HZB Newsroom

In condensed matter physics, "frustration" is a technical term: it describes a lattice geometry where competing magnetic interactions cannot all be satisfied simultaneously. This summer at HZB, I have been trying to *make* a frustrated material, and in the process I discovered that the word also describes rather accurately what happens when your sample explodes for the third time in a week.

When I arrived at HZB for the International Summer Student Programme, I expected to learn about chemistry, new instruments, and research techniques. During the welcome event, each of us received a small gift bag. Inside was a sticker that read, "Science is Diverse."

Every morning, as I step out of my room and feel the gentle Berlin sunshine on my face, I tell myself, “Today is a brand-new day.” Yet I never imagined that my research journey in Berlin, after joining HZB, would begin with an experimental result that did not go as expected.

Once upon a time, I was a kid who loved doing home experiments and unravel the explanation behind everyday phenomena. This passion and curiosity helped me to land up here in Berlin to work on the growth of crystalline materials at the wonderful campus of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. But unlike many other stories, mine starts with an introductory question: What makes growing crystals fun and also challenging?

The first major challenge was facing my own initial lack of knowledge. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by entirely new protocols: what can be touched with gloves, what is strictly glove-free, and how to safely move items through the space. As I did not fully know how new equipment operates, getting startled when something goes off-routine is inevitable.

Acht Wochen sind sie hier und arbeiten in verschiedenen Laboren und Gruppen mit. Zwölf Studentinnen und Studenten aus aller Welt haben sich hier in Berlin eine Bleibe auf Zeit gesucht und gehen jeden Tag ins Labor statt an den Strand. Sie werten Messungen aus, erlernen die Bedienung von komplizierten Maschinen oder programmieren. Und sie schreiben über ihre Erfahrungen im Blogprojekt. Und zwar in englisch, obwohl es nicht ihre Muttersprache ist. Herausgekommen sind Einblicke in ihren Alltag im Labor, ihre Gedanken und ihre Lernprozesse.

In Peru, I am part of a research project focused on developing sensors that can detect acetone. The samples were fabricated by members of our research group using different thin layers and thermal treatments. My task is to understand what happened to their surface during this process and how these changes may affect their performance as sensors.

Being accepted into the 2026 International Summer Student Program (ISSP) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin was one of the best pieces of news I have ever received. I still remember waking up in the middle of the night, checking my email, and reading the acceptance letter. It didn't feel real.

I've always thought about the correlation between art and science, and how art can symbolize science in ways that add to it and make it more than just the trials or the data you try to interpret.

And you can see this through a spin coater.

A machine designed for thin-film coating can create something that resembles a beautiful flower.

And that's where my story begins.

Every morning begins the same way. I put on my lab coat, prepare my electrochemical setup, and wait for the first measurement of the day to appear on my screen. Even though I have repeated the procedure many times over the past weeks, I still find myself wondering: Will today's experiment behave differently from yesterday's?

That question has quietly become my favourite part of my internship at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.

When I applied to the International Summer Student Programme at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, I never thought that I would be diving into a whole new, and to me previously unknown, area of physics. Though I have had courses on related topics like mechanics and electromagnetism, accelerator physics also includes special relativity, optics and a whole lot of maths. All these areas of physics are combined in order to calculate, as precisely as possible, the movements of the particles inside the accelerator.

Have you ever tried doing precise work while wearing oversized rubber gloves attached to a giant glass box? Neither had I, until today. My first experience working in a glovebox turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the experiment.

It was almost 11 p.m. when I arrived in Berlin. After a long journey from Colombia, all I wanted was to get to my accommodation, take a shower, and finally sleep.

Instead, I missed my train. Thinking it would follow the same route as the previous one as it would in my hometown of Medellín I confidently boarded the next train. About twenty minutes later, I realized something was wrong. I was heading in the wrong direction.

As if that was not enough, my phone battery was almost empty. Suddenly, I found myself alone in a city I had never visited before, late at night, speaking a language I did not understand, with no idea how to get back.

This was not how I had imagined the beginning of my first international trip....

Two former apprentices from the HZB workshop have achieved something remarkable: Fiete Buchin and Edgar Lunk completed their training as precision mechanics, taking first and second place in all of Berlin. In this interview, they share what it took to reach the top, what makes their training special, and the advice they would give to future apprentices.

Many at HZB will still remember him. Between 1982 and 2008, Professor Helmut Tributsch played a key role in establishing solar energy research at the former Hahn-Meitner Institute. He authored over 450 publications in renowned journals and several books. Since retiring, he has been living on a farm in Italy, immersing himself in the questions that have preoccupied him since his student days. Antonia Rötger spoke with the physicist.

Dirk Lohmann has been head of the school laboratory at HZB's Wannsee site since summer 2024. In this interview, he explains what matters most to him: encouraging young people to explore natural phenomena with their own hands.

Trainees are desperately sought after in IT. HZB tried out a new selection process this year. Young people play games together and are observed. The aim is to offer jobs to the most suitable applicants—rather than those who present themselves best in interviews. We talk to Juliane Schad and Heiko Kreth from HZB's IT department about the advantages of gamification and why the new format should set a precedent.

Some students overcame big obstacles to join the International Summer Students Programme at HZB: Traveling 12 hours by bus across the Andes to obtain a visa in Bogotá, borrowing money from here and there to pay the fees for formalities, and maintaining hope when the visa was delayed. One student visited the embassy every day for two weeks, leaving a yellow envelope with a polite reminder each time. And even with a visa, problems could arise last minute. Another student was already at the airport when he was denied boarding because he did not have a return ticket yet. He called our HZB colleagues who answered the phone at 10pm and found a quick solution.

The team at Kantine Wannsee serves 120 guests a day. In this interview, chef Denise Ziegler reveals which dishes are the most popular and how the team adapts to its guests' wishes. Together with her colleague Rainer Siegl, she aims to impress guests with good food. Every day.

The BESSY@HZB User Meeting welcomes 17 scientists from Kenya. They come from six different universities. One of them is Robert Ngure; he is a Master’s student in material science at Egerton university. He tells us more about his fascination for science and what he expects from his visit to Adlershof.

Dr. Tabitha A. Amollo is a researcher and lecturer at Egerton University in Njoro in Kenya. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research interests focus on developing cutting-edge nanomaterials for energy conversion devices including graphene nanomaterials. She published a number of articles in reputable journals. At Egerton University, she is the head of a young team to explore dye-sensitive solar cells, she is a chairperson of the Physics Department, and she coordinates the undergraduate program and gives lectures to undergraduates and postgraduate physics students.

In April, Nancy Ochiba was a guest at HZB in Berlin doing research on nanoparticles. “I made good use of the time,” says the young chemist from Nairobi, Kenya. First she took part in the Photon School for young scientists, then she joined the lab at the Institute for Solar Fuels as a guest researcher. “Here I can benefit from technology that is not available to me at the Kenya University of Technology. For example, I have now examined my samples under a scanning electron microscope.”

The 2023 User Meeting BESSY@HZB end of June welcomes Kenya as country of honour. Dr Lucy Ombaka from Technical University of Kenya in Nairobi tells us how she got to know about BESSY II light source and how she motivates women in science. 

The BESSY@HZB user meeting will take place at the end of June 2023. For the first time, there will be a country of honour, Kenya. Antje Vollmer, BESSY II spokesperson, tells us how this came about and why it is important to work at eye level with researchers from other countries.

Ideally, when research teams submit a particularly important paper, they share it with the comms team. Then it is usually my turn to take over and write a science highlight. It’s a short, highly simplified text, optimised for quick and easy reading. Publications of 30 or more pages are condensed into one page, leaving out a lot, however the motivation and relevance of the research should come across clearly.

Wer auf den Bus 318 an der Endhaltestelle in Wannsee wartet, kann manchmal lange stehen. Und wer dabei einmal nicht auf sein Smartphone gucken möchte, braucht sich nur umzudrehen: Hinter der Haltestelle befindet sich ein Naturparadies – das sogenannte Ost-Gelände des Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.

Was machen eigentlich Feinwerkmechaniker? Und was lernt man in der Ausbildung? Um das herauszufinden, sind wir mit zwei Azubis aus dem HZB verabredet. Durch einige Flure gelangen wir in eine große Werkstatt, voll mit schweren Maschinen, Werkzeugen und Geräten. Mitten im Raum stehen drei Personen und hantieren an einer Drehbank, die laut vor sich hin schnurrt.

Alles begann mit einer einfachen Frage. “Wann wurde denn hier eigentlich das letzte Mal gemäht?“, fragte ein Mitarbeiter beim Anblick einer wilden Wiese auf dem HZB-Campus. Tatsächlich schon seit Wochen nicht mehr. Denn Wiesen sind wichtige Nahrungsquellen für Bienen, Hummeln und andere Insekten. „Warum schreibt ihr das denn nicht? Dann weiß jeder, dass es nicht darum geht, Kosten zu sparen.“ So ungefähr lautet die Antwort des Mitarbeiters – und die Idee, Schilder für Blühwiesen aufzustellen, war geboren. Das Anliegen landete bei der Abteilung Kommunikation – und zwar in den Händen von Jennifer Bierbaum, die die Azubis für Büromanagement in dieser Ausbildungsstation betreut. Und sie entwickelte aus dieser Idee ein Azubi-Projekt.

Von der Idee bis zum ersten Lichtstrahl war es ein weiter Weg. Aber es ist gelungen: SESAME ist die erste Synchrotronstrahlungsquelle im Nahen Osten. Im Herzen steckt der 800 MeV-Synchrotronbeschleuniger von BESSY I. Er dient als Vorbeschleuniger für den neugebauten Speicherring (2,5 GeV). Der Beschleunigerexperte Ernst Weihreter hat den Aufbau von SESAME von der ersten Stunde an begleitet und war selbst rund 20 Mal vor Ort in Jordanien. Hier erzählt er, wie es zu diesem ehrgeizigen Projekt kam.

In diesem Jahr gibt es gleich mehrere Jubiläen, die Anlass geben, an Lise Meitner zu erinnern und die Bedeutung ihrer Arbeiten bis heute zu beleuchten. Im Herbst 2018 liegt ihre Geburt in Wien 140 Jahre zurück, und es wird dann 50 Jahre her sein, dass sie in Cambridge starb. Es ist aber auch 80 Jahre her, dass Lise Meitner im Sommer 1938 ihre gemeinsame Forschung mit Otto Hahn in Berlin-Dahlem zurücklassen und nach Schweden emigrieren musste. Wir nehmen das zum Anlass, auf das bewegte, schwierige und äußerst beeindruckende Leben von Lise Meitner zurückzublicken. An der Freien Universität Berlin startet zudem ab 15. Oktober (immer montags von 18.15 bis 19.45 Uhr) eine Ringvorlesung über das Leben und Wirken Lise Meitners.

Neutronen aus dem BER II bringen die wahre Geschichte ans Licht

Das Metall ist dunkel angelaufen, die Oberfläche zerfressen, das Schwert sieht alt aus.  Trotz seiner beachtlichen Länge von mehr als einem Meter ist es erstaunlich leicht und gut in der Hand zu führen.  Schwach erkennbar ist eine Prägung auf der Klinge nahe am Griff, die an einen Wolf erinnert.

Es war von Anfang an ein ungewöhnliches Experiment. Im Frühjahr 2016 traf der Klangkünstler und Komponist Gerriet K. Sharma zum ersten Mal auf die Beschleunigerexperten vom HZB. Die Physiker arbeiteten gerade eine ungewöhliche Idee für den Ausbau des Elektronenspeicherrings aus. Die Chemie stimmte: Der Künstler und die Beschleunigerphysiker haben sich – trotz aller Vorsicht und anfänglichen Skepis – zusammengetan. Herausgekommen ist anderthalb Jahre später die Komposition „gleAM“.  Kürzlich wurde das Stück auf dem renommierten Akustikfestival KONTAKTE17 der Akademie der Künster uraufgeführt – und von Kritikern gefeiert. Ich habe den Künstler gefragt, warum er sich auf dieses Experiment eingelassen hat.