Diamond Light Source

☀ Recently installed solar panels that cover the roof of Diamond Light Source are now fully operational! ⚡ The energy generated by the solar panels is an annual supply of 2.3GWh/y. This output amounts to around 5% of the facility’s total annual energy consumption. 🗨 Gianluigi Botton, CEO of Diamond Light Source, said: "The completed solar panel installation demonstrates our commitment to lowering the carbon footprint of our world-changing science. This is significant in the high-tech, specialised research and development sector that Diamond operates in.” Read more here. ⬇ https://lnkd.in/e2hZBXtv

⚡ In work recently published in Advanced Materials, researchers from the University of Cambridge used depth-resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) at Diamond’s I09 beamline to investigate the intricate relationship between polarisation and electrochemical changes in hafnia-based ferroelectrics. 💡 The results suggest that the electrochemical state is not directly linked to polarisation, and that certain dopants can suppress the electrochemical changes that cause degradation without sacrificing polarisation, opening up exciting possibilities for engineering more robust and reliable ferroelectric devices. 🔗 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/egDihPcA

‼ The next Inside Diamond Open Day will take place in person on Saturday 31st May 2025 and the ballot for this event is open now. 🔎 Enter for the chance to visit the facility and see inside our particle accelerator and experimental laboratories. You will also meet some of the scientists that use Diamond and can ask them about the work they do - everything from viral proteins to engine parts and ancient texts. 📅 When: Saturday 31st May 2025 ⏳ Enter the ballot by: Sunday 27th April 2025 ℹ These events are very popular and we have a limit on the number of visitors we can accommodate so we operate a ballot system to offer a fair allocation of spaces. Read more and enter the ballot with the link below. ⬇ https://lnkd.in/duN7udN

On March 12th, SRUK/CERU Oxford visited Harwell Campus to learn about some of the UK's most advanced research infrastructure. At @diamondlightsource, we toured the particle accelerator and heard from researchers about the different beamlines and the experiments they enable. We also visited @rosalindfranklininst, where we explored a wide range of cutting-edge microscopy technologies — from super-resolution to electron microscopy — and their applications in medicine and biology. We were lucky to hear from two Spanish researchers based on campus: Karina Pombo Garcia, who presented her work on super-resolution microscopy, and Daniel, who introduced us to microwave remote sensing for Earth observation. Thanks to everyone who made this possible, and stay tuned for our next event! #SRUKOxford #SRUKCERU #DiamondDLS

ℹ We are pleased to share this fully funded PhD Opportunity which starts in September 2025: General Purpose Machine Learning Tool-Kit for Bragg Coherent Diffraction Imaging In this project you will develop Physics-Aware Super-Resolution convolutional neural network tools to enhance the visibility of Fourier-space diffraction patterns thus enabling rapid and accurate reconstruction of phase information. This project is a collaboration between the Ada Lovelace Centre, Diamond Light Source and the University of Southampton. To apply, please visit: https://lnkd.in/e94ekKAq #PhD #FullyFunded #MachineLearning #ApplyNow

⏪ At the start of the month we hosted the Fundamentals of PyMCa and MANTiS for XRF and XANES data interpretation workshop 2025. Jointly organised by the I14 and I18 beamlines, this workshop provided training for the analysis of elemental imaging XRF and XANES data from the nano- and micro- probes. 🤝 Thank you to everyone who attended and made this event possible.

Check out this exciting announcement from from the ASAP Discovery Consortium on some big news on a promising antiviral with potential activity against SARS-CoV2 and other viruses belonging to the same family. 👇 Over 1300 liganded structures which have driven the development of this compound have been collected on I04-1/XChem at Diamond Light Source over the past ~5 years.

🌍 Breakthroughs at Diamond Light Source’s electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) are paving the way for a cost-effective, lower-risk polio vaccine. Scientists have been developing virus-like particles (VLPs)—lab-made particles that mimic poliovirus but contain no genetic material, eliminating the risk of infection while still triggering immunity. 🌱 Researchers at the University of Leeds explored producing these VLPs in yeast, mammalian, and plant cells, finding that VLPs from yeast and insect cells could match or even outperform the current inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). Since 1988, polio cases have decreased by 99%, and with support from the World Health Organization, the world is closer than ever to eradicating this disease. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/eHgNN9P5

💊 Most conventional drugs, such as ibuprofen, work by inhibiting proteins. However, some proteins have been considered "undruggable" due to them lacking active sites for inhibitors to bind to. This has led to researchers exploring other avenues to target these proteins. Scientists have turned to investigating drugs which mark proteins for destruction by protein shredders called proteasomes. 🔎 A protein called Cereblon is essential in this process, but a lack of understanding of its structure has held back research into these drugs, until now. In our most recent science highlight, find out how researchers from the University of Dundee synthesised a highly stable, easily purified Cereblon variant and used a range of techniques across Diamond's I24, I04 and B21 beamlines to resolve the proteins structure. ⬇ Read the entire science highlight here: https://lnkd.in/e47v3CxB

Want to shape the future of battery technology? ⚡️ Join Gabriel Pérez and I this summer for an 8-week paid internship at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL, home to Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and the Central Laser Facility). You'll learn about different characterisation techniques available across the laboratory, work with a wide-group of researchers, & perform hands-on experiments using a beamline (a powerful tool for scientific analysis). Please share to any undergrad students you think would be interested. https://lnkd.in/ekQCDpKs Based at RAL, Oxfordshire. https://lnkd.in/eJV9Xrt2 #STEMCareers #BatteryScience #ResearchOpportunity