All events

Every second week on Friday, we welcome a chat with a cup of coffee outside the control room. Meet the user coordination team, relax with your beamline scientist, inspire and be inspired by our accelerator scientists, recharge your caffeine levels for the final stretch of the week.

The shortage of skilled IT professionals is a growing challenge – also for HZB. With “Go for IT!”, HZB is exploring new ways of selecting apprentices for the training programme IT Specialist (Fachinformatiker/in). The next audition will take place on 10 February at HZB.

Instead of traditional job interviews, the IT team relies on gamification. Interested young people are invited without prior selection and first complete a short test on mathematics and logical thinking on their own smartphones. This is followed by a PC-based gaming phase, during which teamwork, communication skills and problem-solving abilities are observed – all key competencies in everyday IT work. Selected participants are then invited to short interviews.

“While gaming, many candidates forget the application situation and show their real potential,” explain Juliane Schad and Heiko Kreth from HZB’s IT department. The process is fairer, more authentic and reaches young people who might not have applied otherwise.

The innovative selection format has also attracted interest beyond HZB, including from other Helmholtz centres, Berlin authorities and the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). Gamification offers great potential, particularly in vocational training, and could be applied in other areas at HZB in the future.

For anyone interested in taking part in the audition: https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/projects/fisi_de.html

For professionals from HR or vocational training who are interested in networking and further developing modern recruitment formats, registration is available here: https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/zentrum/veranstaltungen-besucherservice/service/anmeldung-go-for-it_de.html

The event will be held in German!

Let's work together to break down barriers and ensure full, equal access and participation in science for all. 

You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science at HZB on February 11th. This day recognizes the crucial role women play in science and technology and highlights the ongoing need for gender equality in STEM fields for future generations.  Join us for talks by leading scientists Dr Shelly Conroy (Imperial College London, UK) and Prof. Franziska Emmerling (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin), who will share highlights of their scientific research.

Through a panel discussion by leading scientists and opportunities to reflect, learn how you (regardless of your gender!) can support the next generation of female scientists and innovators. 

Register now! 

If you are unable to attend the event in person, you can join online via Zoom.

Welcome to the HZB Photon School 2026 to be held in a hybrid format at the BESSY II Synchrotron Light Source at the Wilhelm-Conrad-Röntgen-Campus, Berlin-Adlershof. Lectures will take place online and on-site from 23 to 27 March 2026, while the practical training sessions will be conducted on-site only from 30 March to 2 April 2026 (*). 

(*) subject to BESSY II being operated at a level that allows access of external users.

About the School and Participation

The school is primarily aimed at master´s students and early-career researchers in physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, life, or environmental sciences. Participants will be introduced to synchrotron and laboratory-based characterisation methods that probe the molecular structure, function, and dynamics of complex material systems.

Application Deadline: 16 November 2025 (CET, 23:59).

BESSY II FAIR Datathon: Standardizing science through FAIR data is a hands-on workshop dedicated to tackling one of the key challenges in modern materials science—managing and integrating heterogeneous data and file formats. During this event, participants will develop practical workflows and gain experience with tools that support data standardization using the NeXus common data standards. Through collaborative problem-solving and guided exercises, attendees will learn how to make experimental data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR), paving the way for more efficient and reproducible scientific research.

Specifically, you will: Learn to use the research data management platform (NOMAD) to manage your scientific data yourself in a FAIR way Learn to use, contribute to, and develop community-agreed data standards (NeXus) in your experiment to increase reusability Write a FAIR data conversion workflow of your own example Who should attend: Postdocs, PhDs, and researchers doing experiments (XAS, photoemission spectroscopy, etc.) at the Synchrotron facility, such as BESSY II Early career researcher willing to learn to manage their scientific data, complying FAIR principle Requirements: Basic knowledge of Python is advantageous Example dataset to work with during the datathon Sharing of the example dataset before the application deadline Participation in a pre-datathon remote meeting (two weeks before the event) Good command of the English language 

Registration: https://events.hifis.net/event/3274/

Die Studiengruppe für elektronische Instrumentierung der Helmholtz-Zentren (SEI) ist ein Forum für Forschung und Entwicklung im wissenschaftlichen Umfeld. Es finden jährlich Tagungen und Arbeitstreffen an den Zentren der Helmholtz Gesellschaft statt. Diese Veranstaltungen bieten die Möglichkeit des Erfahrungsaustausch und unterstützen gemeinsame Entwicklungen auf dem gesamten Gebiet der elektronischen Messdatenerfassung, Datenvorverarbeitung und Kontrollsysteme.