Edward Mitchell (Head of Business Development, The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF, www.esrf.eu) had his initial training at Oxford University working on his DPhil thesis on molecular biophysics, and using the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source in the UK. Since then he has spent over 25 years at the ESRF in various projects, including macromolecular crystallography beamline design and construction, Project Leader for the preparation of the €250m ESRF Upgrade Programme and General Manager for the international Partnership for Structural Biology.

He is now charged with the Business Development Office of the ESRF, which has a rapidly growing role in opening the door of the ESRF for industry via services, licensing and manufacture of high performance instrumentation, as well as collaboration through European and national funding programmes.

Beyond industry relations, Ed has recently been Coordinator of the Horizon2020 "OPEN SESAME" project, continuing Europe’s long-time support to Middle Eastern SESAME light source during its final commissioning and first user operations. The ESRF is proud to count South Africa as a partner country and the ESRF hosted the first African Light Source conference in 2015, for which Ed was the local organiser and he is now a member of the African Light Source Foundation’s Executive Committee, which is working actively to see a light source built in Africa for African research.