Robert takes over from Uschi Steigenberger who has been the acting Director following the move of long-time ISIS Director Andrew Taylor to the newly created position of Executive Director for National Laboratories for the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

“Robert has a wealth of experience in managing neutron scattering research centres and is very familiar with ISIS and the community," said ISIS Director Uschi Steigenberger. 

"As the first coordinator of the highly successful EU NMI3 consortium he has also well established contacts to European neutron centres. It will be a pleasure to welcome Robert back to ISIS, and know that the ongoing success of ISIS will be in excellent hands.”

Before moving to the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge, Robert was Head of the Diffraction Division at ISIS. Prior to this he was Director of the Studsvik Neutron Research Laboratory at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Robert is the author of over 180 research papers in the fields of neutron scattering and computer modelling where his research has specialised in studies of the structures of all types of disordered materials, from high temperature superconductors to liquid metal alloys. He has a special interest in software development and pioneered the now widely used reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) techniques of structural modelling.