The Successful Conduct of the School of XFEL, Synchrotron and Neutron Radiation Users “SFEL 2026”

The 9th edition of the traditional “SFEL” event—an international scientific school for XFEL, synchrotron, and neutron radiation users—took place from September 28 to October 2, 2026. The event was held in the beautiful setting of the High Tatras at the Academia Congress Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Stará Lesná. Its aim is to help build a scientific community of future users for major international centers—including those where Slovakia has contractual obligations as a consortium member (European XFEL Hamburg, ILL Grenoble, EST Canary Islands), those where the Slovak scientific community seeks membership (ESRF Grenoble), and those where experiments are already successfully conducted (DESY Hamburg, Diamond LS in the UK, ALBA in Spain, SOLARIS in Kraków, PSI in Switzerland, MAX IV in Sweden, etc.).

A record 120 participants attended the event. Thanks to financial support from the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic, European XFEL, and ILL Grenoble, the organizers were able to register 80 students—ranging from bachelor’s to doctoral levels—primarily from Slovakia but also, to a lesser extent, from the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Serbia, and Ukraine, as well as international students studying at Slovak universities and young researchers from Slovak universities and institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. This support also enabled the invitation of 35 guest speakers from 15 countries. As is tradition, the invited figures included prominent leaders from international scientific centers alongside Slovak scientists who have distinguished themselves in the international scientific arena and shared their experiences with the SFEL 2026 participants.

The International Program Committee commended not only the scientific quality of the lectures but was also impressed by the practical exercises for students led by experienced tutors, as well as the high standard and significant increase in the number of poster presentations. The Dean of the Faculty of Science awarded prizes to the three best poster presenters. The organizers were also pleased by the interest shown by the STVR Creative Center in Košice, whose reporter interviewed many SFEL 2026 participants on camera. Special thanks go to the organizers from the Faculty of Science, led by Jaroslava Szűcsová (NCPXFEL, Faculty of Science UPJŠ), for the event’s excellent organization, and to the members of the NCPXFEL Council who contributed to preparing the scientific program under the leadership of Serguei Molodtsov (European XFEL), Pavol Sovák, Jozef Bednarčík, and Adriana Zeleňáková (all from the Faculty of Science UPJŠ) and Karel Saksl (TUKE).