Strategic Appointments Ahead of Planned Upgrade at Diamond

Diamond Light Source, the UK’s National synchrotron has appointed Stewart Scott to Head of the Engineering Group and Sarah Macdonell to Head of Beamline Systems Engineering and Engineering Group Quality and Resource Manager. The appointments have been made in preparation for the mammoth upgrade planned for the UK’s synchrotron to Diamond-II, an 18-month timeframe during which the synchrotron will be dark.

Stewart Scott, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer has been with Diamond since its early days in 2004, through to opening in 2007 and now works in a facility offering 31 operational beamlines delivering science.  He started as a mechanical engineer, rising to joint head of beamlines three years ago and will now head the 87 strong engineering group. 

“My new role means I will be looking after the Synchrotron ‘machine’ as well as beamlines.  This means the injection system, the storage system and the front-ends.  I’m looking forward to what will be a very challenging and exciting time as we are now gearing up for Diamond-II. This is when we will be upgrading the whole machine and removing and reinstalling new systems for all the other areas within 18 months. We are currently planning the logistics of how best to achieve it and this will affect the engineering design and will require many new, smaller and innovative solutions.”

“A big challenge will be finding the right people with the problem-solving skills and vision to help us.  We are keen to attract new recruits into all aspects of Engineering work (Mechanical Engineering, Electrical, Design, IT and Software) and to let people know … that Diamond is a great place to work for Engineers. 

Sarah Macdonell, a chartered Engineer with a Masters in Mechatronics, joined Diamond just over two years ago as joint Head of Beamline Systems Engineering. In her new role she will take the lead to improve the engineering design and delivery process at Diamond, continuing her role within Beamline Engineering and also with expanded responsibilities across the entire Engineering Group.

Sarah said: Partly in preparation for Diamond-II, but also because time on our facility is so precious and prized by the scientists, we want to enhance the way we deliver and resource projects by integrating with other groups and streamlining our processes .. to enhance the quality and speed of delivery of projects throughout Diamond.”

“Our goal is to ensure we have robust and efficient ways of delivering systems which balance the right technical solutions alongside the right people and processes to deliver high-quality projects, on time and in budget. Sometimes people see new processes as barriers which slow things down or add extra non-value-added work, but this is certainly not the case. The aim is that we look at ways to make things faster and better by implementing good, flexible processes and drive true innovation.”