


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.
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.
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.
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.
The ENSA board expresses a warm welcome to Portugal as a new member of the European neutron scientists community! Portugal will be represented by the president of the Portugese Groups of Neutron and Muon Users NeMPo, Maria Paula Marques.
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.
ENSA joins ILL in the tribute to Hannu Muttka, who passed away earlier this year. Among the many scientific adventures he participated in and responsibilities he took upon himself, Hannu Muttka acted as the ENSA chair from October 2004 to October 2006. He shall be greatly missed.
https://www.ill.eu/news-press-events/news/detail/in-memory-of-hannu-mutka
The ENSA Awards for 3 Prizes for 2021 are held in 2022. Information can be found on the websites of the Walter Hälg Prize (sponsored by SwissNeutronics), the Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut Prize (shared between ECA and ENSA) and the Neutron Instrumentation and Innovation Award (sponsored by Mirrotron)
We would like to congratulate our much appreciated colleague and distinguished scientist Prof. Ference Mezei as a laureate of the
Gothenburg Lise Meitner Awards 2021
Citing the website of the Award:
Ferenc Mezei will receive the award
“For the inventions of the neutron spin echo method and the super mirror, which have significantly advanced neutron scattering methods, and for the long pulse neutron source concept, which is the foundation for the novel technical design of the European Spallation Source now being built in Lund.”
Besides these, and many more qualities, we highly appreciate having prof. Mezei as the national delegate of Hungary for ENSA, and are grateful for his role as vice-chair in the board with prof. Alba-Simionesco.