Handing Over the Reins: Jens Schnitzler Becomes Sole Head of PGI-JCNS-TA Workshop
30 September 2014
On 1 October 2014, Jens Schnitzler took over as the sole head of the joint workshop of the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) and the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS). For the last two years, the foreman qualified in metalworking had shared the responsibility of heading the workshop with Kurtz Hirtz, who has now retired after more than 48 years at Forschungszentrum Jülich. He had been head of the workshop since 1998.
True to the technical and administrative infrastructure’s (PGI-JCNS-TA) motto “good infrastructure serving good science”, the design engineers and mechanics in the mechanical workshop work closely with the scientists who commission them to develop highly specialized and tailor-made instruments and equipment for research. Customers not only include the institutes that run the workshop; other institutes at Forschungszentrum Jülich and external customers also rely on the PGI-JCNS workshop’s special know-how.
Together with the engineers responsible for the design, the mechanics in the workshop develop, build, and test state-of-the-art sputtering facilities and beamlines for national and international neutron and synchrotron radiation sources that are unique in the world. The mechanical workshop specializes in cryo- and ultrahigh vacuum technology, high-precision mechanical drives, sample holders, and calibration equipment. In order to process unusual materials, it also has special brazing and welding technologies at its disposal.