The hour of birth of the German neutron research:

Mag2Pol is an easy-to-use software for the analysis of X-ray and (polarized) neutron diffraction data. The latest release introduces magnetic space groups and magnetic superspace groups as well as many useful crystallographic tools. A series of online introductory courses starts on 10 October 2022.

NICOS is the link between the scientific instruments and visiting researchers during neutron experiments. The software, originally developed at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Center (MLZ), is now in demand worldwide and is increasingly expanding its user community.

Mobility is a fundamental ingredient of our present society and engages researchers from a wide range of disciplines worldwide. This year's MLZ Conference "Neutrons for Mobility" brings together experts from mobility and neutron research. From 31.05. - 03.06.2022, they will meet in Lenggries, Germany, to share experiences on neutron methods and discuss sustainability and energy efficiency in the transportation of the future. Participants can register as Early Bird until 31.03.2022.

Mag2Pol is an easy-to-use program for the analysis of X-ray and (polarized) neutron diffraction data. The latest release introduces Rietveld refinement and further tools for a user-friendly analysis of powder data.

Research with neutrons provides unique insights into materials and phenomena that cannot be gained using other methods. From this autumn, a groundbreaking project will ensure the most effective use of the research potential of neutron methods. Funding has now been secured by Jülich neutron researchers together with partners from the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ). The aim of the Global Neutron Scientists (GNeuS) project is to train a new generation of highly skilled neutron scientists. The EU is funding the project over its five-year duration with € 3.3 million. The three leading partners are investing a further € 5 million. Within the framework of the project, 45 postdocs will for the first time be able to take part in a 24-month structured, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral international training programme.

In December 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use across the EU, marking a crucial step forward in the fight against coronavirus. The development of this COVID-19 vaccine built on important research that was undertaken by Mainz-based biotechnology company, BioNTech, in collaboration with the Jülich Center for Neutron Science (JCNS). Using neutron scattering instruments operated by the JCNS at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Center in Garching, researchers investigated new approaches for the packaging and delivery of the mRNA. Such experiments provide important insights into the relationship between structural properties, biological activity and the vaccine production process, which will help to advance the development of RNA therapeutics and vaccines.

Find out more about how neutron scattering experiments at JCNS have contributed to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Mantid project provides a framework that supports high-performance computing and visualisation of materials science data. It has been created to manipulate and analyse neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy data, but could be applied to many other techniques. The framework is open source and supported on multiple target platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac).

Since January, Prof. Dr. Martin Müller has been the new director at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), succeeding Prof. Dr. Stephan Förster in the role. A materials physicist, he now represents the Helmholtz partners Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) in the Scientific Directorate of the MLZ. By rotation, Martin Müller will also be the spokesman of the directorate for a period of two years.

At the end of 2019, the neutron source used for materials research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) was shut down as planned. Now the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Munich is taking over two scientific instruments from the HZB. The Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMBF) is funding the relocation and adaptation with 5.62 million euros.

Every year, up to 1,200 guest scientists from all over the world come to perform measurements at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II). Technical University Munich (TUM) and Forschungszentrum Jülich are now expanding the research capacities of the world’s most versatile neutron source with two new buildings providing a total of 4,550 square meters of floor space for laboratories, offices and workshops.

The ILL has now implemented the best neutron polariser in the world – it is more compact and cheaper than others because of its size and able to reach nearly 100% polarisation. It is set to be implemented at a number of facilities in the world to create better particle physics experiments to improve our understanding of the Universe.

Slovenia’s National Institute of Chemistry (NIC) joins the world’s flagship neutron science facility, the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), as a Scientific Member, opening the door for Slovenia’s scientists and industry to cutting-edge research with neutrons, to drive innovation and tackle global challenges.

Russia’s BP Konstantinova Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics has announced a tender for the development of a core design for the PIK research reactor in Gatchina. The aim of the project is to provide nuclear fuel for the PIK research reactor.

He never liked to be the centre of attention and yet everything revolves around him one last time: Prof. Dr. Albert Steyerl, the inventor of the neutron turbine, died on 2 May at the age of 81.

ESS has officially inaugurated the data centre infrastructure that will play a vital role in processing the enormous amounts of research data from experiments being conducted here.

As of Tuesday 29th October 2019, the Orphée reactor in Saclay is no longer in operation.

ESS celebrated an important scientific milestone, the official handover of the Long Instrument Hall from construction partner, Skanska.

ANSTO’s significant neutron scattering capabilities have been extended to fifteen advanced scientific instruments with the official opening of the Spatz neutron reflectometer.

He developed the world's first neutron time-of-flight diffractometer with a 150-meter-long neutron guide at the Atomic Egg in Garching and planned the instruments at the research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. Now Erich Steichele has died at the age of 80 near Bad Wörishofen.

One of the broad research areas at PSI covers the topic of energy. Part of that, in turn, is the research for nuclear energy and safety. And one of the research groups based here is engaged with nuclear fuels. Johannes Bertsch is the head of this group and investigates the importance of so-called cladding tubes and their protective layers.

Scientists from Jülich together with colleagues from Japan have discovered how fuel cell membranes can be improved without the use of rare and expensive precious metals such as platinum. The anion-exchange membranes studied are a key component of certain polymer electrolyte fuel cells and serve to transfer charged particles (anions) while at the same time retaining gases such as oxygen or hydrogen.

Physicists from the University of Luxembourg, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) and a team of research partners have demonstrated for the first time in a comprehensive study how different magnetic materials can be examined using small-angle neutron scattering. The scientists around Dr. Sebastian Mühlbauer (MLZ, Technical University of Munich) and Prof. Dr. Andreas Michels (University of Luxemburg) have published their insights in “Reviews of Modern Physics,” the respected science journal of the American Physical Society

The construction of the Campus surrounding the European Spallation Source has started with a groundbreaking ceremony.

Scientists at the Chair of Functional Materials at Physics Department of TUM have been researching organic photovoltaic cells since several years.

In December 2017, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) entered into an extended 5 month scheduled outage to perform a number of high-priority jobs needed to ensure safe and reliable operation at higher powers. Most notable were the replacement of the facility's inner reflector plug (IRP) and the accelerator's radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ).

High-level Swedish and Italian delegations, led by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, came together to inaugurate the first major technical components to be commissioned at the European Spallation Source: the Accelerator’s Ion Source and LEBT.

The third and final ESS Coldbox has arrived and been put into place at the ESS in Lund, Sweden. It weighs 38 tonnes and is the world's largest helium refrigerator within the 15-20K temperature range. It's home may now be in Sweden but it is an international effort having been procured by Swiss company Linde Kryotechnik and it was manufactured in Italy.

The new instrument KOMPASS at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum has seen its first neutrons on 29th May 2018, The name KOMPASS is an abbreviation for KOeln-Munich on Polarization Analysis Specialized Spectrometer.

SNI 2018: News from the ESS.

Andreas Schreyer presented an update on the ESS construction. Read more to find out the progress of the project and how much concrete has been used so far!

Representatives of eight European research infrastructures signed the Charter of the League of advanced European Neutron Sources (LENS) at the International Conference of Research Infrastructures, ICRI2018, in Vienna today.

IFE's Board of Directors has decided to permanently close the Halden Reactor and to start decommissioning the reactor.

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to June 25, 2018!

It is already known that dinosaurs lay eggs. The fact that the offspring of the same mother hatch at different times from the eggs, was observed so far only in modern birds. For the first time, measurements at FRM II could prove that already their ancestors, the dinosaurs, hatched asynchronously.

The world’s highest-performance neutron source for research, FRM II of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), will have a new Scientific Director as of April 1st. With the appointment of Professor Peter Müller-Buschbaum, an internationally renowned researcher has been appointed to succeed Winfried Petry.

A new video from the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science introduces the novel detector system Solid State Neutron Detector, known as SoNDe.

The Workshop will take place at Forschungszentrum Jülich in the main lecture hall. Here we will have oral presentations, a poster session and an exhibition.

Researchers from MLZ (Forschungszentrum Jülich) investigated the crystallization of the protein lysozyme in an experiment at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL).

A research group conducts high pressure neutron diffraction experiments that help develop novel materials.

Prof. Andreas Schreyer, the Director of Science at ESS visited the JEEP II-reactor at Kjeller, Norway on January the 23rd, underlining the importance of the facility.

Dr. Eddy Lelièvre-Berna is the new Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Neutron Research.

Scientists from JGU have been able to increase the ultracold neutron yield of their source by a factor of 3.5.

A portrait about Eugene Mamontov who is the lead instrument scientist for BASIS, the backscattering, crystal-analyzer spectrometer at the SNS that is particularly good at deciphering the dynamics of water in various systems.

Beam generator puts country in elite company for doing experiments in materials science and other fields.

J-PARC is back to its user operation since mid-October after three months of summer shutdown for maintenance.

The triple axis spectrometer FLEXX at BER II provides a new detector module for user service.

Ultra-cold neutrons are used as an ideal tool for studying gravity at the microscopic level and fundamental neutron optics.

The 49th IFF Spring School – Physics of Life will be held February 26 – March 9 2018 in Jülich, Germany.

The NIST Bureau of Standards Reactor is celebrating its 50th anniversary of going critical on December 7, 2017.

You cannot solve your problem with conventional lab equipment?

From 8 to 9 March 2018, SYNERGI 2018 will bring together industrial researchers and scientists from large-scale facilities at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. These unique facilities offer a deep insight into materials of all types.

75 scientists, engineers and technicians from 10 countries and representatives from 10 sponsoring companies attended the International Workshop for Sample Environment at Scattering Facilities 2016.

The hour of birth of the German neutron research:

The Atomic Egg, the first German research reactor, started operating 60 years ago in Garching. Thereby, irreplaceable insights into matter were made possible.

Neutrons are an exceptional resource for probing the atomic properties of materials, leading to advancements in materials science, biology, chemistry, and physics—and bringing us more effective drugs and medical treatments, 3D-printed tools and machinery, biofuels, and better batteries and energy storage technologies.

Worldwide, more than 30 million medical examinations are conducted annually with technetium-99m. A new film shows the status of the upgrading at the FRM II towards the production of its mother isotope molybdenum-99.

Peter Littlewood, former director of the Argonne National Laboratory, was invited to visit the Chinese Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) and attended the CSNS Academic Forum on September 18.

The ¥2.2bn ($330m) China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) has produced its first neutrons.

In 1999, PSI researchers founded the spin-off firm SwissNeutronics. Today the company sells high-precision components to research institutions all over the world.

After a successful year of promotion of neutron scattering techniques, the LAHN team organised the first Argentinean Meeting on Neutron Scattering (TN2017), held in Buenos Aires on March 15-17th.

For 20 years researchers from a range of disciplines have been using the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source SINQ of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI for their investigations.

The NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) is sad to announce the death of Dr. John J. Rush (Jack) on April 20, 2017.

ESS interviews team members at Daresbury Lab in England. The STFC facility is responsible for series production and testing of the 84 high-beta cavities of the European Spallation Source’s superconducting Accelerator.

Ricardo Garcia Soto a Chilean science author and director of television films made a short about what to see at the FRM II.

The SINE2020 project offers the opportunity to use Europe’s leading neutron facilities for your company’s R&D. Apply by June 30th 2017!

The European Spallation Source was the site of a roundtable discussion featuring King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the Governor General of Canada, and the research ministers of the two nations. The focus was on collaboration between Canada’s and Sweden’s science, industry and research infrastructures.

IKON12. A record number of participants at the 12th meeting for In-Kind Contributions for Neutron Science at ESS demonstrated the expanding scale and complexity of the instrument projects as they move through preliminary engineering design.

MAX4ESSFUN. Mucus protects many of our body’s vital functions against dehydration. Understanding the structure and function of this biological material will give researchers more tools to prevent and treat common diseases like cystic fibrosis and asthma.

The Modulator. Carlos Martins and his ESS power converters team, with the help of Lund University researchers, have successfully brought a new high-voltage modulator design to series production. The cost savings and reduced footprint for these large machines mean a paradigm shift for linac power supply worldwide.

Delegates from the 15 European Spallation Source member and observer nations held a one-day strategy meeting in Lund on Thursday. Plans for finalising the construction and moving into operations, as well as principles for association of new members were up for discussion.

The first of January 2017, the “Fédération Française de Diffusion Neutronique” (French Federation of Neutron Scattering) has been created. It federates the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) in Saclay and the CEA/INAC/MEM and Institut NEEL neutron groups in Grenoble.

The newly built time of flight spectrometre NEAT has welcomed its first users: Jie Ma from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and his colleague Zhilun Lu examined magnetic excitations in crystalline samples and enjoyed fast data rate and high flexibility of instrumental configurations. NEAT team is now looking forward to further new studies and user experiments!

Proposals for beam time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will be accepted via the web-based proposal system until NOON EASTERN TIME, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. This call is for experiments anticipated to run July through December 2017.

Proposals at the OPAL Neutron Beam Facility (both cold- and thermal-neutron instruments) and National Deuteration Facility. Deadline 15 March 2017, for beam time between July and December 2017.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). Due to facility maintenance about ¾ of the usual time given through proposals will be allocated in this proposal round. The deadline for all proposals is Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

In two videos Maurice Goldhaber and Laurence Passell tell about the history of reactors at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

ESS and J-PARC. Naohito Saito, Director of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, visited ESS and MAX IV on Monday to exchange knowledge and discuss their upcoming collaboration workshop with ESS and Swedish universities.

For the first time, the call for experiments is made by the 2FDN for all the beam time on LLB instruments and the four French CRGs at the ILL. Deadline March 29th at 23:59 French time.

The deadline for submitting your HZB Beamtime Applications for projects to be carried out in the second half year 2017 is 1 MARCH 2017, 23:59 (CET).

CERIC-ERIC is launching its seventh call for proposals, with a two-steps deadline option: March 1 and March 30.

The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. A new book tells about ILL's 50 years of service to science and society. It is available in the 3 official languages.

“It is really a treasure chest that is being built here. I’m convinced that the local hosts will be positively surprised by what will pop up out of this during its 40-year lifetime, provided it continues to be supported in the same spirit as it so far has been.”

The next deadline for the submission of beam time requests for the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ will be February 20, 2017, midnight.

Australia’s state-of-the-art multi-purpose nuclear reactor has operated for more than 300 days at full power for a second consecutive year with over 99% reliability.

The ILL is launching an open call for Expressions of Interest for new instrumentation as part of Phase 2 of the Endurance Upgrade Programme.

The upcoming proposal submission deadline for neutron scattering experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) is Tuesday, 14 February 2017.

There's a new link on our History pages. A film shows the early construction at the ISIS facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in the UK. The film was made in the summer of 1985, in preparation for the official opening in October 1985 of the facility by Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister.

During the 8th International Topical Meeting on Neutron Radiography held in Beijing this year, it was decided that Argentina will host the next meeting.

The Dutch Permanent Committee for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructures announced today that ESS has been included in the National Roadmap. The strategic document brings the Netherlands one step closer to full membership in the European Spallation Source ERIC.

The European Spallation Source is moving into exciting new territory: work in Conventional Facilities is approaching 40 percent complete and significant technical installations begin this month.

Looking ahead to a time when the ESS facility is fully operational, 17 external experts provided essential input for baselining cost projections.

The future Argentine Neutron Source, LAHN: Laboratorio Argentino de Haces de Neutrones, has now a dedicated page on our website.

Collaborative project results in the construction of a second UCN source at the TRIGA research reactor in Mainz / Blueprint for Munich-based high-efficiency source.

Tapping into MagLab expertise on superconductors and cryogenics, a research team built a novel neutron scattering device that is more efficient and produces better data than previous techniques.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC) plans to provide neutrons until the end of March 2018, and to provide assistance until March 2019 to complete data analysis and publish results. You are invited to propose challenging experiments, encourage young researchers to visit and learn everything they can from our experts.

Johannes Nußbickel follows Dr. Klaus Seebach as Managing Director at the FRM II neutron source in Germany.

Dr. Sultan Demirdis works in the field of neutron research at Forschungszentrum Jülich. In a video, she talks about how she became a neutron scientist and why she likes working at the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science.

The next call will be launched in January 2017 with a proposal submission deadline on February 20, 2017, midnight for all instruments, see list below. Those proposals will request for beamtime during the period May - October 2017.

Registration is now open for our MATRAC 2 Winter School 'Application of Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science with special focus on Fundamental Aspects of Materials' to be held in Utting/Ammersee and Garching/Munich, Germany, February 27 to March 3, 2017.

John Womersley begun work as Director General of the European Spallation Source ERIC on November 1. On Friday, outgoing DG Jim Yeck delivered a message of heartfelt gratitude to ESS staff, management team, and governance.

In December 2015, Dr. Thorsten Lauer was still working as a postdoc and Thorsten Zechlau as a graduate student at the FRM II. Lauer and Zechlau could convince an investor with their knowledge and their enthusiasm for neutron optics to support the founding of a company on 1 January 2016. "We would not have dreamed of that a year ago", the two founders say.

The Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) and Neutron Therapeutics have entered into an agreement whereby a novel accelerator-based neutron source for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) will be installed at the HUH. BNCT is used to treat, for instance, locally advanced head and neck cancers.

Helmut Schober became the new ILL Director, Mark Johnson the new Science Director and British Associate Director, and Alexandre Durand the new Head of Administration.

Next proposal round at ISIS closing date: 16 October 2016, 23:00 GMT.

This call for proposals covers beamtime that will be allocated from September 2016 to February 2017.

The next deadline for beam time request on French neutron scattering instruments will be November 1st.

The upcoming proposal submission deadline for neutron scattering experiments at Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC) is Saturday, 1 October 2016.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre will provide neutrons until March 2018 and will to provide assistance until March 2019 to complete data analysis and publish results. You are invited to propose challenging experiments, encourage young researchers to visit and learn everything they can from the experts.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has given 13.5 million Euros to fund a number of projects at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ).

More than 90 energy researchers from around the world now came to the conference "Neutrons For Energy" in Bad Reichenhall to discuss current results and questions from various areas of energy research with neutrons.

Physics can also taste very sweet – this is one of the things that the pupils from grade 3 of the elementary school Garching Ost learned during their visit at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. They made an atom model from toothpicks and marsh mallows and tried their abilities as neutron scatterers at a neutron ball toss.

Proposals are accepted for experiments at the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR).

The deadline for Neutron Sciences Call for Proposals at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is October 5.

Proposals are accepted for experiments at the OPAL Neutron Beam Facility (both cold- and thermal-neutron instruments) and National Deuteration Facility between January and June 2017.

The Time-Of-Flight spectrometer NEAT at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin is now in user operation with greatly increased flux and power after an extensive upgrade project.

Forschungszentrum Jülich releases two videos for science students and teachers.

Since July 20, the FRM II again delivers neutrons. In the break, employees have finished many tasks: They exchanged the beam plug, which will guide neutrons towards the neutron guide hall east for new instruments.

CERIC-ERIC is launching its fifth call for proposals. There are interesting news in this call, new instruments added to the offer and an award for high quality publications and conference presentations.

The United Kingdom has joined the project as a full member following a unanimous decision by the ESS Council.

A Chinese-German cooperation using the instrument PANDA at MLZ developed a concept for a cold three-axis spectrometer. Results are now published.

ANSTO had a restructure. It is now the ‘Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering & National Deuteration Facility’ and the Bragg institute becomes a virtual institute.

Scientists at ESS and its partner institutions aim to realise detectors that can capture and record the high neutron rates delivered by the world’s most powerful neutron source.

New scientific questions demand ever better experimental equipment. In this interview, PSI researcher Oksana Zaharko reports on the challenges of setting up a new instrument for research with neutrons.

J-PARC Center and CROSS-Tokai are pleased to announce that the 2016B General Use proposal round will be open from Tuesday 17 May 2016.

In our history pages you can now find a summary of characteristic scientific and applied results which were obtained with use of the Swiss instruments for neutron scattering in the 20th century.

A prominent figure in European research facilities, John Womersley will take over the high-profile project at an important time.

This week sees a meeting on Future Applications of Small-Angle (Neutron) Scattering to Soft Matter, which will also celebrate Richard’s (partial!) retirement.

News on NRU shut-down, school, and call for proposals.

Prof. Helmut Schober has been appointed, with effect from 1st October 2016, as the new Director of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, the world’s flagship centre for neutron science.

The semi-annual IKON meeting has become the forum for ESS and its in-kind partners to make a clear assessment of instrument construction progress. The focus of February’s meeting was less on the activities of individual instrument teams than the multidisciplinary collaboration as a whole.

New link on our "educational material" pages. Melvyn Bragg from BBC and guests discuss the neutron, one of the particles found in an atom's nucleus.

The next deadline for the submission of beam time requests for the Swiss spallation neutron source 'SINQ' is May 20.

The first component has been successfully installed in the Accelerator tunnel at the ESS Construction site this month. The occasion marks an important step toward ESS’ project goals and ultimate delivery to its European partners and the scientific community.

The next deadline for beam time request on French neutron scattering instruments will be April 1st. Within this call, you may ask beam time on the LLB instruments installed at the Orphée reactor in Saclay, and also on 4 French CRG at the ILL (D1B, D23, IN12 and IN22).

The Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, kindly invites you to submit applications for beam time at the IBR-2 high flux pulsed reactor. The deadline is April 15, 2016.

You are invited to submit an abstract to this conference, which will be on 18.-21. July 2016, Bad Reichenhall, Germany. The deadline for abstract submission is 15 March 2016.

Forschungszentrum Jülich has begun to develop a concept for cost-efficient neutron sources which could replace mid-sized facilities. The new sources will operate without using reactor-typical chain reactions. Even smaller facilities on a laboratory scale can be set up using the same principle.

The ESS civil construction project broke ground nearly 18 months ago as one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe. With the Accelerator tunnel nearing completion, and the complex foundation work for the Target Station well advanced, all eyes are focused on technical installations beginning this year.

The research reactor Munich (FRM), known as the "Atomic Egg", came into operation on 31 October 1957. The research neutron source Heinz Maier Leibnitz (FRM II) reached its first criticality on 2 March, 2004 and user operation began only one year later on 29 April, 2005.

Stefan Janssen is Head of the User Office at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. In an interview, he explains why the PSI’s large research facilities are popular with researchers coming from other institutions, how he handles the many applications and how he supports users who come here to conduct experiments.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The deadline for all proposals is Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

Institute director and physicist from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Prof. Andreas Schreyer, is the new scientific director of the future-oriented centre ESS, starting in January.

Proposals for beam time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will be accepted Wednesday, April 13, 2016.

Deadline Step 1: February 5th, 2016 / Deadline Step 2: March 1st, 2016

The new vice-chair of the ESS Council is not new to neutrons. Her strong background in research, facility development, and within European-wide advisory bodies, places Caterina Petrillo at the centre of the neutron science community in Europe.

Proposals at the OPAL Neutron Beam Facility (both cold- and thermal-neutron instruments) and National Deuteration Facility. Deadline 15 March 2016, for beam time between July and December 2016.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The deadline for all proposals is Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

The UK’s Science & Technology Facilities Council signed an MoU with the European Spallation Source this month that establishes the world’s longest operating neutron spallation source as lead partner in building the ESS instruments FREIA and LoKI.

Prof. Mark Johnson has been appointed as the new UK Associate Director of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, the world centre for neutron science, with effect from 1st October 2016. He will act as Head of the Science Division.

Would you like to know where to submit your next proposal for neutron scattering experiments and when the neutron sources are running? Have a look at our diagram!

Research with neutrons has long delivered new and more environmentally responsible solutions for our planet. As part of its core framework, the European Spallation Source and its partners are working to realise sustainability goals for construction and operations.

The Seventh Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting will take place at WISTA, Berlin-Adlershof on December 9th and 10th, the neutrons session are at Berlin-Wannsee on December 11th. The Verein Freundeskreis Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e.V. will bestow the Innovation Award and the Ernst-Eckart-Koch Prize. Public highlights are a science slam on Wednesday, 18:30 and the public lecture by David Cahen on the power of science to bridge ideological differences. The public lecture and the science slam are open for everybody.

As one of the highest priority research infrastructure projects in Europe, ESS was visited today by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. He was joined at the construction site by the Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helene Hellmark Knutsson.

On 24 November 2015 the G7 Non Proliferation Directors Group visited the Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) and the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Centre for Neutron Research (MLZ).

SAC and TAC recommendations advance the ESS along the critical path to completion, and the ERIC Council gets rolling with the election of Prof. Caterina Petrillo as vice chair and approval of the instrument suite.

New educational material! In a podcast Physics World news editor Michael Banks travels to ISIS to find out how scientists are using neutrons in their research and how the lab is looking to attract more users from industry.

The Director for Accelerators and Technology at CERN spent a recent visit to the European Spallation Source getting up to speed on the swiftly advancing project and reinforcing the high-level coordination between the directors of ‘the two leading accelerator projects in Europe’.

Instrument teams and in-kind partners from around Europe came together in Lund with developers of neutron technologies, science support systems, and data management and software for the ESS 9th In-Kind Collaboration Meeting for Neutron Scattering Systems.

Agneta Nestenborg assumed leadership of the ESS Project Support & Administration Directorate on September 1. The transition marked the completion of former director Matti Tiirakari’s distinguished five-year secondment from CERN.

STFC and Diamond Light Source are offering 36 positions to post-doctoral researchers over the next five years as part of the brand new Rutherford International Fellowship Programme.

The PSI spallation neutron source is accepting beam time requests with deadline on November 15.

There is a new article on our History section. You can now learn about the birth of time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction at pulsed sources by Izabela M. Sosnowska.

The ISIS neutron and muon sources in the UK are calling for proposals.

ORNL is calling for proposals with deadline October 14. There is updated information for the Quantum Condensed Matter instruments at the HFIR.

"Neutron scattering as an essential tool for science has addressed some of society’s grand challenges but its future is not assured,” said Prof Christiane Alba-Simionesco, Director of LLB and Chair of ENSA.

You can submit your proposal for beam time at the IBR-2 high flux pulsed reactor until October 15.

The Budapest Neutron Centre is calling for proposals for scientists to use their neutron instruments.

The ESS Data Management and Software Centre is an integrated part of the design and construction of the ESS instrument suite and a key driver in the development of the facility’s user program.

The first concrete ceremony was held September 11 on the construction site of the multi-purpose research fast neutron reactor in Russia.

The neutron school “FAN du LLB 2015” will be on December 7-10 in France. The deadline for registration is October 18.

You can now find information on the Hellenic Neutron Association from Greece on a dedicated page on our website.

The deadline for neutron beam time request to perform neutron scattering experiments at the Laboratoire Leon Brillouin in France is October 1st.

The school will be on Feb 25 - March 4 at the HZB. The deadline for registrations is Oct 15.

At 19th of August the EC in Brussels formally adopted its decision to establish the European Spallation Source as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, or ERIC.

Proposals at the OPAL Neutron Beam Facility (both cold- and thermal-neutron instruments) and National Deuteration Facility are now open.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre invites user proposals for neutron beam time on its six beamlines.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is issuing a Call for Proposals for experiments to be run at the Lujan Center’s moderated neutron source during Fiscal Year 2016.

Alan Tennant has been appointed director of the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency has given approval for ANSTO to commence user operations on the Sika cold-neutron 3-axis spectrometer.

For the first time, one of ANSTO's high-temperature vacuum furnaces has been used successfully on the Pelican cold-neutron time-of-flight spectrometer.

For the first time, ANSTO's Dingo neutron radiography/imaging/tomography station has taken some neutron topography data, from the germanium (335) monochromator used on Wombat.

In April, tests were conducted at J-PARC that have preliminarily validated the physics behind the innovative ESS “flat” moderator. This design is expected to increase neutron brightness at ESS for some instruments by up to a factor of three.

Prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General at CERN since 2009, took some time to speak with ESS about the two facilities.

The ESS peer-review instrument selection process nears conclusion as four new instrument proposals are recommended for inclusion within the facility’s construction budget of 16 instruments.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is issuing a Call for Proposals for experiments to be run at the Lujan Center’s moderated neutron source.

A single-shot observation of dynamic processes across multiple length and time scales will give unprecedented insight into previously unobservable phenomena.

Rush describes the efforts over the past 50 years to develop neutron research facilities in the US, discusses the reasons for the current state of affairs, and makes suggestions to prevent similar consequences in the future.

Announcement of cancellation of the call for J-PARC MLF 2015B General Use Proposals.

The first European Spallation Source (ESS) pulse signature measurement was made last month on the ESS test beamline at HZB in Germany.

On April 1st ANSTO's new EMU backscattering spectrometer recorded its first spectrum, in this case from a polyvinyl chloride standard.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The deadline for all proposals is Tuesday, June 16, 2015.

The first fully functional Low-Level Radio Frequency control system for the ESS Accelerator has been installed and integrated into the EPICS control system at the FREIA Laboratory at Uppsala University.

A letter asking for support alerts to the risk that the neutron source LLB-Orphée will have to shut down earlier than planned, which will impact its users' research programmes.

The Budapest Neutron Centre invites you to submit applications for beam time at the Budapest Research Reactor.

The first external user of the FRM II was Klaus Habicht of the Helmholtz Centre Berlin, who carried out experiments on the instrument TRISP on May 4, 2005.

You can receive support to learn about Application of Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation in Engineering Materials Science on September 21-25 near Hamburg.

The film recounts the struggle and the long road to bring the ESS to Scandinavia and the great potential in the future research.

Spain collaborates closely with the ESS. In November 2014, ESS-Bilbao was chosen as the in-kind partner for the ESS target system.

At the end of March, Prof. Dieter Richter of the Research Centre Jülich not only retires, but also passes his position as MLZ Director to Prof. Thomas Brückel.

The Swiss spallation neutron source 'SINQ' is calling for proposals for the beam time period II/15 between 01/09/2015 and 23/12/2015.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is issuing a Call for Proposals for the WNR facility for run cycle September – December, 2015.

ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source is now back in action after considerable upgrades over the last six months.

The bicameral decision formalizes Switzerland’s accession to ESS and extends the Swiss financial commitment through 2026.

Part of an integrated SANS instrument suite at ESS, SKADI analyses materials’ structures at the largest scales possible with neutron diffraction.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre invites user proposals for neutron beam time on its six beamlines.

With the casting of the first 10-meter section of the accelerator tunnel walls in the last week of January, the European Spallation Source began to go vertical.

IKON8 at ISIS. This meeting brought a capacity crowd to the UK venue where an important exchange of new ESS neutron technologies came face to face with the lessons learned at ISIS during its five-year upgrade of Target Station 2.

PA20, the new SANS machine of the LLB, delivered its first SANS spectra on 6 march 2015.

Maintenance work has been successfully concluded – the High-Field Magnet has successfully attained 26 tesla in initial testing. New scientific experiments have become possible.

Greg Rickford, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, announced the Government of Canada's decision to support the extension of the operations of the NRU reactor from October 31, 2016, until March 31, 2018.

ANSTO is calling for proposals at the OPAL Neutron Beam Facility (both cold- and thermal-neutron instruments) and National Deuteration Facility.

Application is now open for the XIII School of Neutron Scattering (SoNS) “Francesco Paolo Ricci”.

The high-field magnet (HFM) project of Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin is close to completion. Proposals for HFM/EXED, beamtime can now be requested.

The ISIS Neutron Training course will be running on 16 to 25 of June 2015.

LANSCE: Call for Proposals for experiments for the Proton Radiography Facility (pRad) for the period October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016. The deadline is February 6.

South of the Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory a hall in wood construction is currently being built. From next year on, it will house the mock-up for the cooling systems of the ultracold neutron source at FRM II.

Call for applications for the LANSCE School on neutron scattering that will take place February 18-27, 2015.

The High field magnet is producing a stable magnetic field of 26 Tesla and is thus even a little stronger than the scientists and engineers dared to hope.

Thanks to NMI3 support, scientists will learn to use FullProf at the Institute Laue-Langevin from 2 to 6 March 2015.

You are interested in visiting the FRM II, but too young or too far away? No problem: An interactive tour gives you insights into the neutron source - without any restriction on admission.

The source of the proton beam at PSI is a retro-style Cockcroft-Walton linear accelerator. It was the first acceleration stage for protons which are taken up to around 80% of the speed of light. Since 1994 it has held the world record as the highest performing beam.

Magnets are the unsung heroes in particle accelerators because they keep protons or electrons on track. Some of the magnets at PSI are masterpieces of precision and control.

J-PARC MLF and CROSS announced that the 2015A General Use proposal round will be open from Friday 17 October 2014.

Today, several hundred members of the European scientific community are gathering at the ESS construction site, for the ESS Foundation Stone Ceremony.

Call for proposals for the beam time period I/15 between 01/05/2015 and 31/08/2015.

The NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) offers neutron scattering and chemical analysis instruments to all qualified users. The next deadline for receipt of proposals is Tuesday, October 7, 2014.

The deadline at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) for proposals is October 15.

The official start of the construction for the European Spallation Source was on September 2.

The next deadline for neutron beam time request to perform neutron scattering experiments at LLB-Orphee is October 1st.

Danish and Swedish ministers will start the construction of ESS today.

The deadline for submission is October 15, 2014.

The next Berlin School on Neutron Scattering will be between February 26 and March 6, 2015. Don’t forget to register before October 15.

The proposal submission deadline for neutron scattering experiments at the Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC) is October 15, 2014. NMI3 support is available.

Start of the 35th operating cycle: the FRM II provides users and customers from science, industry and medicine after a thorough review again neutrons and irradiation services.

The MLF School 2014 will be held during 16-19 December 2014 at J-PARC in Tokai, Japan.

On Tuesday 8 July morning the ILL's high flux reactor was started after the long shut-down since August 2013.

Ten years after its first criticality regulations require the FRM II to do extensive tests on its main systems. Goal of these tests is to prove the safe operation of the FRM II for the years to come.

The May meeting of the ESS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) was a critical step for the facility.

J-PARC Center and CROSS-Tokai are pleased to announce the call for General Use proposals for the neutron and muon beamlines at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of J-PARC in the 2014B user beamtime period.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre invites user proposals for neutron beam time on its six beamlines.

To submit a proposal for neutron scattering experiments can be a long procedure. Thanks to NMI3 support, a group is working on an Integrated User Access to make this procedure easier to both users and facilities.

Today, the general assembly of the German Atomic Forum DAtF (Deutsches Atomforum e.V.) has confirmed unanimously the election of the DAtF Presidential Council of Prof. Dr. Winfried Petry for Vice President.

The Lujan Neutron Scattering Center invites proposals addressing science of NNSA and LANL programmatic interest for the 2014 run cycle.

You are invited to submit proposals for beam time at LANSCE for nuclear science experiments and semiconductor irradiations for the run cycle scheduled to begin in October 2014.

Call for proposals for experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute. NMI3 support is available to cover researchers’ expenses within Europe. The deadline for submission is May 15.

LANSCE is disappointed by the decision of the US Department of Energy to cease their operational support of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center in fiscal year 2015.

Registration has now opened for the 8th International Workshop on Sample Environment at Neutron Scattering Facilities.

For exactly ten years the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz research neutron source (FRM II) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has been providing research, industry and medicine with neutrons.

The workshop on Structure and dynamics of confined and interfacial fluids: blending scattering and computer modeling techniques will take place at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in July.

The next deadline for neutron beam time request to perform neutron scattering experiments at LLB-Orphee is April 1st.

The 2nd International Symposium of Science at J-PARC will be held in Tsukuba, Japan in July.

User operations at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of J-PARC resumed this week following a 9-month shutdown.

The Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear

Research invites you to apply for beam time.

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

The Networking group on Data Analysis Standards has setup a Debian repository that provides a simple way to install scientific software for the neutron and muon communities.

The MLZ's User Office has a new blog.

JOINT proposal round with the aim to promote and facilitate the complementary use of X-rays and neutrons. Deadline for proposal submission: Feb 20, 2014

NMUM will be held in April 10-11, 2014.

The polarized single crystal diffractometer POLI in MLZ has seen neutrons at its new beam line SR 9a for the first time.

#HZBzlog – the new series highlight – is now online. Don’t miss an episode!

All available beam lines will accept proposals through February 26, 2014.

The call for nominations for the Rosen Scholar fellowship is now open.

The deadlines of the call for proposals to perform experiments at the instruments of the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science are February 1 and May 2.

The deadline for submission of proposals to perform experiments during the 2014 second semester at the BER II neutron beam in HZB is the 1st of March.

The OPAL Neutron Beam Facility and National Deuteration Facility accept proposal submissions until March 15, 2014

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An interactive panorama shows research in the neutron guide hall west of the FRM II.

We have now a map with all the neutron sources worldwide. You can browse it to learn about each one and then have a look at dedicated webpages with information about each research centre and neutron association worldwide.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The deadline for all proposals is February 20, 2014.

Proposals for beamtime at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching near Munich will be accepted until the 2nd of May.

The Abstract Submission website for the 2014 American Conference on Neutron Scattering is now open.

The Bragg Institute’s Helen Maynard-Casely’s Crystallography 365 blog aims to post a crystal structure a day for 2014 as part of the International Year of Crystallography.

Industry Advisory Board members have met industry liaison officers and scientists last December for the first common Neutron and X-ray Industry Advisory Board meeting.

NMI3 has launched an initiative to examine the interaction between industry and neutron & muon facilities.

MaMaSELF registration for the year 2014/2015 runs until 26 January 2014.

NMI3 supports a joint initiative by the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the Technical University of Munich, and the Institut Laue-Langevin to develop an e-learning platform on neutron scattering.

ANSTO is now calling for proposal for a variety of neutron-beam instruments and facilities.

CROSS-Tokai is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals to use the Public Beamlines at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of J-PARC in the 2014A operations period.

About two dozen representatives from the main European facilities have met for the 5th harmonization meeting on 26 and 27 June at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.

The next deadline for neutron beam time request to perform neutron scattering experiments at LLB is October 1.

Prof. Dr. Alan Tennant has been selected as the new Chief Scientist for the Neutron Sciences Directorate, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He will start in his new capacity there in November 2013.

Organized by researchers around Europe, the ESS Science Symposia play an important part in identifying the scientific potential of ESS and the instruments and facilities required to realize that potential.

ESS will have 22 neutron instruments, available to the research community for probing the interior of scientific samples.

The new "Research in Jülich – Magazine" App is now available.

For the measurement of the electric dipole moment of the neutron at FRM II, the research group of Prof Peter Fierlinger from the Excellence Cluster Universe at TUM and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Berlin are provided with 3.45 million euros.

FRM II participates in TU Munich research project to develop local energy buffer systems. The purpose of this initiative is to make more efficient use of renewable energy resources.

The successful collaboration between the Technical University of Munich, the Jülich Research Centre and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht received a new name: Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ). The inaugural ceremony was held in Garching, Germany.

In 2011 it has been decided that a new nuclear reactor will be constructed in Argentina. It will become the 10th nuclear reactor in the country and the Atomic Energy National Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, CNEA), which is the main responsible for the project, plans that this OPAL-like reactor will start operating by 2018 in a location to be defined.

In Berlin, more than 300 scientists have gathered to define the science of the future European Spallation Source. In total, ideas from more than 1000 scientists have been fed into the project. ESS will be one of Europe’s largest science facilities. It will be the world’s brightest facility for advanced materials research and life science with neutrons.