Diamond appoints new chairman

Lord Broers

Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, has appointed Professor Lord Broers as its new chairman. Lord Broers, who takes over from Sir David Cooksey, has had a distinguished career in electrical engineering, including almost 20 years in research with IBM, and is the immediate past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1996 – 2003 and Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee for Science and Technology from 2004 – 7. A strong believer that engineering and science are two sides of the same coin and that both disciplines having vital roles to play in society, Lord Broers brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to Diamond’s board of directors.

As the largest science facility to be built in the UK for 40 years, Diamond represents an impressive feat of engineering and science. Lord Broers joins as the synchrotron reaches a developmental milestone with 11 of its 22 Phase I & II experimental stations operational and welcoming researchers to undertake ground-breaking scientific experiments.

Lord Broers with Diamond CEO Gerd Materlik

Diamond’s CEO, Professor Gerhard Materlik adds: "We are delighted that Lord Broers has accepted the position and warmly welcome him to our board of directors. His scientific background speaks for itself – he has published numerous papers on electron microscopy, microelectronics and technology in general. In addition, Alec Broers has extensive commercial experience and is involved with a number of key science and technology committees, all of which will add significant strength to the knowledge and capabilities of our board of directors. We are also extremely grateful to Sir David Cooksey for everything that he has helped us to achieve over the past 6 years".

Ends

For more information or images, contact:

• Silvana Damerell at Diamond: 01235 778238 / 07841 432780 / silvana.damerell@diamond.ac.uk
• Sarah Bucknall at Diamond: 01235 778639 / sarah.bucknall@diamond.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

• Diamond generates extremely intense pin-point beams of synchrotron light of exceptional quality ranging from x-rays, ultra-violet and infrared. For example Diamond’s x-rays are around 100 billion times brighter than a standard hospital X-ray machine or 10 billion times brighter than the sun.
• Many of our everyday commodities that we take for granted, from food manufacturing to cosmetics, from revolutionary drugs to surgical tools, from computers to mobile phones, have all been developed or improved using synchrotron light.
• Diamond will bring benefits to:

• Biology and medicine. For example, the fight against illnesses such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis and many cancers will benefit from the new research techniques available at Diamond.
• The physical and chemical sciences. For example, in the near future, engineers will be able to image their structure down to an atomic scale, helping them to understand the way impurities and defects behave and how they can be controlled.
• The Environmental and Earth sciences. For example, Diamond will help researchers to identify organisms that target specific types of contaminant in the environment which can potentially lead to identifying cheap and effective ways for cleaning polluted land.