Celebrating the opening of the first User Labs at the Lund facility, ESS and UK in-kind partner ISIS jointly hosted a Support Laboratory Symposium last week, 4-5 May.
ESS and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, a research centre based at the STFC's (Science and Technology Facilities Council) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, have worked together to design, procure, and install the user laboratories as an in-kind project spearheaded by the ESS Samples and User Laboratories Facilities team. These laboratories include a radiological materials lab, for which the University of Tartu in Estonia provided the glove boxes. The user laboratories will be available to support the needs of the users during their time at the ESS instruments.
At the symposium, several speakers from ESS, ISIS, STFC, the University of Tartu and others emphasised the importance of state-of-the-art user laboratories, assisting the users with sample characterisation and preparation before, during, and after their time at the ESS instruments, ensuring the best possible scientific outcome.
One of the highlights of the symposium was a tour of the ESS facility, where the invited speakers and guests to the workshop were shown the progress made in the Accelerator buildings, Target station and Experimental Halls. They also visited the E04 chemistry labs, which have been operational and supporting both scientists and the ESS construction and installation project since early 2021.
“It was fantastic to see the bare bones and access areas that you do not normally get to see”, Dr. Donna Arnold, senior lecturer in Chemistry and Forensic Science at the University of Kent in the UK, and also the Chair of one of the ISIS facility's review panels for user proposals, concluded.
Dr. Stewart Parker of STFC/ISIS, a catalysis scientist, instrument scientist at ISIS, and former beamline scientist on an inelastic neutron scattering instrument, thoroughly enjoyed the tour of ESS, adding “Absolutely amazing. It was great to get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the creation of what will be a fantastic facility”.
