The preparation phase means more than just building the facility – in order to be successful the next generation of scientific users has to be trained and be ready to take advantage of the new capabilities afforded by this unique facility.
Furthermore the Scandinavian industrial sector needs to be engaged. The European Spallation Neutron Source (ESS) will bridge the gap between real space and reciprocal space imaging, and the temporal gap between dynamics and kinetics hitherto unavailable to neutron probes and will hence provide unprecedented insight into the properties of materials out of equilibrium or in transitional states.
Following processes in-situ and in real time is critical for industrial applications. Combining this capability with FEL x-ray sources and the computation/data centers being developed in the region for on-line analysis provided an exciting vision for the future.
The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the most recent major science facility to be made available to the international research community at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is beginning to address some of these themes.
Furthermore ORNL has recently initiated a graduate education program, mainly focused on Energy Sciences, which could provide an excellent mechanism for the Scandinavian region to train the future users of the ESS.
Highlights of recent research carried out at SNS will be given and opportunities for future collaborations in both research and education will be discussed.
