The MAX IV organisation has named Pedro Fernandes Tavares as the new Accelerator Director of MAX IV. The leadership role in the Accelerator Division follows his previous appointment as Accelerator Director, which he has held since 2016.
“I am truly thrilled to be reappointed Accelerator Director at this particularly exciting time for everyone at MAX IV, with the opportunity to help push the MAX 4U project forward. I came to MAX lab in 2010 to join the team that, under the leadership of Mikael Eriksson, would go on to make history by building the world’s first fourth-generation light source, At that time, I had only a vague idea of the impact this work would have on both the community and me personally. Looking back, I realize how fortunate I was to be in the right place at the right time,” said Pedro Fernandes Tavares.
A timeline for accelerator science
Pedro Fernandes Tavares joined the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) in 1987 and received his PhD in Accelerator Physics from the University of Campinas in 1994, presenting experimental work performed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.
At LNLS, Pedro led the design and construction of a 500 MeV booster synchrotron injector and held various leading positions including that of LNLS Accelerator Director. After a sabbatical year at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, he joined MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden, in September 2010 as the project leader for the construction and commissioning of the first fourth-generation synchrotron light source worldwide.
“I am deeply grateful to have met so many bright and kind people at MAX Lab and later MAX IV, from whom I learned an enormous amount about building accelerators and operating a user facility in what was, then, a very different environment for me,” said Fernandes Tavares. “Coming to Sweden and joining the MAX IV project was, in many ways, a new beginning that rekindled the sense of exploration of the unknown I had experienced early in my career in Brazil. It was wonderful to embark on a new adventure at that point in my life, and I hope to help many of my colleagues embark on yet another one in the years to come.”
Director Fernandes Tavares will continue to lead the strategic work of the MAX IV Accelerator Division, with special focus on the ongoing planning and implementation of MAX 4U, the first upgrade of a fourth-generation source globally. The MAX 4U initiative is described as a surgical upgrade of the 3 GeV storage ring and will be highlighted at the MAX IV 37th User Meeting in January 2026.
