Professor J R Helliwell , 49 (d.o.b 19/9/53), obtained his first class honours degree in Physics in 1974 from the University of York (DSc in Physics 1996). He has a D.Phil in Molecular Biophysics from the University of Oxford in 1978, and was a member of Balliol College there. He was appointed Professor of Structural Chemistry at the University of Manchester in 1989. He formerly held a number of positions at Daresbury Laboratory - Senior, then Principal, Scientific Officer at SERC, as well as a Joint Appointment with Universities. From January 2002 he is CLRC Director of Synchrotron Radiation Science; he is responsible for the science and operations of the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source, the first dedicated SR source in the world, and developing CLRC strategy for SR in general. He is a Fellow of the Institutes of Physics and Biology and of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is Editor-in-Chief of Acta Crystallographica published by the IUCr, since 1996. He has been a member of many scientific peer review bodies and senior scientific committees in the UK and overseas eg at ESRF, ELETTRA and MacCHESS SR facilities and at the ILL neutron facility as well as for the ESS. He is Chairman of the International Advisory Committee for the concerted action project on �Hydrogen and Hydration in Biology� in Japan. In 2000 he was awarded the Prof K Banerjee Centennial Silver Medal at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta. His principal research involves biological crystallography using SR and neutrons to study lectins, enzymes and the crustacyanin carotenoid binding proteins, including applying methods that he has made significant contributions to developing in the past twenty years such as SR and neutron Laue diffraction and SR anomalous scattering.
Professor John Helliwell has decided to step down from the position of Director, Synchrotron Radiation (SR) at the CCLRC - a post he has held since January 2002, on secondment from the University of Manchester.
John Helliwell has made a crucial contribution to the CCLRC and in particular to the programme of the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory and to SR matters more widely. During this period the legal, financial and construction planning stages of the new Diamond Light Source have been developed alongside planning for the future operation of the SRS. Similarly, the Quinquennial Review of the CCLRC - which was published in April 2002 - led to a number of key changes in the future operation and development of the CCLRC large-scale research facilities. In these areas John has played an important role in establishing the new management arrangements in consultation with the research communities. John has also laid the foundations for a more extensive engagement of the research communities in the future programme for the SRS and, again, for wider SR matters.
The CCLRC will undoubtedly miss the contribution that John has made to its programme since January 2002. The CCLRC fully understands John Helliwell�s personal wish to return to a full-time research position at the University of Manchester - and looks forward to welcoming him back in due course as one of the leading UK users of the CCLRC research facilities. John Helliwell will return to Manchester University immediately.