Leighton leads the Second Target Station (STS) Instrument Systems group, which will construct the initial neutron scattering instruments at the STS and ensure that facility designs and interfaces support future full build-out of a complete instrument suite. He is a crystallographer with over 20 years of experience in neutron scattering, instrumentation, and related technologies.
Leighton joined ORNL in 2007 to design and construct a macromolecular neutron diffractometer (MaNDi) at the Spallation neutron source (SNS), enabling neutron protein crystallography to study smaller crystals with larger unit cell dimensions. The design, construction, and commissioning of this unique beamline took seven years to complete and provided a unique resource and capability to the crystallographic community.
He joined the STS project in 2020 to lead the Instrument Systems Science and Technology group, where he was responsible for coordinating the physics design and optimization of the neutron instruments to ensure they can achieve their defined science capabilities. He was also responsible for managing Instrument Systems R&D activities.
Leighton received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Sheffield, U.K., and his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, U.K. He has served on many national and international advisory committees and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles. He is a past president of the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society and a Fellow of the American Crystallographic Association.
United States of America