Jane Hvolbæk Nielsen Takes Office as European Spallation Source Director General, Succeeding Helmut Schober

Jane Hvolbæk Nielsen formally assumed office as Director General of the European Spallation Source on November 1, succeeding Helmut Schober, whose five-year mandate ended. Nielsen was appointed by the ESS Council in April 2026 and joined the facility on September 1 to work alongside Schober during the transition, news.cision.com reported.

Nielsen's Transition and Prior Role at DTU

Before joining European Spallation Source, Nielsen was Head of the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark from 2011 to 2026. She holds a PhD in Physics from DTU and an MSc in Electrical Engineering, and previously served as a professor with special obligations in nanoscience and outreach at DTU. The report states she brings 15 years of experience leading and managing a large scientific organisation.

Nielsen was appointed Denmark's scientific delegate to the ESS Council in 2019. She was also involved in the transfer of the Data Management and Scientific Computing Centre to the DTU campus in 2024. During the transition period, she gained insight into all parts of ESS, including the neutron science facility in Lund, Sweden, and the DMSC in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, and visited the Institut Laue-Langevin, the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and the Paul Scherrer Institute.

"I am truly excited, inspired, and humbled to take on the responsibility of leading this extraordinary project," Nielsen said. "Together with the people of ESS, we are moving toward historic milestones – delivering Beam on Target, generating the first neutrons, completing our instruments, and welcoming the first users to our facility."

Schober, who took up the position at ESS in 2021, is returning to the Institut Laue-Langevin, where he served as Director from 2016 to 2020, to assume the role of Special Adviser to the ILL Director. Nielsen said she is "deeply grateful to Helmut Schober for his insights and guidance over these past months."

ESS Leadership Records and Instrument Work

According to akta.pro company records, Nielsen's appointment as Director General was logged in April 2026 as a leadership change marking a new executive phase during facility ramp-up. The same records list 16 neutron instruments under development and describe ESS as one of the largest research infrastructure projects in Europe, funded by multiple European nations.

Trial Operations Set for 2027

ESS has scheduled trial operations to begin in 2027, with steady-state operations in 2028, according to the report. The facility's own announcement describes the milestones ahead as delivering Beam on Target, generating the first neutrons, completing instruments, and welcoming the first users.