Diamond Light Source - Annual Review 2022/23

92 93 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 / 2 3 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 / 2 3 Engagingwith Diamond Light Source Communications and Engagement Team O ver the past year the impact of COVID pandemic restrictions on Diamond’s engagement activities has lessened and in person activities have resumed to pre-pandemic levels. The knowledge and experience we acquired in developing and delivering remote activities have not been abandoned, as virtual activities have been integrated intomany of our existingprogrammes fromevents to school engagement,maintaining the increased accessibility this format allows. During the 2022-23 period, Diamond has had approximately 8098 significant interactions i with visitors, an increase from the previous year (7323 interactions). These include 2890 for scientific and technical events, 452 undergraduate and postgraduate interactions, 4364 school students and members of the public, and 392 VIPs and Stakeholders. In 2022, the majority of these interactions were virtual, however in 2023 we have seen a move back towards in person events, with the majority happening in person onsite (3594) or in person offsite (1249). While most interactions have happened in person, we are proud to have maintained a high level of interaction with visitors online (3255), increasing the accessibility of Diamond to a wide range of audiences. i Significant Interaction is defined as a talk/tour/meeting of 30+ minutes, typically longer. In 2023, we have worked hard to transition from an almost exclusively remote program of activities put in place to continue to engage audiences during the pandemic, back to in person activities once again. We successfully reinstated our core program of in-person Public Engagement activities, but expanded this to include successful virtual activities that reached underserved audiences during the pandemic. For example, we have continued to run bespoke virtual school visits, whereby individual schools can request a virtual visit to Diamond to fit around their school timetable. This continues to give access to Diamond to all schools, regardless of their situation. We have continued to work with our existing partners such as STFC, at RAL and Daresbury, and Canterbury Christ Church University, to reach both new and larger audiences. We loved the experience and found it absolutely fascinating. Thank you to thewhole team for making us welcome, showing us around and, in particular, inspiring the next generation . Public Inside Diamond open day attendee, March 2023. In July 2022 we were delighted to be able to run a fully in person Schools/ College Work Experience week for students in years 10-13. We welcomed 48 students across 24 projects, a record-breaking number of both students and projects for Diamond’s Work Experience Academy program. Projects spanned all divisions of Diamond, from mechanical engineering to electron structure. On the student’s final day at Diamondwe welcomedMP David Johnston to help celebrate the success of the programme. It was so exciting towork at the facility and see the synchrotron in real life and to learn about the multitude of research projects being undertaken! It was a real privilege towork on the nanoimaging of Li-ion batteries project with Dorota asmy supervisor and the placement has further sparkedmy interest inMaterials Science and Engineering. Work Experience student 2022. In addition to the annual Schools/College Work Experience week, we also ran a special one-off project with a small group of students trailing the functionality and capabilities of Diamond’s Visible Synchrotron Radiation (ViSR) beamline, a resource developed to allow visitors to interact with visible synchrotron light and carry out simple experiments. The students joined us for 3 days and worked together to ensure ViSR is fully functional and ready to be used for future engagement activities. The project openedmy eyes to how science as awhole is conducted. It was fascinating to learn exactlywhat happens in and around Diamond. It was a goodway to visualise areas we learn in school and it is nice to see theory applied in the real world. Students taking part in the ViSR Project. Diamond has continued its commitment to widening participation and dedicated more efforts towards community engagement, working with groups such as the Amos Bursary, Science Oxford, Science Together, the Careers Transition Partnership and the Social Mobility Foundation, delivering/ supporting outreach activities in a variety of formats to audiences with lower science engagement. In 2022 Diamond celebrated its 20 th anniversary and 15 years of research and innovation, and to help commemorate the occasion we presented to the public a special exhibition of selected photographs from throughout Diamond in an outdoor photographic exhibition. The images circumnavigated the “ring” of the synchrotron along the perimeter fence and gave a behind-the-scenes insight into that goes in inside our iconic building. The exhibition formed part of the wider Oxfordshire Artweeks festival, highlighting our work to the community in an accessible format. Higher Education Engagement Our work with students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level continues to play a vital role in Diamond’s wider mission to be a world-leading centre for synchrotron science and to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research. Our student-dedicated programmes aim to welcome and harness the talent, curiosity and development of students both at undergraduate and postgraduate level​and provide themwith exciting opportunities to encourage and nurture a career in STEM, ultimately contributing to the wider skills agenda in the UK. In 2022, 23 joint-PhD students joined Diamond as part of our 2022 PhD cohort. These doctoral projects are linked with 16 universities and other world leading facilities, and we have been able to welcome the majority of them on an individual basis here at Diamond. This brings the total number of active Diamond PhD Studentships to 109. We received 62 submissions for our 2023 Diamond Doctoral Studentship call for proposals, which were linked with 32 different universities and institutions. Following the internal review process, we will be welcoming 26 students in October 2023. This year, we held a PhD Development Days Event, open to all our jointly funded students. It was a 2-day event with a networking dinner on the first day. Day 1 was career focused with talks from a range of different areas from those still in the scientific field through to publishing, patents and government. We were thrilled to have three Diamond PhD alumni talk as part of the careers panel. Day 2 focused on personal resilience development for the PhD students, aiming to engage students to step back, train their personal resilience and start a process of identifying their professional purpose. We had 31 PhD students attending the event overall. A student commented: I verymuch enjoyed the Development Days, not onlywas it useful to hear talks frompeople fromdifferent careers, it was also valuable to be able to network and chat with other students in the evenings. The 2021 Year in Industry cohort finished their placements in September, andwewere able to have their final poster session and presentations in person,