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Vacancies are open to join UKRI's Talent Peer Review College and Talent Panel College. You'll help to assess applications to exciting talent schemes such as the Future Leaders Fellowships. Find out more at the links below 👇

Today is Melissa Franklin's birthday 🎉 As the first woman to receive tenure in the physics department at Harvard University, highlights of her career have included playing a role in evidencing the existence of the top quark! Read more about STFC's involvement in ground-breaking physics 👉👉https://lnkd.in/eADsGpUd #WISTEM

What an incredible event 🔥THE HEAT was!   Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and Harwell Energy Tech Cluster were delighted to host over 500 climate-tech enthusiasts at The HEAT on Friday. The jam-packed festival-style conference brought together scientists, founders, engineers and artists building connections and partnerships that will undoubtedly shape the future of our planet. In the event's opening panel, STFC’s Director of Innovation Clusters Barbara Ghinelli emphasised the need for collaboration for the, "contact sport of innovation", and highlighted how the STFC Clusters and the Campus ecosystem at Harwell facilitate such connections in the energy sector and beyond. Engaging keynotes from authors and start-up founders, unconference attendee-led sessions, inspiring climate technology and future foods in the Innovation Showcase tent, film, poetry and more were just some of the day's offerings. The festival had no shortage of ways for attendees to take away the excitement and potential of climate technologies and tangible impact. You can read more about the day and some of the amazing talks and technologies showcased in our upcoming blog.    Diamond Light Source | ISIS Neutron and Muon Source | Central Laser Facility | Finden | Qiang Zhang | SamudraOceans | Sygensys | Tokamak Energy | First Light Fusion | General Fusion | Proxima Fusion | Mirico | Open Cosmos | Space Solar 🔥THE HEAT | VOYAGERS.io | STFC Emma Southwell-Sander | Monika Zemla | Patrick Pringle | Barbara Ghinelli | Dan Metcalfe | Kathryn Page MCIPR | Lee Glassbrook | Najwa Sidqi, PhD | Jessica Brush | Zoe Dale | Molly McGoldrick #HarwellEnergyTechCluster #STFC #Climatetech #Innovation #Sustainability

This weekend, CERN is turning 70. The UK has been involved in this amazing scientific endeavour since the very beginning - here's a brief history in ten photos #CERN70 #UKatCERN 1954: The UK was one of 12 founding states that brought CERN into being. Here, officials watch the first shovel of earth being dug at the chosen site. 1960: Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, paid an informal visit and was so fascinated he stayed for longer than planned. Gilberto Bernadini said "his questions were much deeper than those usually asked during general visits. I must admit I had to think hard before answering." 1976: John Bertram Adams (pictured left) came from the UK in 1953 to work on CERN's construction and design, and ended up leading it. Here he is in 1975 on a golf cart tour of the Super Proton Synchrotron tunnel. 1989: British scientist Tim Berners-Lee (pictured right) wrote the first proposal for the World Wide Web. He's pictured here with collaborator Robert Cailliau (left) and student Nicola Pellow, who wrote the first cross-platform web browser. 1994: Christopher Llewellyn Smith (centre, left) was CERN's second British Director General. He oversaw the approval of the LHC - here he is at a successful test of a prototype magnet for the facility 1995: British scientist Pippa Wells went on to play a vital role in the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle through her work on the ATLAS experiment. She's now the Deputy Director for Research and Computing. 2012: British physicist Peter Higgs (centre) predicted the existence of a new massive spin-zero boson in a 1964 paper. Here he's seen on his way to the press conference announcing its discovery at CERN. 2017: Consensus worked with scientists at CERN to develop a concept album, ConCERNed, to communicate the world of particle physics to new audiences through grime and rap. He performed the album at the CMS’ 25th anniversary celebrations. 2023: A collaboration involving UK scientists at the CERN antimatter factory showed for the first time that antimatter responds to gravity in the same way as matter 2024: CERN Director General Fabiola Gianotti and STFC's Executive Chair Mark Thomson officially agreed that the UK and CERN will work together to lower the energy usage of particle accelerators. Decades of working together to discover the universe – what’s next? Image credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10: all © CERN 6: © Pippa Wells 8: © Antoine Gittens-Jackson

Physicists have observed an ultra-rare particle decay event for the first time at the NA62 experiment at CERN. The collaboration, which has significant UK contribution from researchers at the University of Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Lancaster, observed a charged kaon decaying into a charged pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair. The Standard Model predicts that less than one in 10 billion kaons will decay in this way. Professor Mark Thomson, particle physicist and Executive Chair of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), welcomed the results: "The NA62 experiment is another brilliant example of colleagues from the many nations coming together at CERN to explore the mysteries of the universe. "This latest announcement, provides an exciting example of how measuring ultra-rare processes can provide a window for searching for new physics beyond the Standard Model." Studying extremely rare decay events like this can provide a window to search for the influence of phenomena beyond the Standard Model, because their probability is highly sensitive to new physics. Professor Evgueni Goudzovski from University of Birmingham and the current leader of the NA62-UK consortium said: “The UK group has led the physics exploitation of the NA62 experiment over the past decade, providing leadership at all levels including senior spokesperson and physics coordinator roles. Attracting top talent and providing opportunities and mentorship for early-career researchers has been our priority”. Find out more about the discovery: https://lnkd.in/ewdNi4f8 #UKatCERN

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On Sunday, it was a great pleasure to host the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory in the NW of England. This was an opportunity to showcase how long-term investment in basic science at STFC's National Laboratories can then provide unique capabilities for high-tech industries such as Quantum Computing, in this case our deep partnership with PsiQuantum. To push the boundaries of science in particle physics and related fields almost always involves developing technology beyond the current state-of-the-art. It also requires deep engineering expertise to scale up and deploy new technologies. This technical and engineering capability exists in STFC’s National Laboratories (including Daresbury Laboratory and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory). The economic benefits of particle physics and astronomy are not always apparent at the outset, but they are real. The PsiQuantum story is a great example of how national capabilities seed innovation and partnerships with major high-technology companies. At STFC we expanded our engineering capability in large-scale cryogenics (liquid Helium at just above absolute zero) to push the boundaries of super-conducting accelerator technology, first for the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Sweden and then for the PIP-II accelerator at Fermilab in the US. The PIP-II linear accelerator will generate the neutrino beam for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). In 2017, I secured the $88m UK investment in this project, which was the flagship for the then new UK-US Science and Technology Agreement. Beyond the brilliant science, part of the argument for the investment was around the economic value to the UK. So it is incredibly exciting to see this work out in practice. One of the reasons we were able to attract PsiQuantum, one of the world’s foremost Quantum Computing companies, to the UK was founded on our investment in engineering for fundamental science. I am often asked why we should invest in mega-projects like the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC study) at CERN. Beyond that wonderful science that it will deliver, it should be viewed as in investment in the advanced technologies and the highly-skilled people that will drive the future economy. By investing in ambitious projects like the FCC we will be building the foundations of the future high-technology economy for the UK and across Europe. It is not all about technology – nothing happens without highly-skilled people. At STFC, we deeply committed to developing a diverse pipeline of talent through our apprentice and graduate programmes with the STFC “Skills Centre”. One of the highlights of yesterday’s visit was the engagement of the Prime Minister and Chancellor with our brilliant apprentices!

On Sunday, STFC welcomed the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves to our Daresbury Laboratory, where they met some of our apprentices and staff and saw behind the scenes in our labs.   A highlight of their visit was Daresbury’s cryo-facility, which provides ultra-low temperature environments for research projects such as testing particle accelerator components.   It’s one of the largest cryo-plants in Europe and allows the UK to contribute to big international scientific projects such as the European Spallation Source ERIC and the Proton Improvement Plan -2. These low-temperature environments are also needed to develop and run quantum computers, a powerful step-change in computing technology.   The PM and Chancellor visited the Daresbury-based company PsiQuantum, who are using our cryo-facilities to develop prototype quantum computing components. They aim to build the first ‘useful’ quantum computer in the next few years.   Planned upgrades to Daresbury’s current cryogenics capacity will transform it into a flagship national-scale facility serving the UK’s industrial and academic needs. It will ensure Daresbury remains the go-to place in Europe for cryogenic applications.   The facility will enable innovation and growth in sectors including quantum computing, fusion, low-losses energy transport, on-shore and off-shore wind turbines, security and healthcare. It will also be essential in the development of lower-cost, sustainable technology for particle accelerators. Images: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves talk with Daresbury Lab apprentices and Executive Chair Professor Mark Thomson Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves learn about the scientific equipment at Daresbury Laboratory, accompanied by an STFC apprentice

Last week's Interact symposium was full of productive conversations, great ideas, fascinating talks - and top-notch fashion 🌟 Thanks to all who attended!

Last week, we were delighted to welcome Dr Nicola Fox, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, to Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. RAL Space and UK Space Agency hosted meetings to discuss the exciting upcoming missions our organisations are involved with, as well as tours to showcase innovation and technology development in the UK space sector. Dr Fox was also impressed by school students' mission designs on display from our engagement programme with Jon Egging Trust! 🪐 Later in the day, Dr Fox gave an inspiring lecture for staff across the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on "NASA's Vision for Powerful Science " - covering her career journey, the current NASA fleet, and valuable advice for early careers staff: “the key to being a scientist is to love asking questions – keep asking questions!” STFC | UK Research and Innovation | NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration