Hanna Wacklin-Knecht

Hanna Wacklin-Knecht works as life scientist in the Deuteration and Macromolecular Crystallisation (DEMAX) platform of the ESS Scientific Activities Division since 2018. 

Hanna has over 20 years' experience working with neutron scattering and deuteration for life science and soft matter, maintaining a strong focus on biological membranes. She obtained her DPhil in 2004 from Oxford University at Bob Thomas’ laboratory, which later became the STFC deuteration facility. Hanna went on to work at ANSTO, at the Australian National Deuteration Facility, and at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), where she worked on the FIGARO reflectometer and started to exploit deuterated lipids produced in cell cultures.

She joined ESS in 2011 as the instrument scientist for neutron reflectometry and proposer of the FREIA neutron reflectometer. At DEMAX she is responsible for the production and characterization of biologically deuterated lipids. She holds an adjunct senior lecturer appointment at the Lund University Physical Chemistry Division since 2015, where many of her teaching activities and research collaborations are based.

Hanna founded the European deuteration network, DEUNET, in 2015 with the help of the SINE2020 EU grant and colleagues from ILL, the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS). DEUNET aims to provide enhanced deuteration support for neutron users and coordinates the now world-wide network of deuteration laboratories. Hanna also coordinates the life science activities of the League of Advanced Neutron Sources (LENS) as the leader of the Deuteration Technologies subgroup and pilot action 3 on Global Health Challenges, which focuses on advancing the use of neutron scattering methods to probe the role cell membranes play in major non-communicable diseases such as cancer.

Within BrightnESS² work package 5, Hanna focuses on outreach activities aimed towards the life science community and collaboration with other research infrastructures, such as the network of Analytical Research Infrastructures of Europe (ARIE).