Photon Science 2018

An eventful and very successful DESY year is drawing to a
close.
After the comprehensive strategy process ‘DESY 2030’ and
the very successful evaluation of the scientific clout of the
research centre by a high-ranking international commission of
experts, DESY is well prepared for the coming Helmholtz
funding period 2021-2027. The outstanding results achieved
in the Federal Excellence Initiative give the research campus
an additional boost: In both physics clusters of excellence,
the photon and nanosciences (AIM: Advanced Imaging of
Matter) and particle and astroparticle physics (QU: Quantum
Universe) DESY is a key partner of the Universität Hamburg,
as well as involved in a third cluster of excellence ‘Understanding
Written Artefacts’.
All in all, the message is clear: the Bahrenfeld research
campus in Hamburg is an international leader in the research
of matter. There is no laboratory in the world with a comparable
scientific thrust that can match the Bahrenfeld research
campus in terms of its future-oriented interdisciplinary
research orientation, its ultra-modern research infrastructures
and the carat number of its scientists.
The work on the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for DESY’s
future project, the upgrade of the synchrotron source PETRA III
into a high-resolution 3D X-ray microscope (‘PETRA IV’), is
progressing very well. Over the next two years, we will enter
a preparatory test phase at DESY. Here we will significantly
strengthen the project group in terms of personnel and
allocate funds for prototype development in order to prepare
a solid Technical Design Report (TDR) by the end of 2020.
The preparation phase 2019-2021 is a critical milestone and
indispensable for a later smooth construction phase. Here we
are planning considerable own funds, but need additional
financial support from the Federal Ministry.
Almost routine, but still a triumph: the operation of the
European XFEL. In the second half of the year, the superconducting
linear accelerator was brought up to its nominal
power. The DESY operating team, led by Winnie Decking, is
mastering every physical and technical detail of the complex
machine, which is of great benefit to the experiments on the
campus in Schenefeld. Only one year after the start of the
operation for users, the first successful results were published
in Nature Communications.
DESY continues to drive innovation forward. The ‘Innovation
Village’ is currently being built on the DESY site, which will
provide spin-offs with the necessary office space and
infrastructure. Whereas the construction of the ‘Innovation
Centre’ building, which unfortunately has been delayed, can
now finally begin, after a suitable provider has been found. I
very much welcome that our ambitious plans to expand the
Bahrenfeld research campus into a modern ecosystem in
which research, education and innovation intelligently
stimulate each other, are strongly supported by the German
Bundestag, the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF) and the Behörde für Wissenschaft,
Forschung und Gleichstellung (BWFG) in Hamburg.
With the special funding by the budget committee of the
German Bundestag, necessary renovation and important
construction measures can be initiated in the coming years,
including the construction of the new DESY visitor centre
‘DESYUM’, the redesign of the main entrance and the
urgently needed new construction of the DESY accelerator
control centre.
DESY is currently planning new interdisciplinary research
buildings, which will re-bundle existing expertise and focus
on future new research potentials, among them the ‘Centre
for Data and Computing Science’ (CDCS) and the ‘Centre
for Molecular Water Science’ (CMWS).
The CDCS is currently designed in close cooperation with all
Hamburg universities. It is one of several projects that the
BWFG is currently considering as part of the ‘HamburgX
project’. Fortunately, DESY was able to raise substantial
Helmholtz funding for the Data Science in Hamburg –
Helmholtz Graduate School for the Structure of Matter
(DASHH). DASHH is supported by all CDCS partners.
PETRA IV, a 3D X-ray microscope with the world’s highest
resolution, will be built in Hamburg. This is DESY’s most
visible entry into the century of complexity, in which novel
multifunctional materials will ideally be built atom by atom.
PETRA IV will provide the necessary analytical conditions for
these challenges. This also creates a revolutionary new
analytical approach to urgent questions related to the microscopic
structures and processes in water and at its interfaces
which extend into many fields of application and technologies.
DESY has founded a European initiative ‘Centre for Molecular
Water Science’ which brings together all leading experts and
laboratories. In the meantime, a consortium of more than
30 laboratories from all over Europe has come together to
design the pillars of the CMWS. One of these pillars is to
become a new interdisciplinary centre at DESY, which will
make targeted use of the research potential on the campus
for water research.
In the end, it will be important to attract the leading experts
and highly talented young scientists. DESY recruits talents on
the international level, and it is committed to diversity and the
promotion of women and to mutual respect regardless of
nationality, skin colour, religion and personal life plans.
This year the focus was on a key appointment, the successor
of our Director of the Accelerator Division, Reinhard Brinkmann,
who will pass the baton on to his successor at the end of the
year. We are proud and pleased to announce that the world’s
leading accelerator physicist in the field of plasma acceleration,
Wim Leemans, could have been enticed away from the
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) in the U. S. This is a
great success, which will decisively strengthen the research
centre and in particular the accelerator development in Hamburg.
This appointment was not easy. I would like to express
my gratitude to the BMBF, in particular to our Chairman of
the Foundation Council, Dr. Dietz, for the great cooperation.
Last but not least, LEAPS, the ‘League of European Accelerator-
based Photon Sources’ has made great progress since its
foundation a year ago. On 12-13 November, more than
150 scientists from the 16 accelerator-based light sources in
Europe, all members of LEAPS, met at DESY for its first
plenary meeting, including representatives of eight national
science ministries and research funding agencies as well as
Philippe Froissard, the Deputy Head of the Research
Infrastructure Unit of the Directorate on Open Innovation &
Open Science of the European Commission.
I thank the DESY staff and all our users and partners, national
and international, who have contributed to the success of the
Bahrenfeld research campus.