Mediator companies (also known as science-service companies) have emerged as one of the main engines of connection and collaboration between Europe’s large-scale research facilities and industry. A case in point is Finden, a UK-based outfit that helps applied scientists and engineers in a range of industry sectors – energy, industrial chemistry, catalysis and automotive, among others – to access leading-edge materials characterisation services at Europe’s synchrotron research laboratories. Finden managing director Simon Jacques talked to CERN Courier about the company’s science-as-a-service business model and plans to diversify beyond conventional X-ray analysis techniques and synchrotron science.
How is Finden helping the big-science community to grow its industry user base?
As a regular user of large-scale synchrotron facilities within Europe, we enable our industry customers to fast-track R&D projects through unique measurement capabilities tailored to their needs. Put simply, Finden helps industry clients to solve complex materials problems that they’re unable to solve on their own. It’s a winning formula: many of our customers come back to us on a serial basis, tapping the collective expertise of the Finden team and the streamlined access we provide to Europe’s synchrotron light sources.
What do you mean by streamlined access?
There are often significant logistics overheads when it comes to finding and securing beam time at a synchrotron facility – a barrier to direct industry engagement with big science. At Finden, we have the know-how, as well as an extensive network of contacts within the synchrotron community, to take care of all the associated “legwork” for our clients, matching the right beamline and scientific instruments to the industrial problem at hand. That translates into express workflows and turnaround – the key to successful delivery of high-end materials characterisation services for industrial problem-solving.
Operationally, how do new industry clients engage with Finden?
For the most part, our client base comprises established companies rather than small and medium-sized enterprises. First contact can happen in a variety of ways: an exploratory conversation with a Finden scientist at a conference, for example, or sometimes a synchrotron facility may point an industry enquiry in our direction. Once the dialogue is under way, we’ll meet with the client to understand their materials problem at a granular level – often under a non-disclosure agreement to ensure commercial confidentiality. My task as managing director is to make sure we’ve got all the right people in the room from Finden to establish the appropriate characterisation methods versus the client’s problem and specified timeline – as well as an accurate financial quotation for the plan of work.
Do all of the industry problems you tackle require synchrotron beam time?
Not all of them. We have access to a suite of powerful materials analysis techniques here on the Harwell campus (in Oxfordshire) and those lab-based tools often represent a cheaper and more efficient option for our industry clients. When we do engage with the large-scale facilities – for example, the nearby Diamond Light Source or the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble – we make all the necessary arrangements and carry out the work on behalf of the client. Sometimes our scientists will conduct materials studies at the synchrotron beamline – “eyes on the sample” so to speak – though even when working remotely the team will be conducting on-the-fly data analysis and liaising throughout with scientists and technicians in situ.
What does the business model look like for the provision of these big-science services?
It might seem counter-intuitive, but we don’t charge a premium for synchrotron beam time. That’s all billed at-cost to mitigate the chance of the customer going direct to the synchrotron. Our differentiation – and where we make our money – lies in the collective expertise of the Finden team in synchrotron science, instrumentation and techniques – not least our capabilities across experimental design, data analysis and interpretation. By extension, one of the growth opportunities we’re now pursuing is the application of machine-learning and deep-learning technologies to high-throughput data analysis. It’s early days, but we’re already securing industry contracts that tap this capability exclusively, including projects that do not require any experimental data collection on our part.
How is Finden structured right now?
Finden is really two parallel and complementary businesses under one roof. The mediator company, which provides specialist materials science capabilities to industry, rents laboratory space and equipment across the Harwell Innovation Campus on an as-needed basis, while developing a pipeline of higher-level characterisation projects that require access to Europe’s synchrotron light sources. Alongside the science-service business, we run our own dedicated research laboratory that we lease from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, a UK government funding agency. This lab is largely ring-fenced for in-house R&D and innovation initiatives under the broad themes of catalysis and machine learning – essentially longer-term bets with a view to building sustainable royalty and licensing revenues from the associated intellectual property portfolio.
What do the growth opportunities look like for Finden?
Diversification is very much part of Finden’s development roadmap. Right now, the heart of our business is materials characterisation using diffraction, spectroscopy and imaging techniques spanning conventional X-ray and synchrotron science. Conceptually, it’s a logical progression to apply those transferable capabilities to other modalities used in fundamental and applied materials research. In summary: expect to see Finden scientists tackling industry’s R&D problems at large-scale neutron and laser facilities in the not-too-distant future.
CERN sits at the epicentre of a diverse innovation ecosystem. Developing and implementing the enabling technologies for the laboratory’s particle accelerators, detectors and computing systems is only possible thanks to the sustained support of a global network of specialist industrial and institutional partners. Those applied R&D and product development collaborations come in many forms: from the upstream procurement of equipment and services across multiple industry supply chains to the structured transfer of CERN domain knowledge to create downstream growth opportunities for new and established technology companies. Emphasising the role of big science in delivering broad societal and economic impacts, the following snapshots showcase a technology innovation programme that is, quite simply, one on its own.
Procurement: a world of opportunity
CERN is budgeted to spend CHF 2.5 billion (Euro 2.6 billion) on procurement of equipment and services for the period 2022–26 and is always looking to engage new industry suppliers. Contracts are awarded following price enquiries or invitations to tender. The former relate to contracts with an anticipated value below CHF 200,000 and are issued to a limited number of selected firms. Invitations to tender, meanwhile, are required for contracts with a value above CHF 200,000 and issued to firms qualified and selected based on a preceding open market survey. Prospective industry suppliers should visit https://procurement.web.cern.ch/ to register for CERN’s procurement database.
For industry suppliers, the benefits of doing business with CERN go well beyond direct financial returns on a given contract. Like all big science projects, CERN provides fertile ground for technology innovation. As such, industry partners are also investing in future visibility and impact within their given commercial setting. CERN, after all, is well known for its technological excellence, which means preferred suppliers must, as standard, push the boundaries of what’s possible, creating a virtuous circle of positive impacts versus firms’ product innovation, sustainable practices, profitability and competitiveness. A 2018 research study, for example, investigated whether becoming a CERN supplier was linked to enhanced innovation performance within partner companies, and it showed a statistically significant correlation between CERN procurement contracts and corporate R&D, knowledge creation and commercial outcomes (see “Further reading”).
Following the procurement roadmap
The LHC is undergoing a major upgrade to sustain and extend its discovery potential. Scheduled to enter operation in 2029, the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project is a complex undertaking that requires at-scale industry engagement for all manner of technology innovations, whether that’s cutting-edge superconducting magnets or compact, ultraprecise superconducting RF cavities for beam rotation. What’s more, the machine’s enhanced luminosity (i.e. increased rate of collisions) will make new demands on the supporting vacuum, cryogenics and machine protection systems, while advanced concepts for collimation and diagnostics, beam modelling and beam-crossing schemes will also be required to maximise physics outputs. Industry is front-and-centre and has a pivotal role to play in delivering the core technologies needed to achieve the HL-LHC’s scientific goals. Down the line, even bigger opportunities will come into play as the HL-LHC draws to a close (in 2040 or thereabouts). Designs are now in the works for the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC), an advanced research infrastructure that would push the energy and intensity frontiers of particle accelerators into uncharted territory, reaching collision energies of 100 TeV (versus the LHC’s current 13.6 TeV) in the search for new physics.
The engine-room of knowledge transfer
Although fundamental physics might not seem the most obvious discipline in which to find emerging technologies with marketable applications, CERN’s unique research environment – reliant as it is on diverse types of radiation, extremely low temperatures, ultrahigh magnetic fields and high-voltage power systems – represents a rich source of innovation spanning particle accelerators, detectors and scientific computing. Industry partnerships underpin CERN’s core research endeavour through the procurement of specialist services and co-development of cutting-edge components, subsystems and instrumentation – a process known as upstream innovation. Conversely, companies looking to solve innovation challenges are able to tap CERN’s capabilities to support technology development and growth opportunities within their own R&D pipeline – a process known as downstream innovation. In this way, companies and research institutes collaborate with CERN scientists and engineers to deliver breakthrough technologies ranging from cancer therapy to environmental monitoring, radiation-hardened electronics to banking and finance.
Knowledge transfer at CERN: unique technologies, unprecedented performance
The applied R&D and technology advances that underpin CERN’s scientific mission are a rich source of product innovation for companies working across multiple industry sectors. Industry collaborations with CERN scientists and engineers – including the projects below – are overseen by the laboratory’s Knowledge Transfer Group.
An R&D collaboration involving scientists from CERN and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) seeks to fast-track the development of a next-generation radiotherapy modality that will exploit very-high-energy electron (VHEE) beams to treat cancer patients. A dedicated VHEE facility, based at CHUV, will exploit the so-called FLASH effect to deliver high-dose VHEE radiation over short time periods (less than 200 ms) to destroy deep-seated tumours while minimising collateral damage to adjacent healthy tissue and organs at risk. The pioneering treatment system is based on the high-gradient accelerator technology developed for the proposed CLIC electron–positron collider at CERN. Teams from CHUV and its research partners have been performing preclinical studies related to VHEE and FLASH at the CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research (CLEAR), one of the few facilities available for characterising VHEE beams.
CERN has unique capabilities in real-time data processing. When beams of particles collide at the centre of a particle detector, new particles fly out in all directions. Different detector systems, arranged in layers around the collision point, use a range of techniques to identify the resulting particles, generating an enormous flow of data. Similar challenges apply to the development of autonomous vehicles, with the need for rapid interpretation of a multitude of real-time data streams generated under normal driving conditions. Zenseact, owned primarily by Volvo Cars, worked with CERN scientists to optimise machine learning algorithms, originally developed to support LHC data acquisition and analysis, for collision-avoidance scenarios in next-generation autonomous vehicles.
Another high-profile innovation partner for CERN is ABB Motion, a technology leader in digitally enabled motor and drive solutions to support a low-carbon future for industry, infrastructure and transportation. The partnership has been launched to optimise the laboratory’s cooling and ventilation infrastructure, with the aim of reducing energy consumption across the campus. Specifically, CERN’s cooling and ventilation system will be equipped with smart sensors, which convert traditional motors, pumps, mounted bearings and gearing into smart, wirelessly connected devices. These devices will collect data that will be used to develop “digital twins” of selected cooling and ventilation units, allowing for the creation of energy-saving scenarios. Longer term, the plan is to disseminate the project learning publicly, so that industry and large-scale research facilities can apply best practice on energy-efficiency.
Intellectual property: getting creative
A curated portfolio of intellectual property (IP) policies provides the framework for transferring CERN’s applied R&D and technology know-how to industry and institutional partners. Democratisation is the driver here, whatever the use-case. Many of the organisation’s projects, for example, are available via CERN’s Open Hardware Repository under the CERN Open Hardware Licence, offering a large user community the chance to transform prototype products and services into tangible commercial opportunities. CERN also encourages the creation of new spin-offs – companies based, partially or wholly, on CERN technologies – and supports such ventures with a dedicated IP policy. Custom licensing opportunities are available for more established start-up businesses seeking to apply CERN technologies within an existing product development programme.
Innovation partnerships: a call to action
The Knowledge Transfer team at CERN is exploring a range of innovation partnerships across applied disciplines as diverse as energy and environment, healthcare, quantum science, machine learning and AI, and aerospace engineering. The unifying theme: to translate CERN domain knowledge and enabling technologies into broader societal and economic impacts. Companies should visit CERN’s Knowledge Transfer website (https://kt.cern/) to learn more about partnership opportunities, including R&D collaborations; technology licensing; services and consultancy; and starting up a new business based on CERN technology.
IdeaSquare: networking young innovators
IdeaSquare is CERN’s platform for early-stage collaborations between students, scientists, other CERN personnel and relevant organisations working across multiple disciplines. The initiative operates at what it calls the “fuzzy front end” of the R&D and innovation process and seeks to “trigger transformations in the way we think about societal challenges and…identify solutions that will have a real impact on people’s lives”. In this way, IdeaSquare ties science innovation at CERN to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, engaging young innovators in the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme (CESP), for example, or Challenge-Based Innovation (CBI). Other activities include selected EU R&D projects; prototyping and innovation workshops; as well as international educational programmes. Prospective partners should visit https://ideasquare.cern and https://kt.cern/cesp for more information about the latest opportunities.
The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, is among an elite class of fourth-generation advanced light sources – an X-ray “super-microscope” that enables researchers to illuminate the structure and behaviour of matter at the atomic and molecular level. As such, the ESRF’s synchrotron beamlines offer leading-edge materials characterisation capabilities for applied scientists and engineers to address research challenges at all stage of the innovation life cycle – from product development and manufacturing through operational studies related to ageing, wear-and-tear, restoration and recycling. Here CERN Courier talks to Ed Mitchell, head of business development at the ESRF, about the laboratory’s evolving relationship with the industrial R&D community.
What does your role involve as head of business development?
I lead a core team of seven staff looking after the ESRF’s engagement with industry – though not the procurement of equipment and services. It’s a broad-scope remit, covering industry as a user of the facility as well as technology transfer projects and R&D collaborations with industry partners as they arise. The business development activity increasingly dovetails with the outreach efforts of leading research technology organisations – the Fraunhofer institutes in Germany, for example, and the the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in France – which have extensive networks and amplify ESRF’s engagement with industry at the regional and national level.
The business development office is also responsible for identifying – and securing – strategic European Union (EU) grant opportunities. A case in point is InnovaXN, a joint PhD programme with the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), a neutron science facility here in Grenoble, and a ground-breaking approach to working with industry partners (see “Neutron science: simplifying access for industry users“). STREAMLINE is another of our important EU-funded projects (under Horizon 2020) and supports the recent ESRF-EBS (Extremely Brilliant Source) upgrade with new-look operation, access and automation procedures on several beamlines.
How does your team engage new industry users and partners for the ESRF?
Initiating and developing new industry contacts is a big part of what we do, though the challenge is always to talk to companies on their own terms, so that they understand the extent of the opportunities available at ESRF. A related issue is getting to the right people, especially in multinational companies with extensive R&D programmes. Sometimes we get lucky. At BASF, for example, we work closely with a senior applied research manager, someone who knows ESRF well having had links with us for many years. He’s an amazing contact, though the exception rather than the rule when it comes to industry engagement.
What about the ESRF’s outreach efforts with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?
There is EU funding available to help SMEs work with the ESRF and other advanced light sources in Europe. While this is relatively modest support, it is critical as a way of de-risking that first access for cash-strapped SMEs when they approach the big-science community. We need more of this support to scale our engagement with SMEs. Operationally, the so-called mediator companies are also incredibly important for bridging the gap to SMEs – as well as larger companies – helping them to plan, execute and deliver high-end materials characterisation services for their industrial problem-solving. It’s worth adding that the mediator companies offer value-added analysis of experimental results for research studies where we do not have the niche expertise – for example, petrochemical catalysis or the testing of consumer products (see “Prioritising the industry customer“).
So the mediator companies are one of the key elements of the ESRF’s engagement with industry?
Correct. I get a little frustrated when people imply that the mediators are simply making money off the back of the large-scale facilities. Mediator companies are another wholly valid element of the big-science ecosystem and should be celebrated as such. They add niche value, generate jobs and amplify the marketing and business development efforts of ESRF (and facilities like it) with prospective industry users. Their role is wholly positive. Entrepreneurs have seen a space, been innovative, and they’re making a living along the way. It’s a win–win.
How is the industry user base at ESRF evolving?
A substantial majority of our commercial users used to be from the pharmaceutical sector, using structural biology for drug discovery. The pharma researchers are still there, but over the last decade the industry community has become more diverse, covering more industry sectors and using a broader portfolio of synchrotron techniques. What’s more, a lot of industry users are not – and don’t aspire to be – experts in synchrotron science. Instead, they just want access to the facility for what we might consider routine measurements rather than cutting-edge research.
Those routine measurements – billed internally as “access to excellence everyday” – are only possible thanks to the specific qualities of a light source like the ESRF, with our science and technology experts working with industry to make such services more accessible and more automated. On the horizon, we can also see interest in some level of standard operating procedure for various industry use-cases, so that quality can be assured – though this will need to be considered within the context of facilities whose main mission is academic research.
What steps can you take to remain aligned with industry’s changing requirements?
Our task is to go out and listen to industry researchers and design the services they need for what they want to do – not what we think they might want. A case study in this regard is our collaboration with BASF in which ESRF and BASF scientists are co-developing a high-throughput mail-in service to support X-ray powder diffraction studies of hundreds of samples per shipment from the client’s R&D lab. This is essentially chemistry genomics, with the synchrotron beamlines providing automated and high-resolution studies of materials destined for applications in next-generation batteries, catalysts and the like. We hope to see more co-designed services being built with other companies very soon.
What about tracking the impact of industry research conducted at ESRF?
This is always tricky. More often than not, the downstream impact of confidential industry R&D conducted at ESRF remains hidden even from our view. After all, companies are unlikely to reveal how much money they saved on their manufacturing process, for example, or whether a new product was an indirect or direct result of X-ray studies at our beamlines.
In some ways, the laboratory needs perhaps just one killer quantifiable result every 10 years – think multibillion euro outcomes for industry – and the ESRF could be thought of as having justified its existence. Of course, this ignores the longer-term impact of the fundamental science conducted by academics – far and away the main user community at the ESRF. The bottom line: industry clients come back, they pay for access, so one has to assume that there is significant business impact for them.
Collaboration, applied research services and innovation networks: these are the reference points of an evolving business development strategy that’s building bridges between DESY’s large-scale research infrastructure and end-users across European industry. The goal: to open up the laboratory’s mission in basic science to support technology innovation and, by extension, deliver at-scale economic and societal impact.
As a German national laboratory rooted in physics, and one of the world’s leading accelerator research centres, DESY’s scientific endeavours are organised along four main coordinates: particle physics, photon science, astroparticle physics and the accelerator physics division. Those parallel lines of enquiry, pursued jointly with an established network of regional and international partners, make DESY a magnet for more than 3000 guest scientists from over 40 countries every year.
In the same way, the laboratory is a coveted research partner for industry and business, its leading-edge experimental facilities offering a unique addition to the R&D pipeline of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises as well as established technology companies.
Technology transfer pathways
Industry collaboration with DESY is nothing if not diverse, spanning applied R&D and innovation initiatives across topics such as compact next-generation accelerator technologies, advanced laser systems for quality control in semiconductor-chip production, and the 3D printing of custom resins to create parts for use in ultrahigh-vacuum environments. While such cooperative efforts often involve established companies from many different industries, partners from academic science play an equally significant role – and typically with start-up or technology transfer ambitions as part of the mix.
This is the case for an envisaged spin-off project in which scientists from the University of Hamburg and DESY are working together on a portable liquid biopsy device for medical diagnostics applications (for example, in cancer screening and treatment evaluation). Reciprocity is the key to success here: the university researchers bring their background in nanoanalytics to the project, while DESY physicists contribute deep domain knowledge and expertise on the development of advanced detector technologies for particle physics experiments. As a result, a prototype test station for high-sensitivity in-situ analysis is now in the works, with the interaction of the nanochannels and the detector in the test device representing a significant R&D challenge in terms of precision mechanics (while the DESY team also provides expertise in pattern recognition to accelerate the readout of test results).
Elsewhere, DESY’s MicroTCA Technology Lab (TechLab) represents a prominent case study of direct industry collaboration, fostering the uptake of the MicroTCA.4 open electronics standard for applications in research and industry. Originally developed for the telecommunications market, the standard was subsequently adapted by DESY and its network of industrial partners – among them NAT (Germany), Struck (Germany) and CAENels (Italy) – for deployment within particle accelerator control systems (enabling precision measurements of many analogue signals with simultaneous high-performance digital processing in a single controller).
As such, MicroTCA.4 provides a core enabling technology in the control systems of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL), which runs over a 3.4 km span from DESY’s Hamburg location to the main European XFEL campus in the town of Schenefeld. Another bespoke application of the standard is to be found in the ground-based control centre of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a space-based gravitational wave detector jointly developed by NASA and the European Space Agency.
Underpinning this technology transfer success is a parallel emphasis on knowledge transfer and education. This is the reason why TechLab, which sits as part of the business development office at DESY, offers a programme of annual workshops and seminars for current and prospective users of MicroTCA.4. The long-term vision, moreover, is to develop a commercially self-sustaining TechLab spin-off based on the development and dissemination of MicroTCA into new applications and markets.
Industry services to fast-track innovation
One of the principal drivers of industrial engagement with DESY is the laboratory’s PETRA III synchrotron light source (comprising a 2.3 km-circumference storage ring and 25 experimental beamlines). This high-brilliance X-ray facility is exploited by academic and industrial scientists to shed light on the structure and behaviour of matter at the atomic and molecular level across a range of disciplines – from clean-energy technologies to drug development and healthcare, from structural biology and nanotech to food and agricultural sciences.
DESY photon scientists and engineers ensure that industrial users are in a position to maximise the return on their PETRA III beam time
Operationally, DESY photon scientists and engineers ensure that industrial users are in a position to maximise the return on their PETRA III beam time, offering a portfolio of services that includes feasibility studies, sample preparation, execution of measurements, as well as downstream analysis of experimental data. Industry customers can request proprietary access to PETRA III via the business development office (under a non-disclosure agreement if necessary), while clients do not even need to come to DESY themselves, with options for a mail-in sample service or even remote access studies in certain circumstances. Publication is not required under this access model, though discounted fees are available to industry users willing to publish a “success story” or scientific paper in partnership with DESY.
Alongside the proprietary route, companies are able to access PETRA III beam time through academic partners. This pathway is free of charge and based on research proposals with strong scientific or socioeconomic impact (established via a competitive review process), with a requirement that results are subsequently published in the formal scientific literature. Notwithstanding the possibilities offered by DESY itself, the laboratory’s on-campus partners – namely the Helmholtz Centre Hereon and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – use PETRA III to deliver a suite of dedicated services that help industry customers address diverse problems in the applied R&D pipeline.
The German biotech company BioNTech is a case in point. Best known for its successful mRNA vaccine against SARS-Cov-2 infections, BioNTech conducted a programme of X-ray scattering experiments at EMBL’s PETRA III beamline P12. The results of these investigations are now helping the company’s scientists to better package mRNA within nanoparticles for experimental vaccines and drugs. Along an altogether different R&D track, PETRA III has helped industry users gain novel insights into the inner life of conventional AAA batteries – studies that could ultimately lead to products with significantly extended lifetimes. Using non-invasive X-ray diffraction computer tomography, applied under time-resolved conditions, the studies revealed aspects of the battery ageing process by examining phase transformations in the electrodes and electrolyte during charging and discharge.
Building an innovation ecosystem
While access to DESY’s front-line experimental facilities represents a game-changer for many industry customers, the realisation of new commercial products and technologies does not happen in a vacuum. Innovators, for their part, need specialist resources and expert networks to bring their ideas to life – whether that’s in the form of direct investment, strategic consultancy, business and entrepreneurship education, or access to state-of-the-art laboratories and workshops for prototyping, testing, metrology and early-stage product qualification.
DESY is single-minded in its support for this wider “innovation ecosystem”, with a range of complementary initiatives to encourage knowledge exchange and collaboration among early-career scientists, entrepreneurs and senior managers and engineers in established technology companies. The DESY Start-up Office, for example, offers new technology businesses access to a range of services, including management consultancy, business plan development and networking opportunities with potential suppliers and customers. There’s also the Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld, an innovation centre and technology incubator on the DESY Hamburg campus that provides laboratory and office space to young technology companies. The incubator’s current portfolio of 16 start-ups reflects DESY’s pre-eminence in lasers, detectors and enabling photonic technologies, with seven of the companies also targeting applications in the life sciences.
A more focused initiative is the CAROTS 2.0 Startup School, which provides scientists with the core competencies for running their own scientific service companies (intermediary providers of analytical research services to help industry make greater use of large-scale science facilities like DESY). Longer term, the DESY Innovation Factory is set to open in 2025, creating an ambitious vehicle for the commercial development of novel ideas in advanced materials and the life sciences, while fostering cooperation between the research community and technology companies in various growth phases. There will be two locations, one on the DESY campus and one in the nearby innovation and technology park Vorhornweg.
Basic science, applied opportunities
If the network effects of DESY’s innovation ecosystem are a key enabler of technology transfer and industry engagement, so too is the relentless evolution of the laboratory’s accelerator R&D programme. Consider the rapid advances in compact plasma-based accelerators, offering field strengths in the GV/m regime and the prospect of a paradigm shift to a new generation of user-friendly particle accelerators – even potentially “bringing the accelerator to the problem” for specific applications. With a dedicated team working on the miniaturisation of particle accelerators, DESY is intent on maturing plasma technologies for its core areas of expertise in particle physics and photon science while simultaneously targeting medical and industrial use-cases from the outset.
Meanwhile, plans are taking shape for PETRA IV and conversion of the PETRA storage ring into an ultralow-emittance synchrotron source. By generating beams of hard X-rays with unprecedented coherence properties that can be focused down to the nm regime, PETRA IV will provide scientists and engineers with the ultimate 3D process microscope for all manner of industry-relevant problems – whether that’s addressing individual organelles in living cells, following metabolic pathways with elemental and molecular specificity, or observing correlations in functional materials over mm length scales and under working conditions.
Fundamental science never stops at DESY. Neither, it seems, do the downstream opportunities for industrial collaboration and technology innovation.
François Piuz, a talented and passionate CERN physicist since 1968 who was leader of several projects, passed away on 21 July 2022 aged 85. Throughout his distinguished career, François worked at the forefront of particle detectors. With his many talents, he made significant contributions to topics ranging from the fundamental principles of detector operation to the innovative technologies required to deploy detectors in large experiments.
François began his scientific journey in the early 1970s as a notable member of the team that transformed the invention of the Nobel Prize-winning multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC) into the system of 50,000 wires for the Split-Field Magnet facility at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings. At this time, he wanted to understand the functioning of these new detectors at the fundamental, microscopic level. His work on the concept of “ionisation clusters” in the MWPC became a classic and was crucial to the development of particle identification based on multiple measurements of ionisation. One spectacular use of this approach is the X-ray photon detection system of the ALICE experiment’s Transition Radiation Detector at the LHC. Cluster counting is also a candidate technique for high-granularity dE/dx measurements at future colliders.
Another highlight that came from his insightful understanding was the development of a novel drift chamber topology capable of measuring particles with exceptional spatial resolution and multi-track separation, as required for the SPS experiments in the 1980s. During this time, he renewed his interest in particle identification and contributed to pioneering studies demonstrating the outstanding potential of solid cesium iodide (CsI) photocathodes for the detection of Cherenkov photons, which would prove so fruitful in the ALICE experiment’s HMPID (High Momentum Particle Identification Detector) RICH detector.
In 1992 François was one of the main proponents, and the co-spokesperson, of the RD26 project, which, in six years, had successfully developed the technology to produce large-area (up to 0.3 m2) CsI-based gaseous photon detectors for use in RICH systems operated in heavy-ion collision experiments. This project represented the summit of his outstanding scientific career, in which he coupled his unique expertise in gaseous detectors, developed while working with Charpak, with a passion for photography and, therefore, photon detection. Such technology allowed the construction of the largest CsI-RICH detector ever built and rapidly found applications in other experiments, including NA44 and COMPASS at CERN, HADES at GSI and the Hall A experiment at JLab.
François was a member of the ALICE collaboration from its first days and led the HMPID project until 2000. After his retirement in 2002, he continued to actively participate in the construction, installation and operation of the HMPID, which, nearly two decades after its construction, continues to operate at higher rates for LHC Run 3. François was also involved in coordinating test-beam activities, which were instrumental to the R&D for all ALICE detectors.
François’s remarkable knowledge and ability to envision solutions to complex problems were key to the success of the many detector projects that he worked on. He was always interested in new ideas and ready to provide help and support to colleagues. These qualities, combined with a playful sense of humour, made François a very friendly and charismatic personality. He will be missed by many, but will always be remembered for his great qualities, both as a physicist and as a person, by those who were fortunate enough to have worked closely with him.
The 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’22), which took place in Bangkok from 12 to 17 June, marked the return of an in-person event after two years due to the COVID pandemic. Hosted by the Synchrotron Light Research Institute, it was the first time that Thailand has hosted an IPAC conference, with around 800 scientists, engineers, technicians, students and industrial partners from 37 countries in attendance. The atmosphere was understandably electric. Energy and enthusiasm filled the rooms, as delegates had the chance to meet with colleagues and friends from around the world.
The conference began with a blessing from princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who attended the two opening plenary sessions. The scientific programme included excellent invited and contributed talks, as well as outstanding posters, highlighting scientific achievements worldwide. Among them were the precise measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic dipole moment (g-2) at Fermilab, and the analysis at synchrotron light sources of soil samples obtained from near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 space mission, which gave a glimpse into the origin of the Solar System.
In total, 88 invited and contributing talks on a wide array of particle accelerator-related topics were presented. These covered updates of new collider projects such as the Electron Ion Collider (EIC), proposed colliders (FCC, ILC and CEPC), as well as upgrade plans for existing facilities such as BEPCII and SuperKEKB, and new photo-source projects such as NanoTerasu and Siam Photon Source II. A talk about the power efficiency of accelerators drew a lot of attention given increasing global concern about sustainability. Accelerator-based radiotherapy continued to be the main topic in the accelerator application category, with a special focus on designing an affordable and low-maintenance linac for deployment in low- and middle-income countries and other challenging environments (CERN Courier January/February 2022 p30).
Raffaella Geometrante (KYMA) hosted a popular industry session on accelerator technology. Completely revamped from past editions, its aim was to substantially improve the dynamics between laboratories and industry, while also addressing other topics on accelerator innovations and disruptive technologies.
An engaging outreach talk “Looking into the past with photons” highlighted how synchrotron radiation has become an indispensable tool in archaeological and paleontological research, enabling investigations of the relationship between past civilisations in different corners of the world. A reception held during an evening boat cruise along the Chao Phraya River took participants past majestic palaces and historic temples against a backdrop of traditional Thai music and performances.
IPAC’22 was a successful and memorable conference, seen as a symbol of our return to normal scientific activities and face-to-face interaction. It was also one of the most difficult IPAC conferences to organise – prohibiting or impeding participation from several regions, particularly China and Taiwan, as the world begins to recover from the most prevalent health-related crisis in a century. It was mentioned in the opening session that many breakthroughs in combating the coronavirus pandemic were achieved with the use of particle accelerators: the molecular structure of the virus, which is essential information for subsequent rational drug design, was solved at synchrotron light sources.
More than 500 participants from over 30 countries attended the annual meeting of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) collaboration, which is pursuing a feasibility study for a visionary post-LHC research infrastructure at CERN. Organised as a hybrid event at Sorbonne University in Paris from 30 May to 3 June, the event demonstrated the significant recent progress en route to the completion of the feasibility study in 2025, and the technological and scientific opportunities on offer.
In their welcome talks, Ursula Bassler (CNRS) and Philippe Chomaz (CEA), chair of the FCC collaboration board, stressed France’s long-standing participation in CERN and reaffirmed the support of French physicists and laboratories in the different areas of the FCC project. CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti noted that the electron–positron stage, FCC-ee, could begin operations within a few years of the end of the HL-LHC – a crucial step in keeping the community engaged across different generations – while the full FCC programme would offer 100 years of trailblazing physics at both the energy and intensity frontiers. Beyond its outstanding scientific case, FCC requires coordinated R&D in many domains, such as instrumentation and engineering, raising opportunities for young generations to contribute with fresh ideas. These messages echoed those in other opening talks, in particular by Jean-Eric Paquet, director for research and innovation at the European Commission, who highlighted FCC’s role as a world-scale research infrastructure that will allow Europe to maintain its leadership in fundamental research.
A new era
Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations continue to establish its properties and interactions with other particles. The discovery of the Higgs boson completes the Standard Model but leaves many questions unanswered; a new era of exploration has opened that requires a blend of large leaps in precision, sensitivity and eventually energy. Theorist Christophe Grojean (DESY) described how the diverse FCC research programme (CERN Courier May/June 2022 p23) offers an extensive set of measurements at the electroweak scale, the widest exploratory potential for new physics, and the potential to address outstanding questions such as the nature of dark matter and the origin of the cosmic matter–antimatter asymmetry.
In recent months, teams from CERN have worked closely with external consultants and CERN’s host states to develop a new FCC layout and placement scenario (CERN Courier May/June 2022 p27). Key elements include the effective use of the European electricity grid, the launch of heat-recovery projects, cooling, agriculture and industrial use – as well as cutting-edge data connections to rural areas. Parallel sessions at FCC Week focused on the design of FCC-ee, which offers a high-luminosity Higgs and electroweak factory. Tor Raubenheimer (SLAC) showed it to be the most efficient lepton collider for energies up to the top-quark mass threshold and highlighted its complementarity to a future FCC-hh. Profiting from the FCC-ee’s high technological readiness, ongoing R&D efforts aim to maximise the efficiency and performance while optimising its environmental impact and operational costs. Many sessions were dedicated to detector development, where the breadth of new results showed that the FCC-ee is much more than a scaled-up version of LEP. It would offer unprecedented precision on Higgs couplings, electroweak and flavour variables, the top-quark mass, and the strong coupling constant, with ample discovery potential for feebly interacting particles. Participants also heard about the FCC-ee’s unique ability in ultra-precise centre-of-mass energy measurements, and the need for new beam-stabilisation and feedback systems.
The FCC programme builds on the large, stable global community that has existed for more than 30 years at CERN and in other laboratories worldwide
High-temperature superconductor (HTS) magnets are among key FCC-ee technologies under consideration for improved energy efficiency, also offering significant potential societal impact. They could be deployed in the FCC-ee final-focus sections, around the positron-production target, and even in the collider arcs. Another major focus is ensuring that the 92 km-circumference machine’s arc cells are effective, reliable and easy to maintain, with a complete arc half-cell mockup planned to be constructed by 2025. The exploration of existing and alternative technologies for FCC-ee is supported by two recently approved projects: the Swiss accelerator R&D programme CHART, and the EU-funded FCCIS design study. The online software requirements for FCC-ee are dominated by an expected physics event rate of ~200 kHz when running at the Z pole. Trigger and data acquisition systems sustaining comparable data rates are already being developed for the HL-LHC, serving as powerful starting points for FCC-ee.
Looking to the future
Finally, participants reviewed ongoing activities toward FCC-hh, an energy- frontier 100 TeV proton–proton collider to follow FCC-ee by exploiting the same infrastructure. FCC-hh studies complement those for FCC-ee, including the organisation of CERN’s high-field magnet R&D programme and the work of the FCC global conductor-development programme. In addition, alternative HTS technologies that could reach higher magnetic fields and higher energies while reducing energy consumption are being explored for FCC’s energy-frontier stage. The challenges of building and operating this new infrastructure and the benefits that can be expected for society and European industry were also discussed during a public event under the auspices of the French Physical Society.
The FCC programme builds on the large, stable global community that has existed for more than 30 years at CERN and in other laboratories worldwide. The results presented during FCC Week 2022 and ongoing R&D activities will inspire generations of students to learn and grow. Participants from diverse fields and the high number of junior researchers who joined the meeting underline the attractiveness of the project. Robust international participation and long-term commitment to deliver ambitious projects are key for the next steps in the FCC feasibility study.
Marking 10 years since the discovery of the Higgs boson, a two-day workshop held at the University of Birmingham on 30 June and 1 July brought together ATLAS and CMS physicists who were involved in the discovery and subsequent characterisation of the Higgs boson. Around 75 physicists, in addition to members of the public who attended a colloquium, celebrated this momentous discovery together with PhD students, early-career researchers and members of IOP’s history of physics group. In an informal atmosphere, participants recalled and gave insights on what had taken place, spicing it with personal stories that placed the human dimension of science under the spotlight.
The story of the Higgs-boson search was traced from the times of LEP and the Tevatron. Participants were reminded of the uncertainty and excitement during the final days of LEP: the hints of an excess of events at around 115 GeV and the ensuing controversy surrounding the decision to either stop the machine or extend its data-taking further. For the Tevatron, the focus was more on the relentless race against time until the LHC could provide an overwhelming dataset. It was considered plausible that the Tevatron could observe the Higgs boson first, leading CERN to delay a scheduled break in LHC data-taking following its 2011 run.
The timeline of the design, construction and commissioning of the LHC experiments was presented, with a particular focus on the excellent performance achieved by ATLAS and CMS since the beginning of Run 1. The parallel role of theory and the collaboration among theorists and experimentalists was also discussed. Speakers from the experiments involved in the Higgs-discovery analyses provided personal perspectives on the events leading up to the 4 July 2012 announcement.
With his unique perspective, former CERN Director-General Chris Llewellyn-Smith described the early discussions and approval of the LHC project during a well-attended public symposium. He recalled his discussions with former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the role of the ill-fated US Superconducting Super Collider and the “byzantine politics” that led to the LHC’s approval in 1994. Most importantly, he emphasised that the LHC was not inevitable: scientists had to fight to secure funding and bring it to reality. Former ATLAS spokesperson David Charlton reflected on the preparation of the experiments, the LHC startup in 2008 and subsequent magnet problems that delayed the physics runs until 2010, noting the excellent performance of the machine and detectors that enabled the discovery to be made much earlier than expected.
The workshop would not have been complete without a discussion on what happened after the discovery. Precision measurements of the Higgs-boson couplings, observation of new decay and production modes, as well as the search for Higgs-boson pair-production were described, always with a focus on the challenges that needed to be overcome. The workshop closed with a look to the future, both in terms of experimental prospects of the High-Luminosity LHC and theory.
“I am an opportunist, in one way an extremely successful one. Weinberg and I were working along similar lines with similar attitudes. I wish you well for your celebrations and regret that I can’t be with you in person.”
Peter Higgs winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“It was an overwhelming time for us. It took time to understand what had happened. I especially remember the excitement among the young researchers.”
Rolf Heuer former CERN Director-General.
“It took 14 years to build the LHC. At one point we had 1000 dipoles, each costing a million Swiss francs, stored on the surface, throughout rain and snow.”
Lyn Evans former LHC project director.
“The first two years of measuring Standard Model physics were essential to give us confidence in the readiness of the two experiments to search for new physics.”
Peter Jenni founding ATLAS spokesperson.
“A key question for CMS was: can tracking be done in a congested environment with just a few points, albeit precise ones? It was a huge achievement requiring more than 200 m2 of active silicon.”
Michel Della Negra founding CMS spokesperson.
“I remember on 4 July 2012 a magnificent presentation of a historical discovery. I would also like to celebrate the life of Robert Brout, a great physicist and important man.”
François Englert winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“The gist of the theory behind the Higgs boson would easily compete with the most far-fetched conspiracy theory, yet it seems nature chose it.”
Eliezer Rabinovici president of the CERN Council.
“The structure of the vacuum is intimately connected to how the Higgs boson interacts with itself. To probe this phenomenon at the LHC we can study the production of Higgs-boson pairs.”
André David CMS experimentalist (CERN).
“Collaboration between experiment and theory is even more necessary now to find any hints for BSM physics.”
“Theory accuracy will be even more important to make the best of the HL-LHC data, especially in the case in which no evidence of new physics will show up… This is also crucial for the Monte Carlo tools used in the analyses.”
Massimiliano Grazzini theorist (University of Zurich).
“After 10 years we’ve measured the five main production and five major decay mechanisms of the Higgs boson.”
“What we know so far – Mass: known to 0.11%. Width: closing in on SM value of 3.2+2.5–1.7MeV (plus evidence of off-shell Higgs production). Spin 0: spin 1 & 2 excluded at 99.9% CL. CP structure: in accordance with SM CP-even hypotheses.”
Marco Delmastro ATLAS experimentalist (CNRS/IN2P3 LAPP).
“We have learned much about the 125 GeV Higgs boson since its discovery. The LHC Run 3 starts tomorrow: ready for the next decade of Higgs-boson exploration!”
Adinda de Wit CMS experimentalist (University of Zurich).
“The Higgs boson is linked to profound structural problems in the Standard Model. It is therefore an extraordinary discovery tool that calls for a broad experimental programme at the LHC and beyond.”
“Elusive non-resonant pairs of Higgs bosons are the prime experimental signature of the Higgs-boson self-coupling. We are all eager to analyse Run 3 data to further probe HH events!”
Arnaud Ferrari ATLAS experimentalist (Uppsala University).
“New physics can affect differently the different fermion generations. We have to precisely measure the couplings if we want to understand the Higgs boson’s nature.”
Andrea Marini CMS experimentalist (CERN).
“From its potential invisible, forbidden, and exotic decays to the possible existence of scalar siblings, the Higgs boson plays a fundamental role in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.”
“An incredible collaborative effort has brought us this far. But there is much more to come, especially during Long Shutdown 3, with HL-LHC paving the way from Run 3 to ultimate performance. Interesting times ahead to say the least!”
Mike Lamont CERN director for accelerators and technology.
“The hard work and creativity in reconstruction and analysis techniques are already evident since the last round of projections. Imagine what we can do in the next 20 years!”
Elizabeth Brost ATLAS experimentalist (BNL).
“The Higgs is the first really new elementary particle we’ve seen. We need to study it to death!”
One hundred years ago, Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach performed their ground-breaking experiment shooting silver atoms through an inhomogeneous magnetic field, separating them according to their spatially quantised angular momentum. It was a clear victory of quantum theory over the still widely used classical picture of the atom. The results also paved the way to the introduction of the concept of spin, an intrinsic angular momentum, as an inherent property of subatomic particles.
The idea of spin was met with plenty of scepticism. Abraham Pais noted in his book George Uhlenbeck and the Discovery of Electron Spin that Ralph Kronig finishing his PhD at Columbia University in 1925 and travelling through Europe, introduced the idea to Heisenberg and Pauli, who dryly commented that “it is indeed very clever but of course has nothing to do with reality”. Feeling ridiculed, Kronig dropped the idea. A few months later, still against strong resistance by established experts but this time with sufficient backing by their mentor Paul Ehrenfest, Leiden graduate-students George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit published their seminal Nature paper on the “spinning” electron. “In the future I shall trust my own judgement more and that of others less,” wrote Kronig in a letter to Hendrik Kramers in March 1926.
Spin crisis
Spin quickly became a cornerstone of 20th-century physics. Related works of paramount importance were Pauli’s exclusion principle and Dirac’s description of relativistic spin-1/2 particles, as well as the spin-statistics theorems (namely the Fermi–Dirac and Bose–Einstein distributions for identical half-integer–spin and integer–spin particles, respectively). But more than half a century after its introduction, spin re-emerged as a puzzle. By then, a rather robust theoretical framework, the Standard Model, had been established within which many precision calculations became a comfortable standard. It could have been all that simple: since the proton consists of two valence-up and one valence-down quarks, with spin up and down (i.e. parallel and antiparallel to the proton’s spin, respectively), the origin of its spin is easily explained. The problem dubbed “spin crisis” arose in the late 1980s, when the European Muon Collaboration at CERN found that the contribution of quarks to the proton spin was consistent with zero, within the then still-large uncertainties, and that the so-called Ellis–Jaffe sum rule – ultimately not fundamental but model-dependent – was badly violated. What had been missed?
Today, after decades of intense experimental and theoretical work, our picture of the proton and its spin emerging from high-energy interactions has changed substantially. The role of gluons both in unpolarised and polarised protons is non-trivial. More importantly, transverse degrees of freedom, both in position and momentum space, and the corresponding role of orbital angular momentum, have become essential ingredients in the modern description of the proton structure. This description goes beyond the picture of collinearly moving partons encapsulated by the fraction of the parent proton’s momentum and the scale at which they are probed; numerous effects, unexplainable in the simple picture, have now become theoretically accessible.
Understanding the mysteries
The HERMES experiment at DESY, which operated between 1995 and 2007, has been a pioneer in unravelling the mysteries of the proton spin, and the experiment is the protagonist in a new book by Richard Milner and Erhard Steffens, two veterans in this field as well as the driving forces behind HERMES. The subtitle and preface clarify that this is a personal account and recollection of the history of HERMES, from an emergent idea on both sides of the Atlantic to a nascent collaboration and experiment, and finally as an extremely successful addition to the physics programme of HERA (the world’s only lepton–proton collider, which started running at DESY 30 years ago for one and a half decades).
Milner and Steffens are both experts on polarised gas targets, with complementary backgrounds leading to rather different perspectives. Indeed, HERMES was independently developed within a North American initiative, in which Milner was the driving force, and a European initiative around the Heidelberg MPI-K led by Klaus Rith, with Erhard Steffens as a long-time senior group member. In 1988 two independent letters of intent submitted to DESY triggered sufficient interest in the idea of a fixed-target experiment with a polarised gas target internal to the HERA lepton ring; the proponents were subsequently urged to collaborate in submitting a common proposal. In the meantime, HERMES’ feasibility needed to be demonstrated. A sufficiently high lepton-polarisation had to be established, as well as smooth running of a polarised gas target in the harsh HERA environment without disturbing the machine and the main HERA experiments H1 and Zeus.
By summer 1993, HERMES was fully approved, and in 1995 the data taking started with polarised 3He. The subsequently used target of polarised hydrogen or deuterium employed the same concepts that Stern and Gerlach had already used in their famous experiment. The next decade saw several upgrades and additions to the physics programme, and data taking continued until summer 2007. In all those years, the backbone of HERMES was an intense and polarised lepton beam that traversed a target of pure gas in a storage cell, highly polarised or unpolarised, avoiding extensive and in parts model-dependent corrections. This constellation was combined with a detector that, from the very beginning, was designed to not only detect the scattered leptons but also the “spray” produced in coincidence. These features allowed a diverse set of processes to be studied, leading to numerous pioneering measurements and insights that motivated, and continue to motivate, new experimental programmes around the world, including some at CERN.
Richard Milner and Erhard Steffens provide extensive insights, in particular into the historic aspects of HERMES, which are difficult to obtain elsewhere. The book gives an insightful discussion of the installation of the experiment and of the outstanding efforts of a group of highly motivated and dedicated individuals who worked too often in complete ignorance of (or in defiance of) standard working hours. Their account enthrals the reader with vivid anecdotes, surprising twists and personal stories, all told in a colloquial style. While clearly not meant as a textbook – indeed, one might notice small mistakes and inconsistencies in a few places – this book makes for worthwhile and enjoyable reading, not only for people familiar with the subject but equally for outsiders. In particular, younger generations of physicists working in large-scale collaborations might be surprised to learn that it needs only a small group and little time to start an experiment that goes on to have a tremendous impact on our understanding of nature’s basic constituents.
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