New Director of the Dalton Cumbrian Facility announced

09 May 2018

Professor Fred Currell will be the new Director of The University of Manchester’s Dalton Cumbrian Facility

Professor Currell is currently director for the Centre for Advanced and Interdisciplinary Radiation Research (CAIRR) at Queen’s University, Belfast, where he leads a research program into nanoscale radiation processes related to cancer therapy and civil nuclear waste.

Prof Currell, who will take up his new role at the beginning of July, said:

“I am hugely excited about the opportunities ahead of us as I take up the Directorship of the Dalton Cumbrian Facility – located in a part of the world I love and part of my alma mater.

“I look forward to working together with all the staff and students there to build on the foundations already in place and to meet the challenges ahead.

“I’m going to be travelling between the main campus and the Dalton Cumbrian Facility pretty much weekly so if other researchers think our facilities might be useful for them, I encourage them to get in touch and we can chat over coffee.”

Professor Francis Livens, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, said:

“I’m really pleased to welcome Fred to the team, and look forward to seeing the Dalton Cumbrian Facility thrive under his leadership”

More about Professor Currell

In addition to performing research in his laboratories at Belfast, his group’s research has been conducted at international facilities including: CERN (France/Switzerland); GSI (Germany); Catania (Italy); and the Diamond Light Source (England). At Diamond the group developed bespoke end stations to investigate nanoscale radiation processes in unique ways, enabled by the availability of high dose rates and monoenergetic radiation beams.

Complementing the experimental work, his team also examines underlying processes through mathematical modelling, including Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations.

He is on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports and is the Editor-in-Chief of Springer-Nature’s journal Cancer Nanotechnology. He passionately believes in a collaborative, team-oriented approach to science.

The Dalton Cumbrian Facility

The Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF) is a state-of-the-art research base for the UK and international radiation science community. Operated by research active technical staff from the Dalton Nuclear Institute DCF is located at the Westlakes Science and Technology Park in West Cumbria. The facility comprises large scale irradiation systems and a wide range of specialist material preparation, modification and characterisation equipment.