Aymeric Robert appointed Physical Sciences Director at MAX IV

Sciences director Aymeric Robert in front of plants

Aymeric comes to MAX IV from the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, where he was the deputy division director for the Science and R&D Division for four years.

His research focuses is the structure and dynamics of amorphous and disordered systems. These types of systems can be investigated by developing advanced X-ray instrumentation that uses the X-ray properties from high brightness and coherence beams.

Aymeric earned an M.A. in physics in 1998 and, in 2001, a PhD in physics at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility from the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble (France). During his PhD, postdoctoral studies, beamline scientist positions at the ID10A Troika beamline at the ESRF, he was among the European team of scientists pioneering the use of X-ray coherence to develop X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy. This coherent scattering technique uniquely allows probing dynamics in complex systems in ways never achievable before.

In 2007, he joined the Linac Coherent Light Source – the first hard X-ray free-electron laser. Aymeric led the design, construction, and commissioning of one of the first six LCLS instruments – the X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy instrument. XCS is principally dedicated to exploiting the coherence of the hard X-ray laser for measuring ultrafast dynamical phenomena in condensed matter systems. Aymeric served in several advisory committees for international conferences, peer review panels, and user facilities.

He is looking forward to working with the MAX IV staff to continue developing the facility with a portfolio of capabilities that serves and grows a compelling user science program and ensures MAX IV’s leadership for the next decades to come.

It is truly an honor to have been chosen as the next Physical Sciences Director at MAX IV, the first fourth synchrotron radiation user facility. I am very excited to be joining the MAX IV team and get to know everyone contributing to its success – its talented staff, many collaborators, and its user community. I am looking forward to developing together a strategy that ensures the success and leadership of our user facility and the science programs of our user community, Robert says.

Welcome to MAX IV, Aymeric!