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NEWS

March 2023 ESRFnews

User Meeting successfully returns to campus

energy devices.

The first person to take the lectern

at the plenary session on Tuesday

7 February was Kristina Djinović-

Carugo, who has headed the Grenoble

outpost of the European Molecular

Biology Laboratory (EMBL) since

June last year. She referenced the

various collaborations between the

EMBL and the ESRF that are critical

to multi-technique or “integrative”

structural biology, and described her

own research into the Z-discs that

connect the basic microscopic units of

muscles (see Portrait, p25).

Entirely new questions

Djinović-Carugo was followed by

Kirsi Lorentz of the Cyprus Institute

in Aglandjia, who explored why it

has taken decades for synchrotron

techniques to significantly encroach on

her field of bioarchaeology. In her view

several factors were to blame, including

the difficulty in preparing synchrotron

worthy samples the lack of funding

in the host countries of archaeological

digs and a lack of awareness

among archaeologists themselves

Nevertheless synchrotron studies were

vital in her view as they enable us to ask

entirely new questions

The next keynote lecture saw a turn

away from cultural heritage with Paul

Loubeyre of the French Alternative

Energies and Atomic Energy

Commission CEA summarising

recent progress in highpressure

science. With the development of

new designs of diamond anvil cell, he

explained, scientists are now able to

transcend steady pressures of 1 TPa.

Along the road to such conditions, he

and others in the field are glimpsing

evidence of entirely new types of

material, from polymerised nitrogen,

which can store immense chemical

energy, to super-ionic water, which

could form part of ice giants such

as Uranus and Neptune, to super

hydrides, which are being investigated

as potential room-temperature

superconductors. “There’s a different

periodic table above 100 GPa,” he said.

While not all the high-temperature

materials can currently be retained in

everyday conditions, Loubeyre pointed

out – with reference to synthetic

diamond in the 1950s – the speed

with which synthesised materials can

become commercial once science has

found out a way to make them stable.

European battery hub

The final keynote by Sandrine

Lyonnard also of the CEA focused

on a topic of great importance to

all users the new access modes She

and her colleagues have pioneered

one of the new modes the hub for

European research into batteries and

fuel cells With the reality of climate

change becoming ever more visible

she said we dont have fifty years to

wait for new battery technologies to

help society Yet research in this area

Users flocked to the ESRF in February

for the first on-site user meeting since

before the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 400 people attended in

person, and nearly 100 posters were

submitted – figures that exceed those

for the last on-site user meeting three

years ago.

The meeting came in the second full

year of operation of the EBS. Francesco

Sette, the ESRF director general,

welcomed the transition to the full

user phase of the EBS, and praised the

quality of science performed with the

new X-ray source so far, comparing

it with the raft of results that came

in the first year of operation of the

original ESRF nearly 30 years ago. “It

proves that you build a facility of this

kind when you have a powerful user

community that knows what to do

with it,” he said. Guillaume Morard,

Chair of the User Organisation

Committee, said it was especially good

for young PhD and postdocs to be back

on site again Its a great opportunity

for them to meet ESRF scientists and

exchange with other researchers in

their field he added

Taking place over three days from

68 February the user meeting

had a varied programme Monday 6

February saw 10 different tutorials

while Wednesday 8 February

was given to three userdedicated

microsymposia on environmental

sciences tomography at the BM18

beamline and operando studies of

B R U N O L A V I T

“The quality of

science proves

that you build

a facility of this

kind when you

have a powerful

user community

that knows what

to do with it”