The European Spallation Source Programme is growing fast and today welcomes the 100th employee in the new Headquarter building.

ESS will be the world-leading science facility for materials and life science research with neutrons. The ESS Programme is now in a design and build-up phase, with a fast growing and expanding organisation. This Monday, the ESS staff has moved into the new Headquarters in Medicon Village.

As a sign of the expanding programme, ESS today reaches one hundred employees. In fact, employee number one hundred are two: procurement officer Tom Hadfield and RF systems engineer Anders Sunesson, who both start working at ESS today.

– Having led the ESS project from 2007, when we were four persons in one room, I am particularly proud over the number of highly skilled staff from all over the world, which we have recruited. Our employees and their expertise is, by far, the most valuable resource we have, says Colin Carlile, ESS Director-General.

Anders Sunesson will be in charge of systems integration of the ESS RF systems, which will drive the proton accelerator. He has earlier been a senior manager for innovative antenna technology within the mobile phone sector, and he is also an Associate Professor in Electro- and Information Technology at Lund Technical University. Tom Hadfield will be a procurement officer within the ESS Administration, previously being a Global category manager for devices at AstraZeneca.

Besides the one hundred permanently employed staff, around 50 temporarily employed scholars, affiliated scientists, PhD:s and consultants are also working full or part time at the ESS Headquarters in Lund, making the total number of staff in the range of 150. In addition, within the ESS Design Update collaborations, involving 40 partner laboratories, universities and research institutes around the world, a couple of hundred scientists are working on updating the technical design of the ESS facility.