Light for cutting-edge research from Germany: an exchange with German MPs
Together, light sources secure Germany's innovative edge in many areas - today and in the future. This was the topic of the discussion with members of the German Bundestag. © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, Director at the Fritz-Haber-Institut of the Max Planck Society, spoke about her experience as a researcher. © M. Setzpfandt / HZB
Bernd Rech, Scientific Director at HZB, also showed the MPs the perovskite silicon tandem solar cell with which the HZB has achieved a world record. © M. Setzpfandt / HZB
On 13 May, three research centres of the Helmholtz Association - DESY, HZDR and HZB - presented their joint strategy for accelerator-based light sources to German MPs.
Together with the Helmholtz Centres in Hamburg (DESY) and Dresden (HZDR), Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has developed a national strategy for the further development of accelerator-based light sources. In the rooms of the German Parliamentary Society in Berlin, the three directors Bernd Rech (HZB), Sebastian Schmidt (HZDR) and Helmut Dosch (DESY) explained their strategy to invited members of the Bundestag on 13 May. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, Director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, spoke about her experience as a researcher.
Helmut Dosch, Coordinator of the Helmholtz Research Field Matter and Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, emphasised that the light sources of the Helmholtz Association complement each other. They are regarded as true multi-talents that are indispensable for a wide variety of research projects. Together, the directors explained that accelerator-based light sources are capable, for example, of revealing the coronavirus or tracking down candidates for new drugs. They analyse catalysts that generate hydrogen with sunlight and can thus pave the way for a climate-neutral economy. They provide insights into completely new types of materials that advance digitalisation.
Together, these light sources ensure Germany's innovative edge in many other areas. To ensure that this remains the case in the future, the facilities for tomorrow must be developed today. This requires the support of politics.
With the construction of BESSY III, HZB is planning a new soft X-ray source for energy and materials research, which should go into operation in the middle of the next decade. For more information, please read here.
Further information:
Summary of the National Strategy for the Further Development of Accelerator-Based Light Sources (in German)
- HZB receives funding to make innovations usable more quicklyThe Helmholtz Association has selected three new innovation platforms that will now be funded. HZB is involved in two of them: The Innovation Platform on Accelerator Technologies HI-ACTS is intended to open up modern accelerators for a wide range of applications, while the Innovation Platform Solar TAP is intended to bring new ideas from the laboratories of photovoltaics research more quickly into an application. In total, HZB will receive 4.2 million euros in grants from the Pact for Research and Innovation over the next three years.
- TU Berlin appoints Renske van der Veen as professorFor the past two years, Dr Renske van der Veen has led a research group in time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy at HZB. Her research focuses on catalytic processes that enable, for example, the production of green hydrogen. She has now been appointed to a S-W2 professorship at the Institute of Optics and Atomic Physics (IOAP) at the Technische Universität Berlin.
- HZB physicist appointed to Gangneung-Wonju National University, South KoreaSince 2016, accelerator physicist Ji-Gwang Hwang has been working at HZB in the department of storage rings and beam physics. He has made important contributions to beam diagnostics in several projects at HZB. He is now returning to his home country, South Korea, having accepted a professorship in physics at Gangneung-Wonju National University.