Diamond Annual Review 2019/20

2 3 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 Foreword T he past year has seen Diamond rise to a series of very testing challenges, frommajor upgrades to ensure that it continues to offer researchers in UK universities and industry the very best opportunities for world-leading research, to the arrival of COVID-19, and to meet them all successfully. Planning the Diamond-II programme, an integrated upgrade of the synchrotron, beamlines and computational facilities has been underway for several years, and 2019/20 saw the achievement of some significant milestones. The Conceptual Design Report for Diamond-II passed an external expert review with flying colours, a new organisational structure was established to complete all further planning stages, and a major report on deliverability and costing was completed for UKRI/STFC. Diamond engaged with the challenges presented by COVID-19 at a very early stage, making some of the earliest high-resolution measurements on key elements of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the illness. As the impact of COVID-19 became increasingly severe in March 2020, Diamond sent almost all staff home, but managed to continue to support work on the virus as well as many other core activities, the continued planning of technical projects and the completion and roll-out of a new system for staff appraisals. Considerable challenges lie ahead for the months and perhaps years to come as plans are refined to get more staff safely back to work and to broaden support for our users. However, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances that Diamond has shown in recent months bodes very well for the future. Professor Sir Adrian Smith Chairman of the Board of Directors The Conceptual Design Report for Diamond-II passed an external expert review with flying colours