Sixth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting
The annual Joint HZB User Meetings will provide an overview of the many exciting and inspiring research results obtained at our facilities in the past year. The Sixth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting will take place at Berlin-Adlershof from December 3rd to December 5th, 2014. The neutrons session will take place at Berlin-Wannsee on Wednesday, 3rd December, followed by Dinner at Café Jahn.
On Thursday morning, at WISTA, Bunsen Auditorium, Adlershof, Christof Wöll, KIT, will ask in his keynote lecture “What Supramolecular Chemistry can do for Solid State Physics?” The meeting continues with plenary talks, discussions, and a poster session, which will provide vast possibilities of information and discussion. In his public lecture, Christoph Lienau, University Oldenburg, will give an overview on “Solar cells and artificial light harvesting systems”.
Traditional highlights are the bestowals of the Prizes for Young Scientists donated by the “Freundeskreis Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e. V. “
After hours of inspiring scientific presentations we hope to meet you Thursday evening at the Berliner Buffet. The buffet is sponsored by the companies participating in the accompanying vendor exhibition. As well as this generous gesture the exhibitors will be happy to have the opportunity to inform you on the latest developments in all fields of research equipment.
Download User Meeting Booklet
- New method shows how molecular switches are influenced by their neighborsResearchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) have, for the first time, been able to directly observe how the environment surrounding a molecular switch influences its electronic structure. Molecular switches are molecules that can be switched between two states by external influences such as changes in temperature—similar to a switch with the positions »On« and »Off«. Such molecules are being investigated as potential building blocks for future data storage devices or sensor materials. Using magnetic-field-dependent terahertz spectroscopy, the researchers have now, for the first time, been able to distinguish whether neighbouring molecules in a material are in the same or different states. The results have been published in the journal »Angewandte Chemie International Edition«.
- BESSY II is back in operation after maintenance shutdownOn 7 September 2026, BESSY II was set into operation after a four-week shutdown. BESSY II is scheduled to resume full user operation on 22 September.
- Protein crystallography at BESSY II: faster, better and more and more automaticMany diseases are linked to malfunctions of proteins in the organism. The three-dimensional architecture of these molecules is often highly complex, but it can provide valuable insights into biological processes and the development of drugs. X-ray diffraction at the MX beamlines of BESSY II can be used to decipher the 3D structure of proteins. To date, more than 5000 structures have been solved at the three MX beamlines. Here, we present a review and an outlook with Manfred Weiss, head of the research group for macromolecular crystallography.