New year message from Diamond Light Source CEO

As we begin this new year, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to you and thank you for being a part of Diamond’s user community. Your support and engagement with our facility along with the dedicated efforts of our staff continue to drive our success.
 
In 2025 we delivered 15,346 experimental shifts across our experimental capabilities, welcoming 6,028 users on site and a further 5,254 users remotely. We published 1,175 peer review articles bringing the total of number of publications to 15,368 and over 17,460 Protein Data Bank Deposits.
 
Our most recent annual report covers more on Diamond’s performance with updates from across the facility. I would also like to take the opportunity to share some recent highlights and key developments at Diamond.

Over the last year we have made significant progress on our upgrade programme with visible milestones achieved. The Diamond Extension Building is now complete and will soon be equipped to support the assembly of new machine components. The shielded hutches for all three of our flagship beamlines, SWIFT, K04 and CSXID, are also now complete. The first girder for the upgraded storage ring has been machined, and installation of new solid-state amplifiers which will be essential to the enhanced radiofrequency system and operational resilience is progressing. Additionally, the new data centre, designed to handle increased data throughput from the upgrade, has now entered its delivery phase.
 
As with any major project we continue to tightly monitor and evaluate our progress through a combination of external and internal assessment reviews. In late September 2025 we received positive feedback from an external progress assessment review conducted by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). The review concluded that the project is being managed well with robust project leadership and project management practices in place. It was acknowledged that good use was being made of expertise and shared learning across all areas of the project to support programme delivery. In December 2025 we also held the first of four planned internal readiness reviews, which confirmed high confidence in starting the upgrade shutdown period in December 2027. Further readiness reviews will take place every six months, with the third review in December 2026 being crucial for final proposal planning before the upgrade dark period.
 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire Diamond upgrade team, for their diligent work and progress so far. I also thank the members of the Diamond-II Sponsor Group, Machine Advisory Committee (MAC) and the Scientific Software Advisory Committee (SSAC), for their valuable insights and commitment to promoting best practice across our facilities.

The past year has seen some significant changes in our organisational structure, driven by a coordinated programme of change. These include merging our Life and Physical Science Divisions into one single Science Division and the development of a new Operations Division, formed from different groups with key supporting roles. Other changes include a more coordinated approach to planning science activities, and the operation and delivery of activities. We believe these structural changes will improve our efficiency and enhance internal collaborations between groups. In addition, they  will also help Diamond to be more responsive to the needs of our user communities and address the UK Government priorities at a time where facilities need to demonstrate their impact for the nation. You can read about how users' work is advancing UK science goals at Diamond.
 
In 2025 we also bid a fond farewell to two long standing members of staff. Professor Sir David Stuart, Life Science Director and Professor Andy Dent, Deputy Physical Science Director both retired after extensive careers at Diamond (17 and 23 years respectively). A symposium was held for Andy in September, and we will be marking Dave’s scientific contributions at an event planned for spring/early summer 2026. Professor Keith Wilson on our Board of Directors also retired after nine years of service. We thank him for his valuable contributions and support. We welcome Dr Petra Oysten OBE, as our newest Board member who joined in December 2025.

In 2025 we continued to offer a range of events to offer training, workshops and user events for our community. More training events and engagement activities are planned for the coming months as shown on Diamond's Events pages. If you are interested in contributing to such events, please contact the organisers as detailed in the event announcements.
 
I am thankful to our advisory committees, Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), Diamond User Committee (DUC) and Diamond Industrial Scientific Committee (DISCo) for their continued feedback on the delivery of the science. You will have received a call for nominations for representatives to join the DUC earlier this week; please do make a nomination.
 
As we look to the year ahead, we remain committed to keeping our community informed and engaged in our activities and upgrade journey. As well as ongoing training, workshops and other user events, we will be hosting a Zoom webinar in March to bring you further news on Diamond-II and share details on what to expect in the next phases of the programme. Please register for the webinar to receive joining instructions.
 
Thank you again for your continued support and partnership and I wish you all a successful year in your scientific endeavours.

Gianluigi Botton,
Chief Executive Officer