Research for Society
One plus one is more
Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) was founded after merging two longstanding research centres, the Hahn-Meitner Institut (HMI) and the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung (Berlin Electron Storage Ring Society for Synchrotron Radiation, or BESSY for short), as a way to pool their expertise and facilitate the complementary use of neutrons and photons (light particles) for researching the structure and function of matter. With its unique research infrastructure, HZB attracts around 2500 of the most brilliant minds in science and technology to Berlin each year. They come from universities, colleges, and research facilities such as the Max Planck Society and the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung (German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing). They are scientists, medical professionals, archaeologists and even art historians.
HZB offers a wide-variety of measurement and instrumentation devices for experiments including extreme condition instruments for lowtemperature, high pressure and high magnetic field experiments. This sites looks at a few examples of important on-going and current research using both neutrons and photons.
