Prof. Paul Attfield is the new Director of CSEC (June 2008). Prof. J. Paul Attfield has been appointed Director of CSEC from June 2008. Paul holds the Chair of Materials Science at Extreme Conditions in CSEC and the School of Chemistry. His research interests are centred on the high-pressure synthesis of new electronic materials, and for the past five years he has led CSEC's multi-disciplinary programme on novel materials under extreme conditions, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. He succeeds Paul Madden, CSEC Director for the past three years, who is moving to become Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford in August 2008.