For strong non-university research in Berlin
With greater impact: As an association, BR50 can promote networking in the Berlin research area even more strongly.
The non-university research institutions in Berlin will work even more closely together in the future. Their association Berlin Research 50 (BR50), founded in 2020, has joined forces to form a registered non-profit association on 4. October 2022. Together, the research institutions want to further develop and strengthen Berlin as a science location.
Representatives of the institutions gathered at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) for the official founding of the association. A five-member board was also elected. Following the founding, the association now comprises 27 research and science institutions, including Leibniz and Max Planck Institutes, Helmholtz Centres and federal departmental research institutions. Other non-university institutions in Berlin are associated with the association as partners in the network.
As an association, BR50 will support its member institutions even more in networking with each other and with other scientific actors in Berlin and represent the interests of non-university institutions.
You can find more information on the BR50 page.
BR 50 Podcast - lots of exciting research
Many societal challenges, such as climate change, are far too complex for one scientific discipline to solve alone. But together they are making progress. The BR 50 podcast gives an insight into how versatile the research of "non-university" scientists is. In two podcast episodes, listen to how the Helmholtz Centre Berlin is advancing the energy transformation in society with its research. Here you get to the podcast (in German).
- Successful master's degree in IR thermography on solar facadesWe are delighted to congratulate our student employee Luca Raschke on successfully completing her Master's degree in Renewable Energies at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin - and with distinction!
- BESSY II: Phosphorous chains – a 1D material with 1D electronic propertiesFor the first time, a team at BESSY II has succeeded in demonstrating the one-dimensional electronic properties of a material through a highly refined experimental process. The samples consisted of short chains of phosphorus atoms that self-organise at specific angles on a silver substrate. Through sophisticated analysis, the team was able to disentangle the contributions of these differently aligned chains. This revealed that the electronic properties of each chain are indeed one-dimensional. Calculations predict an exciting phase transition to be expected as soon as these chains are more closely packed. While material consisting of individual chains with longer distances is semiconducting, a very dense chain structure would be metallic.
- Did marine life in the palaeocene use a compass?Some ancient marine organisms produced mysterious magnetic particles of unusually large size, which can now be found as fossils in marine sediments. An international team has succeeded in mapping the magnetic domains on one of such ‘giant magnetofossils’ using a sophisticated method at the Diamond X-ray source. Their analysis shows that these particles could have allowed these organisms to sense tiny variations in both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling them to geolocate themselves and navigate across the ocean. The method offers a powerful tool for magnetically testing whether putative biological iron oxide particles in Mars samples have a biogenic origin.