the UK’s synchrotron light source.Breakdown of monetised impact areas as part of the socio-economic report

The new figures released today are straightforward updates to the 2021 study by Technopolis using published methodologies where they measured and demonstrated Diamond’s scientific, technological, societal, and economic benefits.  The report summarised the findings and the updated figures – including the £2.6 billion cumulative monetised impact which compares very favourably with the £1.4 billion investment made in the facility to date – and underlines the significant impact Diamond continues to achieve and the fact that the facility still costs less than a cup of coffee per year – as each UK taxpayer contributes only £2.45 a year towards its world-changing science.     

Minister for Science and Investment Security Nusrat Ghani said;

It comes as no surprise to see evidence like this of the significant role science and innovation play in our economy – Diamond should be hugely proud of the leading research work they are doing with the scientific community, delivering real-world innovations from plastic degrading enzymes to synthetic vaccines against the Foot-and-Mouth disease virus.

The fact this work is also contributing an economic boost of over two-and-a-half billion pounds to the UK illustrates just how important the science and research sector is to our country’s growth and prosperity, and the benefits we continue to see from persevering with our ambitions to remain a science superpower.

Read more on the Diamond website

Image: Breakdown of monetised impact areas as part of the socio-economic report

Yonghua Du recognized as a highly cited researcher 2021

Du was cited by Web of Science in its Cross-Field category, which identifies researchers who have contributed to highly cited papers across several different fields

Brookhaven Lab scientist Yonghua Du has been named a highly cited researcher in Web of Science’s 2021 report. Each year, the Web of Science publishes a list of researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in a chosen field or fields over the past decade through highly cited papers. The list includes the top 1 percent of researchers by citation for a chosen field or fields. Du was recognized in the cross-field category.

“I have spent my career at synchrotron facilities, collaborating with as many researchers all over the world to uncover the secrets of their samples using our unique tools. Many excellent papers were published,” said Du. “So, I am proud of this achievement.”

In his position as a beamline scientist at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), Du balances his time between developing more research capabilities for his beamline and building strong collaborations with researchers from across the globe. These researchers—called users—work together with NSLS-II experts to solve the biggest scientific challenges of today using the facility’s unique research tools.

Read more on the Brookhaven National Lab website

Image: Brookhaven Lab scientist Yonghua Du standing in front of the Tender Energy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (TES) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II