Mesot takes up his post as head of Paul Scherrer Institute

Dr Joël Mesot this week takes up his post as head of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) following his appointment by the Swiss Federal Council in December 2007.

PSI is responsible for developing, building and operating large scale and complex research facilities on behalf of the national and international research community. Research activities focus on solid state and materials sciences, elementary particle physics, biology and medicine, energy and environmental research.

With an annual budget of approximately CHF 260 million and 1,300 employees the PSI is the largest research establishment of its kind in Switzerland.

Current large scale facilities include a synchrotron light source, proton accelerator, neutron and muon sources and researchers at PSI are currently working on the PSI-XFEL, an ambitious project embracing a free electron laser.

Mesot was born in Geneva in 1964 and as a solid state physicist has focused on materials with new electronic properties. He has received international recognition for his research into high temperature superconductors using neutron scattering and photo electron spectroscopy. In 2002, the ETH Zurich awarded him the Latsis prize for research into high temperature superconductors.

At PSI, Mesot was influential in the further development of the instrumentation surrounding the SINQ spallation neutron source. Since 1999 he has held various positions in the neutron scattering laboratory, initially as head of the spectroscopy group, and then as head of the laboratory. Since 2007 Mesot has headed the PSI research committee and in April was appointed full professor for physics, and his chair institutionally attached to both the ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne universities.