Diamond Concise Annual Review 2019/20

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 32 33 Education, Training and Engagement D iamond continues to engage with many groups, connecting people with our wide range of science and engineering activities. Over the past year we have developed new audiences while maintaining our commitment to work with, train and learn from our user community and thewider public. Over the past year Diamond has welcomed 5,038 visitors to the facility, including 1,284 for scientific and technical events, 947 undergraduate and postgraduate visitors, 2,242 school students and members of the public, and 565 VIPs and Stakeholders. This year Diamond has increased its support for younger schoolchildren and partnered with Science Oxford in the Big Science event working with over 80 primary schools. We have also developed new ways to promote careers in STEM including two of our staff receiving a grant to produce a Diamond boardgame. We continue to run a programme of public engagement activities.The majority take place onsite at our regular Inside Diamond open days or community group visits. In addition, we also attended many external events including the IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival, Big Bang South East,Wantage Museum and the Bluedot festival. Our school/college level activities include tailored event days, such as a girls’ only science day, andmore general open day events. Many of these are run with our partnersatSTFC.Ourschool levelworkexperienceprogrammegave28studentsthe chance to come to Diamond for a week. Towards the end of the year the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic affected onsite activities, but we responded by producing more remote resources for schools, users and the general public. Engaging with Higher Education Our undergraduate placements and PhD programme continue to be one of our core engagement activities. Diamond offers students a range of opportunities to help develop and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. In autumn 2019 we welcomed 14 new PhD students, co-funded with 10 different universities and research facilities, bringing the total number of ongoing studentships to 73. There were 66 submissions to the 2020 Diamond Doctoral Studentship call for proposals received from 26 different institutions. We hope to welcome 32 students in October 2020. The undergraduate placement scheme welcomed 30 new students in June 2019. There were 15 12-week summer placements and 10 12-month year in industry projects. The demand for student visits remains high and Diamond supported 35 visits from university groups, offering a range of access, talks and training. We have also worked with the Open University careers department to develop an interactive Diamond visit event. Scientific Workshops and Conferences Diamond organises a broad portfolio of scientific and technical workshops, training courses and conferences to support our user community and staff. Among the many events held this year, we were the first UK hosts of the biennial 8th International Workshop on Strong Correlations and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (CORPES).The year also saw an increase in requests for our new computer-based workshops. These popular workshops delivered training to the user community on Diamond’s latest tools and capabilities, such as X-ray PDF data collection and PyMca software data analysis techniques. Visitor numbers by event type FY 2019/20 1,284 Scientific & Technical 947 PhD& Undergraduate Student 2,242 Public & Schools 565 VIPs & Stakeholders my project was really well run and the staffwere friendly and supportive throughout, it was an amazing experience and I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to be involved. - School work experience student Several of the 2019 undergraduate placement 12-month Year in Industry cohort.