Knud Thomsen

Knud Thomsen is a Senior Scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. He has participated in many different development projects with neutron spallation and has been a consultant in the Review of the Target Concept for ESS Bilbao. In BrightnESS, Knud is involved in Work Package 6, especially in terms of collaboration building and outreach activities.

- I have been working with neutrons for research at PSI for about 15 years, during the Preparatory Phase of ESS, and I am currently involved in work related to the In-Kind Contribution process. Therefore, it was only natural, that I got involved in BrightnESS, where I focus much of my work on making the experience of PSI available to ESS and possible users from industry.

For me, there is no such thing as a regular working day, as my work mostly comes in peaks. I help people in writing research proposals that meet the quality and strategy demands of PSI, do paper work for the administration in Bern, and collaborate with people ranging from Japan to the West Coast of the USA – therefore one of the few things I do every day is to check my emails in the morning and evening.

I really like the diversity of BrightnESS. I get to meet many interesting people and enjoy bringing together their ideas and competences. My biggest challenge will be to ensure that relevant experience of PSI is transferred to ESS and industry, which I attempt through different outreach activities. For instance, we held an industry workshop in April, where one of the participating companies saw the potential of neutrons for their work and afterwards wrote a supporting letter for one of our research proposals. That was some success.  

BrightnESS is a great tool in terms of raising awareness about ESS and securing that PSI and other research facilities have access to good neutron research infrastructure, securing European competence and leadership in this field.