An intense week for the neutron science community
The 2025 UK Neutron and Muon Science and User Meeting (NMSUM) was held in Warwick from 17 to 19 March. Each year, the meeting is an opportunity to hear about the latest science, facility updates and other matters of interest to the community. The meeting comprised a dedicated student day, a science day, and a day dedicated to the facilities and their users. Over 300 participants gathered in Warwick for the NMSUM, including more than 20 from the ILL. The ILL team presented nine talks and several posters, co-chaired sessions and actively participated in the many discussion opportunities with both neutrons users and scientists from the other facilities.
During the student day, ILL scientists Anne Martel and Nina Steinke presented to the students the small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron reflectrometry techniques. On the science day, Ulli Koester gave a plenary talk on radionlucides for cancer treament. Five other ILL scientists represented the ILL on the parallel sessions dedicated toMagnetism & Superconductivity (Andrew Wildes and Thomas Saerbeck), Biosciences & Soft Matter (Viviana Cristiglio), Molecular Systems and Catalysis (Monica Jimenez Ruiz) and Engineering, Imaging and Cultural Heritage (Sandra Cabeza). Finally, in the day dedicated to the facilities, the ILL update has been presented by its director Ken Andersen. Several prizes have been announced during the meeting. Jennifer Graham, former PhD student at the ILL and Birmingham University now at PSI, won the Don McKenzie Paul Thesis Prize 2025. Read more here.
Also last week, the ILL co-organised the 54èmes Journées des Actinides, JdA, on 18 – 21 March in Annecy. This JdA series provides an informal and interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of current advances on the physical and chemical properties of lanthanide- and actinide-based alloys and compounds. The conference with a broad scope, spanning a wide range of topics attracted 78 participants from 12 different countries this year, including 29 PhD students.
The associated 15th School on the Physics and Chemistry of the Actinides, SPCA, was held on 16-17 March at the EPN campus in Grenoble and counted on 42 participants. The SPCA provided the opportunity for 42 international students to listen to 14 lectures on a range of actinide fields, from fundamental physics to biology. Several lectures focused on synchrotron x-ray and neutron techniques used to study actinides.
Last but not least, the 2025 Neutron Sources Support Laboratory Symposium gathered 20 participants at the ILL and a dozen more remotely via Zoom. Support labs also promote collaboration, train the next generation of researchers, and uphold safety standards.
Originally launched as a collaboration between ISIS and the ESS and expanded to include additional facilities in 2023, the event became a key annual gathering for staff and users of support laboratories at neutron sources worldwide.
The programme featured scientific talks, workshops, discussions and facility tours - providing a dynamic platform for sharing knowledge and best practices.