We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Sir Adrian Smith as the new Chairman of the Board. Sir Adrian, who takes over from Lord Broers, is a distinguished statistician with current and former positions in government and a number of national institutions.

A year after he was appointed CEO, Andrew Harrison has high hopes for the future of the UK’s synchrotron. But as we move beyond Phase III of construction, what are Andrew’s long-term plans for the facility, and what does the future hold for Diamond Light Source?

An exciting new hub for cutting-edge materials and life science research is well on its way to being built at Diamond. The new building, which is under construction next to the Imaging and Coherence beamline (I13), will house the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline (I14) along with the Electron imaging centre for biology and the Electron microscopy centre for physical sciences.

The UK is taking a leading role in the development of a new structural biology facility at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) in Hamburg, Germany, and the UK-XFEL Hub, a complementary facility at Diamond, to help develop the required expertise.