The 22nd General Assembly of ESUO took place on December 1st and 2nd, 2025, hosted at BESSY II Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. An important part of the proceedings was the required election of a new Executive Board to serve for a term of four years, following from the last election which took place in October 2021. After proposed changes to the Statutes were accepted, the election of the new Executive Board members took place from among the ESUO National User Delegates who were nominated.
The incoming board members who will be serving on the Executive Board for the next four years are Carla Bittencourt (Belgium 🇧🇪), Tom Hase (UK 🇬🇧), Maria Katsikini (Greece 🇬🇷), Rainer T. Lechner (Austria 🇦🇹), Guillaume Morard (France 🇫🇷), Bridget Murphy (Germany 🇩🇪), Louis Renault (France 🇫🇷), Ana Silva, PhD (Portugal 🇵🇹) and Moniek Tromp (Netherlands 🇳🇱). They join ESUO President Cormac McGuinness (Ireland 🇮🇪) whose term continues until 2027 in accordance with the ESUO statutes.
Pictured here standing from left to right: Maria Katsikini, Louis Renault, Cormac McGuinness, Bridget Murphy, Carla Bittencourt, Rainer Lechner, Tom Hase. On screen via Zoom: Guillaume Morard and Ana Silva, with Moniek Tromp.
The ESUO GA was held at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, BESSY II, on December 1st and 2nd, 2025. On the first day ESUO National User Delegates present were joined by the Facility Speaker of BESSY II Antje Vollmer and scientists from the Country of Honour 2025 – Niger attending the BESSY@HZB User Meeting. A lecture on BESSY II+ and on BESSY III was then delivered by Antje Vollmer and Prof. Dr. Andreas Jankowiak respectively. A presentation on the status of ESUO followed before the photograph below.
A day and a half of intense discussions regarding NEPHEWS, and other matters concerning user access, national policies, research and synchrotron and FEL use at the European synchrotron and FEL facilities continued after that. A more detailed report on the ESUO General Assembly will follow.
Best wishes to all involved, and to the new board of ESUO! 👏👏👏