HZB and TU Berlin: New joint research group at BESSY II
Prof. Birgit Kanngießer heads a joint research group on X-ray methods, which is funded by TU Berlin and HZB. © Martin Weinhold
Birgit Kanngießer is setting up a joint research group to combine X-ray methods in laboratories and at large-scale facilities. In particular, the physicist wants to investigate how X-ray experiments on smaller laboratory instruments can be optimally complemented with more complex experiments that are only possible at synchrotron sources such as BESSY II.
Prof. Dr. Birgit Kanngießer is professor of analytical X-ray Physics at the Technische Universität Berlin, where she also heads a large research group. Together with the Max Born Institute she has build up BLiX (Berlin laboratory for innovative X-ray technologies), which brings established X-ray methods from the synchrotron into the laboratory. At BESSY II she was involved as one of the first users from the early on.
Now HZB and TU Berlin are funding a joint research group headed by Birgit Kanngießer to strengthen this cooperation. This should also accelerate the exchange of knowledge and technology between BESSY II and university laboratories.
The joint research group is called 'Combined X-ray methods at BLiX and BESSY II - SyncLab'. On the TU Berlin side, the Berlin laboratory for innovative X-ray technologies (BLiX) is integrated. Kanngießer will initially focus on evaluating how time-resolved measurements using near-edge X-ray spectroscopy in the soft X-ray range on smaller instruments and at BESSY II could complement each other. Further analytical and imaging X-ray methods are to follow in the future.
- Blind spot for the arrangement of atomsArtificial intelligence is increasingly being used to predict the properties of new materials. A research team from Jena and the United States now shows in a study published in the journal Nature Computational Science that when language models are used for this purpose, they reliably identify which types of atoms a material contains. However, they make insufficient use of information about how those atoms are arranged in space. Neither larger models nor additional training data resolve this weakness. For material properties that depend strongly on structure, AI models specifically designed to process spatial relationships are therefore the more reliable choice. (DOI: 10.1038/s43588-026-01045-2)
- Patterns of polar vortices in lead-free superlattices on siliconA team at HZB has, for the first time, reported polar vortices in (BaTiO3/SrTiO3)10 superlattices on silicon. These results expand the range of materials and substrates on which polar topological textures can occur and open up new options for incorporating complex ferroelectric states into silicon-based technologies.
- HZB congratulates Peter Hegemann on winning the Nobel PrizeOur warmest congratulations go to Peter Hegemann, Professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin. Together with Prof. Georg Nagel (Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg) and Prof. Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University, USA), he has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. We are delighted for him, his team, Humboldt University and the entire Berlin scientific community.