Astroparticle Physics 2020

2020 was a truly unusual year for the global society. In March,
the coronavirus brought our accustomed everyday life to a
standstill and mercilessly exposed the vulnerability of our
modern society to such crisis. We will have to put many of our
habits, which have finally proven to be unsustainable, to test
and find new ways forward. We have already learned a great
deal in recent months, most importantly that our society can
rely on science and on decision makers who listen to scientists.
We at DESY reacted quickly and very cautiously to the
pandemic and moved the research centre into a safe mode
that kept the laboratories and our research largely in opera
tion while protecting all staff from infection as efficiently as
possible.
These measures were critical with respect to the user
operation of our large-scale research facilities PETRA III
and FLASH. Especially the unique analysis capabilities at
PETRA III have proven to be most important for the fight
against the COVID 19 coronavirus. We have to ensure that
these technologies will be even more targeted to molecular
drug research and even more crisis proven in the future.
To this end, we have drawn up a major proposal for the
establishment of a National Analysis Center for Molecular
Infection Research, in which new digital and technical
concepts, like artificial intelligence, remote control and
robotics, are to be incorporated. “Digital DESY” has become
a new building block in our DESY strategy, in response to
the challenges of the current pandemic and of future crisis
situations. We will also pay even greater attention to sustain
able concepts in all our activities and future projects.
DESY is well on its way into this future. The priority project is
PETRA IV, which has now entered the technical design phase.
We are very pleased that with Riccardo Bartolini, who joined
DESY in April 2020, we have been able to attract an interna
tionally renowned accelerator physicist for this future project.
In the next few years, the task will be to prepare all the
logistical and personnel prerequisites for the upgrade of the
synchrotron radiation source PETRA III and to raise the
necessary financial resources for this complex project. Nearly
all areas of DESY will be involved here in the upcoming decade.
In 2020, we have made good progress in various projects,
such as in the development of the Centre for Molecular Water
Science (CMWS), the commissioning of the Detector Assembly
Facility (DAF) and the construction of the Start Up Labs Bahren
feld, as well as in the Centre for X ray and Nano Science
(CXNS), which will open in 2021. An active innovation culture
that interlinks basic research and fast transfer of innovative
concepts to the market will remain an integral part of DESY’s
future strategy.
In the coming years, further projects are on the agenda: Major
new construction measures include the DESYUM visitor centre,
the building for the accelerator division, the TECHNICUM for
technical groups, the DESY Innovation Factory and the
Wolfgang Pauli Centre (WPC) for theoretical physics.
Important research and upgrade projects, such as the up
grade of the free-electron laser FLASH to FLASH2020+, the
KALDERA-ATHENA project for future accelerator technologies,
the Any Light Particle Search experiment ALPS II, the tele
scope in search of dark matter particles BabyIAXO as well
as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and its Data Centre,
will be implemented.
Promoting our top scientists and our young talents is an
essential component of the DESY strategy. The new Helm-
holtz graduate school DASHH has been well established in
2020. The aim of the school is to educate the future genera
tion of data scientists who can efficiently analyse measured
data using e. g. artificial intelligence or machine learning. In
2020, we have implemented the COAST programme, which
will assist our postdocs in shaping their individual career
pathways. Our HR department has done a remarkable job
in this respect. Over the coming months, we must and will
develop concepts to offer our top academic performers new
career paths within the research centre.
DESY celebrated its 60th anniversary in the Hamburg city hall
at the beginning of 2020. Many congratulations came from the
global science community and honoured DESY as a world
leading centre in the exploration of matter. We are well prepared
for the coming decades to continue the legacy of DESY.
Even in these challenging times, the extraordinary commit
ment of the DESY staff and all our users and partners, national
and international, made research possible at DESY – I would
like to thank all those who contributed to the joint efforts!