Mark Thomson

Last staff talk at @DaresburyLab reflecting on my last 6+ years as Executive Chair of @STFC_Matters. During this time, Daresbury Lab has gone from strength-to-strength, delivering great science and innovation. A big thank you to my wonderful friends and colleagues in the NW.

View across Edinburgh from the rooftop of the Higgs Centre for Innovation at ⁦@STFC_Matters⁩ ⁦@ukatc⁩ during my final visit as Executive Chair. Tomorrow ⁦@DaresburyLab⁩ although might be hard to compete with today’s view.

In Lund today for the European Spallation Source Council ⁦⁦@essneutron⁩ . It will be my last council meeting after more than six years, so it was particularly pleasing to see the fantastic progress with this flagship European neutron source project.

Spent the last couple of days at ⁦@Fermilab⁩ for the International Neutrino Council and ⁦@DUNEScience⁩ RRB meeting. Great to catch up with colleagues in the US and to hear about the amazing progress with LBNF/DUNE. Wilson Hall looking as good as ever!

Going underground (again). On Tuesday we were delighted to host members of the @UKRI_News Board at @STFC_Matters @BoulbyLab in the North East of England. Discussed the search for Dark Matter and the wide range of multi-disciplinary science opportunities at 1.1 km underground.

Going 1.1km underground: great to host John Sarrao, director of the SLAC Linear Accelerator Centre, at @STFC_Matters @BoulbyLab in North Yorkshire. We saw the impressive progress with excavation of a space for a very large new facility. Talked about Dark Matter and much more...

Hugely honoured to have been selected as the next Director General of @CERN. CERN is an incredible organisation where scientists from Europe and beyond have come together to uncover the mysteries of the Universe - incredibly exciting!

Congratulations to Filippo, an outstanding choice as the next chair of SKAO Council.

Great tour of the GANIL facility near Caen in Normandy. Huge progress since my previous visit 18 months ago. The SPIRAL 2 accelerator (pictured) is really impressive. Big thank you to colleagues in France 🇫🇷 and the GANIL team!

University of Roma Tor Vergata to celebrate 40 years (!) of partnership and friendship between STFC's ISIS neutron and muon source and colleagues from Italy and, in particular Tor Vergata. I had the pleasure of speaking about UK - Italy collaboration on neutrons and much more...

Enjoying the atypical late October weather on a long walk to the west of Cambridge. Spectacular views over the city. Just 8 miles to go…

Yesterday, Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, joined us at @RutherfordApLab to open the @nqcc_official, which is jointly sponsored by @STFC_Matters and @EPSRC. I remember back in 2018 when we first discussed having the NQCC at RAL - fantastic to see the dream become reality!

Celebrating with the ⁦UKRI Infrastructure team following my last time chairing our advisory panel. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the past 6 years, establishing an amazing investment portfolio of over £2.5Bn for large research and innovation infrastructure.

In Paris today for the annual bi-lateral discussion on science collaboration between ⁦@STFC_Matters⁩ and ⁦@CNRS⁩ Nucléaire et Particules. A really interesting and constructive discussion about mutual scientific interests. The views were also pretty good…

Just welcomed attendees to the ⁦@STFC_Matters⁩ National Laboratories Research Conference taking place across four sites: ⁦RAL⁩, Daresbury, ⁦⁦Boulby and here at the ⁦@ukatc⁩ at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. As always, stunning views from the Higgs Centre.

Really happy to see the launch of #RICHeS bringing together the humanities and science - a great example of UKRI driving genuinely multidisciplinary research.

Really enjoyable visit to LIP in Lisbon. Exciting detector developments for particle physics and much more. Joined by ⁦@ukinportugal⁩ HMA ⁦@LisaBandari⁩ to discuss 🇵🇹 🇬🇧 science collaboration. Thanks to the wonderful LIP team for taking time to discuss their work.

⁦@CERN⁩ at 70. This week we came together to celebrate CERN’s 70th anniversary. CERN’s enduring success is a testament to long-term European collaboration. Visiting the ATLAS detector with Peter Kyle (UK Secretary of State for science) was one of many highlights.

Inspiring speech from Ursula von der Leyen at @CERN yesterday. Highlighted the impact of long-term European collaboration in science and technology and its importance for the future competitiveness of Europe.

Visiting the ATLAS detector at @CERN with my good colleague Shabana Haque. We have the great honour of representing the UK on CERN Council. Today we are celebrating CERN’s 70th anniversary. A fantastic day at this outstanding organisation!