Christian Vettier, ESS, receives Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star
Christian Vettier, Senior Advisor at European Spallation Source, today receives the Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star for his contributions to the ESS project.
Christian Vettier is today receiving the honour of Commander, first class, of the Order of the Polar Star by Ambassador Gunnar Lund. The ceremony will take place at the Swedish Embassy in Paris tonight. From 2007 to 2010, Vettier was the Science Director at ESS Scandinavia, who led the Scandinavian initiative to build the research facility ESS in Sweden.
The motivation of the Swedish Government reads as follows: “Vettier has played a very important role for ESS Lund. He has built credibility for the project and he has actively contributed to informing decision-makers around Europe of ESS Lund.”
- This is a very proud moment for me personally but also for the ESS project, says Christian Vettier. I feel that scientists can contribute to important decisions and that they should play an active role in building up long term strategies for science infrastructures.
- I want to direct my heartfelt congratulations to Christian Vettier for this fine distinction. The award is yet another recognition of the scientific excellence that he has brought to the ESS project and the invaluable contribution he has made, says Colin Carlile, ESS Director-General.
Besides his current assignment as Senior Advisor to the ESS Director-General, Christian Vettier has taken on responsibilities in scientific projects at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF, in Grenoble. He was formerly the Scientific Director at the Institut Laue-Langevin, also in Grenoble.
The Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star was instituted in 1748 by King Frederic I. Today it is only awarded to non-Swedish citizens and to members of the Royal Court, who have made personal efforts for Sweden or for Swedish interests.
For more information, please contact:
Colin Carlile, ESS AB Director. E-mail colin.carlile@esss.se, Tel. 46-(0)46-222 83 02
Marianne Ekdahl, Communications Officer Press & Politics. E-mail marianne.ekdahl@esss.se, Tel. 46-(0)46-222 83 89
ESS IN SHORT:
The European Spallation Source – the next generation facility for materials research and life science
The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be a multi-disciplinary research laboratory based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. ESS can be likened to a large microscope, where neutrons are used instead of light to study materials – ranging from polymers and pharmaceuticals to membranes and molecules – to gain knowledge about their structure and function. ESS will be up to 100 times better than existing facilities, opening up new possibilities for researchers in for example health, environment, climate, energy, transport sciences and cultural heritage.
ESS is an intergovernmental research infrastructure project, and it will be built in Lund in southern Scandinavia. At least sixteen European countries will take part in the construction, financing and operation of the ESS. Sweden and Denmark will co-host the ESS and cover 50 percent of the 1,4 B€ investment costs and 20 percent of the operating costs together with the Nordic and Baltic states.
The European Spallation Source ESS AB is a public limited company, today owned by the Swedish and the Danish states. ESS AB is planning the future international ESS organisation. Building is expected to start around 2013, the first neutrons to be produced in 2019 and the facility to be fully operational around 2025.
ESS will support a user community of 5000 researchers and will have great strategic importance for the development of the European Research Area. Near by there will be complementary laboratories, such as the synchrotron MAX IV in Lund and XFEL and PETRAIII in Hamburg.
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