The ESRF Users' Meeting focuses on the Upgrade

“Nano” was one of the main topics at the ESRF 18th Users’ Meeting. Science at the nanometre scale was the main theme of the plenary session. Ian Robinson, from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, gave a keynote lecture on the use of “Coherent X-ray diffraction for materials research in nanoscience”. Before that, the management of the ESRF presented the latest news from the facility and its plans for the developments of beamlines and accelerator and source in view of the Upgrade Programme. The meeting also included parallel discussion sessions about the future directions of the institute in the different fields and a joint poster session. 

Young Scientist Award

The Brookhaven National Lab physicist Stuart Wilkins, formerly a scientist at the beamline ID20 at the ESRF, is the 2008 winner of the Young Scientist Award. This prize recognises “his work on x-ray scattering studies of strongly correlated systems, and in particular transition metal oxides”. Since 2003 Stuart Wilkins has published 25 papers in which it appears that at least some data has been collected at the ESRF, and he was either first or second author on more than half of these publications.

The prize for the best poster went to the PhD student Vincent Fernandez for his poster "Synchrotron X-rays reveal the hidden face of an enigmatic "dinosaur" embryo.

Stuart Wilkins is being congratulated by Richard Neutze.

New head of the Users' Office

The head of the ESRF Users’ Office, Roselyn Mason, will retire in spring. Her successor is Joanne McCarthy, who knows well the ESRF since she comes from a position as beamline operation manager at the ESRF MX beamlines.

Joanne McCarthy (left) and Roselyn Mason (right) at the  Users' Meeting.

Top image: The plenary session of the Users' Meeting.