Diamond Light Source Review 2019
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Diamond Light Source Ltd Review 2019/20 DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 1 Contents Foreword 2 CEO Welcome 4 Beamline Development and Technical Summary 6 Macromolecular Crystallography Group 8 Biological Cryo-Imaging 22 Structures and Surfaces Group 28 Magnetic Materials Group 38 Imaging and Microscopy Group 48 Crystallography Group 62 Spectroscopy Group 72 Soft Condensed Matter Group 82 Integrated Facilities and Collaborations 92 Machine Operation and Development 96 Optics and Metrology Group 98 Detector Group 102 Scientific Software, Controls and Computation 104 Key Facts and Figures 108 Industrial Liaison 110 Engaging with Diamond Light Source 112 Governance and Management 114 Staffing and Financial Information 115 Committee Membership 116 DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 1 Foreword he past year has seen Diamond rise to a series of very testing challenges, from major upgrades to ensure that it continues Tto offer researchers in UK universities and industry the very The Conceptual Design best opportunities for world-leading research, to the arrival of COVID-19, and to meet them all successfully. Report for Diamond-II passed Planning the Diamond-II an external expert review programme, an integrated upgrade of the synchrotron, beamlines and computational with flying colours facilities has been underway for several years, and 2019/20 saw the achievement of some significant milestones. The Conceptual Design Report for Diamond-II passed an external expert review with flying colours, a new organisational structure was established to complete all further planning stages, and a major report on deliverability and costing was completed for UKRI/STFC. Diamond engaged with the challenges presented by COVID-19 at a very early stage, making some of the earliest high-resolution measurements on key elements of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the illness. As the impact of COVID-19 became increasingly severe in March 2020, Diamond sent almost all staff home, but managed to continue to support work on the virus as well as many other core activities, the continued planning of technical projects and the completion and roll-out of a new system for staff appraisals. Considerable challenges lie ahead for the months and perhaps years to come as plans are refined to get more staff safely back to work and to broaden support for our users. However, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances that Diamond has shown in recent months bodes very well for the future. Professor Sir Adrian Smith Chairman of the Board of Directors DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 2 3 CEO Welcome arch 2020 saw the outbreak of Coronavirus sweeping through Europe leading to a transformation of our workplaces, economies ment programmes that involve staff taking diplomas or degrees; we are A key challenge for Diamond for the year to come will be to adapt our user and societies. Diamond was tested to its limits and it responded extremely well to these very different challenges, and in a manner also increasingly exploring more internal development of scientific staff to operations under the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, as well as the way that exemplified the organisation’s strength in depth and resilience. fill some senior positions, and accelerated graduate training schemes for IT in which we deliver some technical projects, to a world in which frequent M staff, all of which are showing new shoots of growth. travel and work in teams of people who are physically close will be limited. After delivering the Science Case for Diamond-II back in November 2018, interest from the press and a dedicated website set up by Diamond to inform Diamond must adopt new working methods and new ways to support its In the last financial year, we received 2,138 proposals for experiments a conceptual design report (CDR) was produced in April 2019, to provide the the public about the structural biology involved and Diamond’s contribution users on beamlines that have traditionally not been used to remote access. on our instruments via peer reviewed access routes, requesting a first design of what the new synchrotron machine would look like. In the same had received well over 1 million visits by April 2020. total of 26,543 shifts. After peer review, 1,232 proposals were awarded 2020 will be a year like no other, where resilience and perseverance from our month, the CDR was peer-reviewed by a team of machine experts from across With a large, and growing userbase we have seen a rapidly swelling beamtime. This resulted in 13,462 experimental shifts being awarded the Globe, receiving highly positive feedback, particularly commenting on staff will help us shape the future. number of peer-reviewed journal articles, reaching a total of 9,000 in March across 32 beamlines and nine electron microscopes. We welcomed the efficient design with regard to the number of insertion devices – photon 2020. It is a time to pause and reflect on the achievements made by our 6,454 onsite user visits from academia across all instruments, with an Prof Andrew Harrison sources points - for a ring of its size. This set us in good stead for review by the funding agencies STFC and the Wellcome Trust, whose respective commitment additional 5,851 remote user visits. The machine continues to perform CEO Diamond Light Source Science Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Diamond Board in the first quarter have been rewarded with brilliant science as the output of Diamond surpasses to the highest standard with 98.1% uptime and 104.7 hours mean time of the financial year. the previous UK synchrotron, the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury, between failures (MTBF). Diamond also provides services critical to industry After these achievements, it was clear that the Science and Technology which achieved 5,000 peer-review publications throughout its lifetime 1981- in the UK, with over 170 companies paying for proprietorial access in fields Facilities Council (STFC) - with UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) reshuffle 2008 with a total of 30 beamlines. To date, Diamond has 32 operational ranging from high-value materials for aerospace and the automotive indus- well underway - required adjustment of their processes. They designed a beamlines, and in less than 15 years, has achieved 9,000 publications. try, to drugs to treat infectious disease and depression. The past year has new Critical Design Review gateway process, the first of which was CD-1 However, Diamond’s output is not just characterised by volume: the facility seen record income from such sources, boosted in particular by an expansion where they would review our planning and proposed management of the h-index1 currently stands at 150, and a recent analysis showed that 25% of of Cryo-EM services, in partnership with Thermo Fisher, and the XChem programmes underpinning Diamond-II. This was set up to assess the readiness publications are found in journals with an impact factor of nine and above. fragment screening facility which aids drug discovery. of programmes to progress for further consideration by UKRI and ultimately The recent completion of the Phase III instrument programme has added 10 BEIS and the Treasury. Diamond are also engaging fruitfully with the Wellcome beamlines, which ensures that the investment in Diamond fully maximises Trust to develop a case for complementary funding for Diamond-II. return on the initial capital investment. Dr Laurent Chapon was appointed Director of the Diamond-II Programme Diamond’s 9,000th paper was reached with work led by researchers from and established a set of interlinking committees to guide the development Aalto University in Finland through measurements on the high throughput of the machine and beamline elements of the Programme, underpinned by Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) beamline (B21). The research presented a Science Strategy Committee and overseen by a Programme Board. A model new insights into colloidal materials that had been developed to store heat of management that will be taken forward into the next phase – the Technical reversibly through a physical transformation in their structure, providing an Design Report. efficient method to store energy when it is freely available – for example from the sun on a bright day – and release it when required. The Diamond-II upgrade programme is centred on the transformation of the storage ring through a new technology that offers up to 100 times increase Diamond continued to highlight the fascinating research achieved in brightness and coherence at the highest energies. Diamond has developed throughout the year. One example, high resolution imaging obtained on its own unique design for the storage ring that offers transformational the Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing (JEEP) beamline (I12), improvements in capacity and, potentially serving many more users through is helping scientists from the University of Kentucky to develop an image- additional, flagship beamlines, while also offering step-changes in Diamond’s enhancing computational technique. This aims to develop a method to ability to support operando experiments, probing processes and operating distinguish carbon-based ink from carbonised papyri of 2,000 year old scrolls devices directly, accelerating the speed of materials and drug discovery, and from the Herculaneum collection held by the Institut de France. The prospect of opening up spectroscopy to detect much heavier elements, many of which are being able to read the writing hidden inside these exceptionally precious and involved in nuclear waste storage and remediation processes. The CD-1 report fragile artefacts gripped the public’s imagination, with over 700 pieces of news The lifeblood was delivered in early April 2020. coverage being generated globally to date. At the end of the financial year, Diamond had to prepare transformational The lifeblood of Diamond is the staff we employ, the students we train and of Diamond is the changes in anticipation of the impact of COVID-19 on its operations.