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PSI is entirely responsible to build the polarised neutron reflectometer ESTIA at the European Spallation Source ESS in Lund, Sweden. The lead ESTIA scientist Artur Glavic (LNS/NUM) has now simulated a virtual tour of the neutrons travelling through the instrument from the focusing neutron guide to the detector.

On October 1 and 2, the Laboratory of Neutron and Muon Instrumentation (LIN) hosted the first meeting of the working group on “Synergies in Technology Development and Operation” of the League of Advanced European Neutron Sources, LENS, to kick off developments aimed at creating a new generation of neutron technology.

On 24 September the Paul Scherrer Institut was the venue of a meeting between the top supervisory board of the European Spallation Source ESS to be built in Lund, Sweden, and representatives of the Swiss government from SERI. The chair and the vice chair of the ESS Council, Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph and Kurt Clausen, respectively came to Switzerland to discuss the Swiss In-Kind Contributions to the largest spallation neutron source under construction in Sweden.

Highly efficient two-dimensional detectors are essential for the performance of modern neutron diffractometers. The NUM Division of PSI and the Technical University Munich TUM jointly develop two identical new ³He gas detectors, one for the diffractometer DMC at SINQ and the other for operation at FRM-II in Munich. 

The European Conference on Neutron Scattering (ECNS) with its recent 2019 edition in St. Petersburg is a spree of lectures, poster sessions, and expert talks on the current trends and future possibilities in neutron science. PSI with its neutron source SINQ was represented by members of the three NUM laboratories LNS, LMX and LIN. In addition, PSI was silver sponsor of ECNS 2019 and is also a member of the LENS consortium (League of Advanced European Neutron Sources).

In the division Research with Neutrons and Muons (NUM) all technical knowledge and expertise concerned with the development and operation of the scientific instrumentation for neutron and muon experiments at our user facilities have been united in the new Laboratory for Neutron and Muon Instrumentation (LIN). 

Max Zoller, currently at the Physik-Institut of the University of Zurich (UZH), has been awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant with PSI as host institution. Together with a PhD student he will join the particle theory group (NUM, Laboratory of Particle Physics (LTP)). The research of Max Zoller focuses on the automation of perturbative higher-order calculations. With the Ambizione grant Max will now move to PSI for four years, starting on June 1, 2019.

The members of the League of advanced European Neutron Sources (LENS) held their first General Assembly and the first Executive Board meeting on 26 March 2019 in Liblice, the Czech Republic. The consortium adopted and signed Statutes detailing the purpose of LENS, guiding the work of the statutory bodies, and laying the framework for Working Groups responsible for the execution of foreseen activities. For the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ the head of the NUM division Christian Rüegg signed the documents. 

Dr Pascal Puphal (currently a Postdoc at PSI, LMX, Solid State Chemistry Group) has recently been awarded with the DGKK young researcher price from the German Crystal Growth Community on his Ph.D. work performed in the group of Cornelius Krellner at the Geothe University Frankfurt am Main on the topic "Tuning two dimensional Cu-based quantum spin systems". The work covers the stabilization and proof of a 2D dimer structure by Sr substitution in Han Purple and the research of novel kagome materials of the prominent quantum spin liquid candidate herbertsmithite by the hydrothermal route.