New Director of Research at the ESRF

Professor Larsen is a distinguished crystallographer whose work encompasses both structural biology and structural chemistry. She is a Professor of Structural Chemistry and the Director of the Centre for Crystallographic Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Professor Sine Larsen

One of Professor Larsen's main tasks will be to manage the groups working in the Life Sciences area, a role previously performed by Professor P.F. Lindley. As Professor Larsen has stated, "seeing the Partnership for Structural Biology^* materialising is an obvious and very important goal, as well as maintaining and strengthening ESRF's position for top research among the user community".

She will work closely with the other Research Director, Dr. Francesco Sette, a specialist in condensed matter physics. Larsen and Sette are responsible for the ESRF's experimental and scientific research programme and report directly to the Director General as part of the senior management team of the ESRF. They are responsible jointly for the scientific and managerial leadership of over 300 staff, including about 120 scientists. "It is an exciting challenge to be contributing to this world leading synchrotron facility, known in the user community for its magnificent beam and highly professional staff", explains Prof. Larsen.

Professor Larsen's main research activities concern chiral chemistry, charge density studies and, increasingly during the last ten years, structural biology. She has published more than 180 scientific papers. As well as serving on many international committees, she is General Secretary and Treasurer of the International Union of Crystallography and is a member of the Steering Group of the Danish-Swedish Cassiopeia beamline of Max Lab.

Contact: Montserrat Capellas, ESRF press officer, tel. +33 476 88 26 63 (E-mail capellas)

^*Four prestigious scientific laboratories with a common site in Grenoble (France) constitute the Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB), a unique integrated programme and resource pool in structural genomics. The PSB includes the ESRF, the Europe’s foremost synchrotron X-ray source, the ILL, the world’s leading neutron source, the Grenoble Outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and the IBS, one of France’s premier structural biology institutes. The four partners will bring together their expertise in state-of-the-art molecular biology in order to tackle fundamental research problems related to human health.

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is constituted as an international facility with 17 participating countries to operate, maintain and develop a synchrotron radiation source and associated instruments. It operates the most powerful third generation synchrotron radiation source in Europe (http://www.esrf.fr/) .