Andreas Meyer to be the ILL's next German Associate Director

The Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) is pleased to announce that Professor Andreas Meyer has accepted the post of German Associate Director of the Institute from 1st October 2021.

Prof. Meyer is an expert in the application of neutron scattering to materials science, focusing in particular on the dynamics and structure of melts at very high temperatures and close to the glass transition.

After completing his PhD based on the research he conducted at the Nuclear Resonant Scattering Beamline at the ESRF, Prof. Meyer joined the United States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he worked on the commissioning of a new neutron backscattering spectrometer. He then moved to the Physics Department of the Technical University in Munich, where he held the Chair of Experimental Physics in the Institute of Experimental Physics. He has most recently been heading the Institute of Materials Physics in Space at the German Aerospace Center in Cologne, in a joint appointment with the Ruhr University Bochum. Throughout Prof. Meyer's career to date, neutron-based science has been an important part of his research portfolio. He has also represented the German neutron scattering community in a variety of capacities, most recently as an elected member of the German Committee for Research with Neutrons. The appointment is a worthy reflection of the high international esteem he enjoys.

"I am delighted that it is to be one of my DLR colleagues occupying this outstanding position in the European research landscape," emphasises Prof. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board. "In his 15 years at the DLR, Prof. Meyer has succeeded in focusing his institute's work on understanding the physical mechanisms underlying the properties of fluids. Its research is embedded in a programme combining theory, simulations and both ground-based and weightless experimentation using research rockets and the International Space Station facilities."

"I am thrilled that the ILL has succeeded in attracting someone of Andreas' calibre to join our management team. Andreas is undoubtedly an outstanding personality in the field of neutron scattering applied to materials research and his extensive managerial experience as Head of Institute at the German Aerospace Center will be particularly valuable for leading the ILL's Projects and Techniques Division", comments Helmut Schober, Director of the ILL.