Godehard Wüstefeld receives the Horst Klein Research Prize

The physicist Dr. Godehard Wüstefeld was awarded the Horst Klein Research Prize at the annual conference of the German Physical Society. The award recognizes his outstanding scientific achievements in accelerator physics in the development of BESSY II and BESSY VSR.

Over the last thirty years, Dr. Godehard Wüstefeld has made decisive contributions to the further development of storage-ring-based synchrotron radiation sources. Thanks to its innovative concepts, the performance and application areas of storage rings have been consistently expanded. Wüstefeld participated in the development of BESSY II and the Metrology Light Source and implemented several innovations there.

"Low α" operating mode

For example, he was instrumental in enabling a so-called "Low α" operating mode. In this operating mode, short and intensive electron pulses can be generated in storage rings. The "Low α" operating mode has been implemented at BESSY II and the Metrology Light Source as well as at other national and international synchrotron radiation sources and is now available to a large user community. In addition, this mode produces intense and coherent terahertz radiation, which is extremely useful for certain research questions.

Upgrade BESSY VSR

The upgrade to BESSY VSR, which is now being developed, also goes back to a concept in which Godehard Wüstefeld played a leading role. With BESSY VSR, BESSY II will be expanded into a variable pulse length storage ring in which light pulses of varying duration (1.5 picoseconds or 15 picoseconds) will be generated. This allows users to select the optimum pulse duration for their particular experiment. The concept for a variable pulse length storage ring is one of the world's most outstanding further developments of modern synchrotron radiation sources.

Horst Klein Research Prize

The prize was awarded on 21 March 2019 at the Spring Conference (Matter and Cosmos Section) of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft in Munich by the Physikalischer Verein Frankfurt, the Department of Physics of the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik (AKBP) of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Horst Klein Research Prize is aimed at internationally renowned scientists from Germany and abroad who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements of great significance and originality. The prize, which is intended to commemorate the accelerator physicist Horst Klein, is endowed with 5,000 euros and is awarded by the Goethe University Frankfurt, the Fückstiftung, Professors Schempp and Schmidt-Böcking and Pfeiffer Vacuum.