Our mission

NUM is the organisational home base for the research at PSI, which is based on the use of the PSI High Intensity Proton Accelerator HIPA and which spans the entire range from particle physics via solid, liquid or soft condensed matter science, chemistry, materials science and engineering to cultural heritage.

Among current topical scientific problems we specifically focus on those that are within the mission of PSI and optimally exploiting the state of the art instruments at our large scale facilities, the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source SINQ, the Swiss Muon Source SµS and the facilities for particle physics. The Division is organised in five research laboratories and three NUM staff groups. For details, please see this overview page.

The NUM division is responsible for operating SINQ and the Ultracold Neutron Source UCN, for the development of instrumentation at SINQ and SµS and for the testing materials and target technologies for proton accelerator driven systems. The facilities in the NUM division are open to international access — with 1700 annual visits the associated user program is a key activity in the division. The PSI User Office manages the large number of foreign visitors to all PSI facilities.