New Diamond Director of Operations  now in post

Francesca has built her career in higher education and scientific settings, most recently at Queen Mary University of London, where she served as Faculty Director of Operations for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. In that role, she worked closely with academic and professional teams to support teaching, research, and innovation across a large and diverse faculty. She also previously held a senior position at King’s College London, where she contributed to shaping strategy and strengthening collaboration across health and life sciences. Her academic background includes a MRes degree in Industrial Chemistry, a PhD in Structural Biology, in addition to being an awardee of EMBO and EU Marie Curie research fellowships. 

She joins Diamond at the time of development of the Diamond-II upgrade while delivering user operations. Her role will see her working closely with senior colleagues and leading teams across engineering, software and controls, and facilities. In doing so, she will help ensure that the organisation’s operations support its scientific ambitions. 

Francesca said: “I am delighted to share that I have been appointed Director of Operations at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron. I look forward to working with the team and supporting scientists from around the world as they deliver the breakthroughs and discoveries to address humanity's most critical challenges. It is an honour to join such a vital institution for global research."

Gianluigi Botton, CEO of Diamond Light Source, said: “We are delighted to welcome Francesca to Diamond Light Source at an important point in our development. She brings a strong track record of working across complex organisations and a clear ability to connect strategy with delivery. Francesca’s collaborative approach and focus on how teams operate day to day will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen our operations and support world-leading science.”