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PORTRAIT

March 2024 ESRFnews

E. V L I E G

Elias Vlieg, the new chair of the ESRF

Council, has a challenge ahead. Facing

an unsettled political landscape,

and inflation running high, many

European states are understandably

distracted from the needs of scientific

research. It is the Council’s job to

remind them of the highly beneficial,

long-term impact of the world’s

brightest synchrotron light source.

“This is where the Council is really

important,” says Vlieg, who has

been based at Radboud University

Nijmegen in the Netherlands for more

than 25 years. “We know that every

country has its own story, and we have

to explore different scenarios of how

to cope. But we’re fortunate, because

the ESRF is a smooth machine – it’s

Europe at its best.”

Indeed, Vlieg has to remind himself

how far the ESRF has come. When

he used to visit the light source in its

early days – he was project leader of the

Dutch-Belgian beamline, DUBBLE

– it was really a place for “die hard”

synchrotron scientists, who relished

the Olympian effort required to

prepare for a week’s beamtime. Now,

he says, access is much more attainable

for non-experts, and as a result the

user community is far more diverse,

including many scientists who are

seeking the insights of high-energy

X-rays to complement broad research

themes. “You see physicists, chemists,

doctors, students of cultural heritage

– people who have little in common,

working side by side. Can you think

of another centre of excellence

where you have such a broad scope of

fundamental research and science

with societal relevance

Vliegs own research has focused

on crystal growth a topic in which he

has become an expert thanks to his

research at various synchrotrons over

the world In one memorable study in

1992 his group was reaching the end

of a fortnights beamtime exploring

the growth of silver by molecular

beam epitaxy at the synchrotron in

Daresbury UK Frustrated that they

had not obtained very good data

in the last four hours they made a

wild decision to include the element

antimony as an additive. A few short

experiments later, they had discovered

a change in growth mode using a

surfactant. “It was an extremely good

thrill,” he says. “Until recently it was

my highest cited paper.”

Illuminating science

Another stand-out project for

Vlieg was a very large one, involving

several beamtimes at the ESRF at

ID15, which ended up in 2020 with

a state-of-the-art analysis of the

growth of gallium nitride, a highly

desirable semiconductor used in

the manufacture of blue LEDs.

Outside of synchrotrons, he has also

performed work with more immediate

societal impact, such as inventing

a new method to “deracemize” or

split mixtures of chiral compounds,

which is potentially important to

pharmaceutics.

In his spare time, Vlieg retreats

to nature, renovating an old house

in the Dutch woodland he bought

with his wife three years ago. It

is a stark contrast to his day job,

where he oversees the running of

the technological marvel that is the

ESRF–EBS. “The new source is

fantastic – there is no question that it is

the state-of-the art worldwide,” he says.

“Really, all we have to do is exploit its

possibilities.”



Jon Cartwright

ESRF Council Chair Elias Vlieg knows the

true value of a cutting-edge light source.

The voice of reason

ELIAS VLIEG: IN BRIEF

BORN: Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (1961)

EDUCATION: MSci physics, University of Groningen

(1984); PhD, X-ray scattering from semiconductor

surfaces and interfaces, AMOLF, Amsterdam, the

Netherlands (1988)

CAREER: Post-doc, AT&T Bell Laboratories/NSLS

Brookhaven National Laboratory, US (1988–1990);

Project leader, synchrotron radiation group, FOM-

Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (1990–1997);

Professor and head of solid-state chemistry, Radboud

University Nijmegen, the Netherlands (1998–);

Vice Chair, Department of Chemistry (2001–2003);

Chair (2004); Head of applied materials science

(2005–); Director, Institute of Molecules and Materials

(2009–2016); Director, tf2 devices (2009–); Director,

Educational Institute for Molecular Sciences, Radboud

University (2019–2023); President of the International

Organization for Crystal Growth (2023–); Scientific

Delegate for the Netherlands ESRF Council 2017

2020 Vice chair 20212023 Chair 2024

Can you think of another centre of excellence

where you have such a broad scope of

fundamental research and science with

societal relevance