Thorsten Kamps is Professor of Accelerator Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

On 24 May 2018, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HUB) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) jointly appointed Thorsten Kamps to the Professorship of “Accelerator physics – Generation and Characterisation of High Brightness Electron Beams”. Kamps heads a workgroup at the Institute for Accelerator Physics of HZB. He and his team develop a key component for new accelerator facilities, namely high brightness electron sources.

Thorsten Kamps’ duties as a professor include providing courses for students at Humboldt-Universität. He feels it is important for students to gain more than just a theoretical understanding of the various aspects of electron sources. “The accelerators at HZB offer many interesting possibilities for students to get themselves actively into the subject by working on case studies,” Professor Kamps says. “I hope many new ideas will culminate from this exchange.”

Thorsten Kamps studied physics at the University of Dortmund and earned his PhD at HU Berlin. As a postdoc, Kamps worked at the Royal Holloway University of London, after which he joined the accelerator team at the synchrotron BESSY II. Since 2012, Kamps has headed the HZB workgroup “High Brightness Electron Sources” which, among other things, is developing an electron source for the project bERLinPro (prototypes of an energy recovery linear accelerator).

“Accelerator physics at HZB has experienced quite a boost in recent years. In Berlin, an international, creative team has come together that is researching and testing unique new accelerator technologies. With the professorship, this trend becomes even more visible,” says Thorsten Kamps.