Powering discovery, The Future of Particle Accelerating

Paul is currently the Head of Accelerator Mechanical Engineering at Diamond Light Source, he originally joined Diamond in 2012 as a Mechanical Project Engineer working on front ends in the storage ring. After a 7 year stint at a large defence company he returned to Diamond in 2022 to his current role.

His role covers ongoing operations of the current accelerators and leading a team developing the new Diamond II accelerators, working closely with all technical devisions across Diamond and the wider science and engineering community in the UK.

Chris developed an interest in plasma physics as a student at the University of York, where he went on to pursue a PhD in laser-plasma astrophysics performing experiments in France, Japan, the USA, and the Central Laser Facility (CLF). After working as a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Ecole Polytechnique in France, Chris worked as an applications engineer specialising in surface metrology for both production and research.

In 2013 Chris rejoined the world of lasers and plasmas, working in Gemini as first a laser operator and then as a target area scientist. He moved to the software controls team in 2018 where his work focuses on developing control systems that integrate the wide variety of scientific instruments required by state-of-the-art laser systems.

Prof Roger Paul Webb was the Director of the EPSRC Surrey Ion Beam Centre and the UK National Ion Beam Centre (a collaboration between the Universities of Huddersfield, Manchester and Surrey) from 2004 until 2024. In 2024 he took partial retirement and stepped down as full director of the facility. He is a founding member and chair of the international committee of the Computer Simulation of Radiation Effects in Solids and Radiation Effects in Matter conference series and he is the UK representative on the European Conference on Accelerators and Applied Research and the International Ion Beam Analysis conference series.  He has been a member on a number of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) advisory panels relating to ion beam interactions with materials as well as chair of the Institute of Physics Ion and Plasma Surface Interactions special interest group. He has published over 270 refereed papers and book chapters and made more than 240 presentations at conferences and workshops worldwide. He leads research programmes advancing new methods for ion beam analysis. He has ~50 years of experience in the application and understanding of ion-solid interactions.

He obtained his PhD from the University of Salford in 1980 and spent 3 years at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California before joining the Ion Beam Centre at the University of Surrey as a research fellow. He became a lecturer in micro-electronics at Surrey in 1986 and was made a full professor of ion beam physics in 2002. He has conducted additional research at Penn State University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Mike is a Senior Mechanical Project Engineer within the Engineering Division of the Central Laser Facility (CLF), based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). After studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, Mike began his career at Instron, a manufacturer of materials testing machines, designing bespoke hydraulic and electrodynamic systems for unique customer applications.

Mike achieved Chartered Engineer status before joining the CLF in 2022, first designing specialist mechanical equipment and services for the Extreme Photonics Applications Centre (EPAC) project, and he has recently been promoted to Project Engineer, taking ownership of all the mechanical engineering on the project as it enters its final stages.

Dr Roger Eccleston is Executive Director, National Laboratories at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Head of STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. 

He has responsibility for the leadership and development of STFC’s Large Scale Facilities and National Laboratory Departments. 

He also has accountability for the strategic development of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory site. 

Prior to joining STFC, Roger was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Professor of Materials Physics at Sheffield Hallam University. He had previously been Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Global Engagement, and Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences. 

He first worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory as an industrial placement student in 1985. Following completion of his PhD at the University of Warwick, Roger returned to RAL as an Instrument Scientist, Group Leader and Division Head in the ISIS Facility between 1992 and 2004, and then as STFC Director of Technology from 2007 to 2009. 

He has also been Dean of the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University, and Director of the Materials and Engineering Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. His research interests are in magnetic model systems and neutron instrumentation. 

Roger is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and a trustee of the Careers Research Advisory Centre and Be Free Young Carers. 

Haroon Rafique has worked on several European proton synchrotrons, including a PhD on HL-LHC Collimation, a post-doc on FCC-hh machine detector interface, and a fellowship on the LHC Injectors Upgrade. Haroon is the accelerator modelling section leader at the UK’s neutron and muon facility ISIS, is a plenary member of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA), serves on STFC's Particle Physics Advisory Panel (PPAP), and contributes to a range of national and international funding and oversight committees.