Victor Claessen, team leader FELIX FEL Technology

After finishing my PhD at the HFML I started at FELIX Laboratory, to reinforce their technical team.

Initially, I focused on the remote control of the free-electron lasers (FELs), designing and setting up systems and software for control and diagnostics for operators and users.

Because I wanted to expand my knowledge I started studying FELs more in detail.
When the head of technology, Lex van der Meer - who built FELIX and ran it for 30 years - retired, I became team leader of the FEL Technology group. It's a very challenging job, but I feel fortunate to be able to call upon a team of skilled and dedicated technicians to continuously monitor, maintain and improve the laser systems.

I feel very privileged coming into such a position where I can be responsible for solving interesting technical challenges on a daily basis. Together with the technical team I will continue to strive to operate the FELs at high performance, keeping our users happy and enabling great science at this world-class laboratory.

In the next few years we will see large upgrades at our lab. We will change one of our undulators, widening even further the range of wavelengths available to our users. We will also install new gun pulsers, gaining more flexibility in pulse frequencies. And we will strengthen our link to the HFML by connecting more magnets to our optical beam line. I am looking forward to it!