Rendering the European neutron research landscape

The article “Rendering the European neutron research landscape” is now published in Nature Scientific Report and available online. It reports on a new semi-supervised learning method to render the European neutron community of scientists and “tell where neutron-scattering scientists are, and what they do”.

Evgenii Velichko and Lambert van Eijck at the TU Delft Reactor Institute developed the method, with 21 ENSA delegates collaborating to supervise the learning. This work was done in the framework of the European Union’s Horizon2020 project BrightnESS-2 (grant agreement 823867).  

Welcome to Finland

30 April 2024: The ENSA board expresses a warm welcome to Finland as a new member of the European neutron scientist community! Finland will be represented by Paavo Penttilä from the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.

The decision was taken during the second ENSA in-person meeting after the Covid break, which was held at MLZ in Garching on 29th-30th April.

Astrid Schneidewind elected as new chair of ENSA

At the ENSA meeting held on November 15th 2023 at PSI in Switzerland, Dr. Astrid Schneidewind was elected chair of ENSA. Dr Schneidewind is instrument scientist of PANDA, a cold three axis spectrometer located at MLZ and operated by FZ Jülich. She takes over the role of ENSA chair after Prof Henrik Rønnow.

The ENSA board would like to thank Henrik for his invaluable contribution as chair to ENSA activities and stimulating the collaboration with the League of Advanced European Neutron Sources (LENS) and with the European Synchrotron User Organization (ESUO).

We are grateful to Henrik for all his work and look forward to his further contributions as European neutron scattering community.

ENSA-ESUO Joint Meeting held at PSI

On 13-14 November 2023, ENSA and ESUO (European Synchrotron User Organization) held a joint meeting in conjunction with a meeting on European data policy organized by the DAPHNE4NFDI (DAta from PHoton and Neutron Experiments) project.

DAPHNE4NFDI, a German initiative, works on promoting collaborations between users and facilities of the European Photon and Neutron community to implement FAIR -Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable- data principles.

Stefano Deledda elected as new vice-chair

Stefano Deledda
Stefano Deledda, Senior Scientist at IFE, Norway

At the ENSA meeting held during the ECNS2023, Dr. Stefano Deledda was elected ENSA vice-chair. Dr Stefano Deledda is a senior scientist at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Norway and takes over the vice-chair role after Dr. Lambert van Eijck.

The ENSA board would like to thank Lambert for his invaluable contribution as vice-chair to ENSA activities. Lambert has been instrumental in mapping the future needs of the European neutron user community within the Horizon 2020 Project BrightnESS2. He was also crucial in drafting the Horizon Europe proposal NEPHEWS, a joint effort of the European Synchrotron User Organization (ESUO), the League of Advanced European Neutron Sources (LENS), the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources (LEAPS), and ENSA, which aims at promoting transnational access to both photos and neutron sources.

We are grateful to Lambert for all his work and look forward to his further contributions as ENSA delegate for the Netherlands.

Tribute to Prof. Dr. Michael Steiner

ENSA joins the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in the tribute to Prof. Dr. Michael Steiner, who passed away on the 5th of November 2022 at the age of 79, in Berlin. In addition to his many scientific contributions and his efforts for neutron scattering at the Hahn Meitner Institut and its evolution into the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Michael worked for our community as chair of ENSA during the period 2009-2014.

In Prof. Michael Steiner we have lost a brilliant researcher and a special person to whom we owe a lot. Our thoughts are with his family and relatives. The  Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin had paid tribute to his work in an obituary.

He shall be greatly missed.