More than 500 researchers at conference at MLZ

From March 20th to 23rd, the eighth European Conference on Neutron Scattering (ECNS) took place in Garching. After St. Petersburg (2019) and Zaragoza (2015), the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum was this year’s host.

MLZ welcomed 538 conferees to ECNS 2023. © Bernhard Ludewig, FRM II / TUM

MLZ welcomed 538 conferees to ECNS 2023. © Bernhard Ludewig, FRM II / TUM

The first participants arrived already on the previous Sunday to get in the mood for the meeting with snacks and drinks and to exchange ideas with old and new acquaintances.
On Wednesday, everyone was also invited to the conference dinner at the world-famous Hofbräuhaus in downtown Munich. On the Twitter channel of the MLZ, the LinkedIn channel of the FRM II and under the hashtag #ECNS2023 you can find many impressions about this and the rest of the conference.

165 talks, 277 posters
MLZ welcomed 538 conferees (396 men and 142 women) from Europe but also from the rest of the world. The researchers listened to 165 presentations in 39 sessions. Topics ranged from work on fundamental physics to structure determination and new methods of neutron application. In addition, there were a total of 277 posters, which participants discussed at length during two afternoon rounds.

This year's winners were (from left): Matilde Saura-Múzquiz, Toby Perring and Alessandro Tengattini. © Bernhard Ludewig, FRM II / TUM

This year's winners were (from left): Matilde Saura-Múzquiz, Toby Perring and Alessandro Tengattini. © Bernhard Ludewig, FRM II / TUM

Prizes for outstanding researchers
The conference concluded with the presentation of the Neutron Instrumentation and Innovation Award to Alessandro Tengattini, the Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut Award to Matilde Saura-Múzquiz, and the Walter Hälg Award to Toby Perring. All three have made major contributions to the field of neutron research, some early in their careers, which have now been recognized.
The closing speech was given by the Scientific Director of the FRM II Research Neutron Source and MLZ, Prof. Dr. Peter Müller-Buschbaum. Afterwards, the participants explored the neutron source in guided tours.

The next conference of the field will be the International Conference on Neutron Scattering ICNS 2025 in Copenhagen. A call for applications to host ECNS 2027 will be published soon by the European Neutron Scattering Association.