Dear DESY colleagues,

Hopefully, you still have time to spare tomorrow afternoon for a few hours in the DESY auditorium – because tomorrow is DESY DAY (formerly known as DESY Science DAY)! The day when we celebrate people and science at DESY – many fantastic colleagues and achievements. This year, some things are different, while others are still familiar. Keyword "we": a four-person Hamburg–Zeuthen team will host the afternoon. Keyword "excellent": there will be even more prizes and honours. And keyword "that's-why-I-marked-this-day-in-my-calendar-in-the-first-place": the Jentschke Lecture is of course part of the programme as well in 2023.

Now for this newsletter: to get in the mood for DESY DAY 2023, it is packed with information, stories and background information. VFFD prize winner Annika Rudolph provides a few spot-on answers to why we need more young female physicists. Our Wiik Prize winner this year reveals why we should actually thank his wife. And we chat with the man who was involved with DESY even before it was founded and who will receive DESY's Golden Badge of Honour this year.

If you like, this extra newsletter is the amuse-bouche before we have the main course live tomorrow from 2:30 pm. We look forward to seeing you!

by Kerstin Straub

From DESY SCIENCE DAY to DESY DAY, because this day belongs to all of us. We show what we can do and what we are passionate about: We celebrate with our colleagues, many of whom receive awards, and we gain deeper insights in an entertaining way. But even without an award, fantastic work is being done here every day, in all areas. The colleagues from Zeuthen produced a whole show on 16 December 2022 to introduce themselves: There was a live broadcast from a self-built TV studio – one hundred percent professional and so likeable. Inspiration for DESY DAY. Now we also have a couch and presenters from Zeuthen: DESY researcher Anna Nelles and scientist Stefan Ohm.

Stefan Klepser, head of the Astroparticle Physics Division, produced the opening music, which he has dedicated to our recently deceased colleague Till Mundzeck. You will also meet a familiar face from the Hamburg campus on stage: lead scientist Christian Schwanenberger completes our team of presenters this year. We are looking forward to the occasion and would like to thank all those who make DESY DAY possible in terms of technology, organisation, and content – and all DESYans whom we welcome to DESY DAY on 2 November.

See you tomorrow!

Beyond the research areas

What would you do if you had 150 seconds? Please don't tell me that's just about enough time to exhale! A Rexus rocket needs 150 seconds to reach an altitude of 80 kilometres. The Beatles had already finished singing everything that needed to be sung on "Yesterday" after 126 seconds. And on DESY DAY, four female scientists from the four research areas will give insights into their fascinating work in 150 seconds each. And this is what it's all about:

Emma de Oña Wilhelmi (AP, second from the left) is looking for gamma rays in the Milky Way. She showcases surprising facts from the Vela Pulsar neutron star. Isabella Oceano (FH, second from the right) is a scientist at the ALPS II experiment and will report on its progress. Heshmat Noei (FS, right) from the DESY NanoLab is inspired by nature and excited to find answers with her research. Her specialty is surface spectroscopy. And biochemist Anna Grebinyk (M, left) will report on FLASH radiotherapy for cancer treatment, which she has been working on for a year with her team at PITZ in Zeuthen. Teaser: Anna says she is following her deep passion to fight cancer across borders and disciplines.

A lot of content in a few words - the highlights from the four research areas are the chance for everyone to take a mini-look beyond their own field.

"Ich bin ein DESYaner"

In keeping with tradition, we will meet our newly appointed scientists on DESY DAY. In 2023 these are: Martin Burger, Günther Hasinger, Meytal Landau, Elli Pomoni and Andrea Trabattoni.

In response to our question if we could find out a little more about him, Günther Hasinger replied, "I am eternally grateful to DESY, especially to Christian Stegmann, because they were the main driving force in the application phase of the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA) and are still providing us with lots of support. I am happy to be part of DESY now!"

Meytal Landau sent us such a touching and inspiring text about her life journey and career as a scientist that we urge you to read it. "Science is both my pillar and my passion,” the biophysicist from Israel says. After reading Meytal Landau's very personal thoughts about opportunities and challenges, courage and motivation, you will want to do exactly what she does - at least you will want to meet her!

VFFD THESIS AWARDS
for Annika Rudolph and Dennis Mayer

They belong to the new generation of academics and lower the average age of this newsletter (including those who write it) considerably: Annika Rudolph and Dennis Mayer are the winners of this year's VFFD thesis awards for their outstanding doctoral theses. Many congratulations to both of them, and we have a few questions, for example, about fans and role models. And about the theses, too, of course.

INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP AWARD –
WILFRIED WURTH AWARD
for Anne-Lise Viotti and Stefan Knirck

DESY will hand out the International Fellowship Award for the first time in 2023. From now on, it will be awarded every year to two internationally recognised scientists or outstanding young researchers who can already demonstrate success in their academic and professional fields. The selected awardees will be invited to spend several months at DESY in Hamburg or Zeuthen to do research.

By the way: nominations are done by DESY scienists! More importantly, the first awardees are Anne-Lise Viotti from Lund University in Sweden and Stefan Knirck from Fermilab (USA). And another thing: The International Fellowship Award is also called the Wilfried Wurth Award in memory of Wilfried Wurth. He was lead scientist at DESY, professor of experimental physics at Universität Hamburg and a highly esteemed and much-loved colleague until his sudden death in 2019.

BJØRN H. WIIK PRIZE
for Julien Branlard

Watching Julien Branlard as he handles circuit boards, interprets graphics or talks to colleagues, two things clearly emerge: he knows exactly what he's doing. And he loves his job! Julien is a system engineer at MSK, part of the team responsible for the LLRF (Low-Level Radio Frequency) system at the European XFEL, and our Bjørn H. Wiik Award winner in 2023. Learn more about the excellent work of this DESY engineer on DESY DAY and in THIS story . Learn more about the man himself by simply reading on. Or did you already know that the native Frenchman-turned-happy Hamburger
* has a self-made LEGO model of the XFEL in his office
* is a keen musician in the "DESY All Pass Band" (saxophone, recorder, vocals)
* came to DESY because of his wife: "I met my wife when I was at Fermilab. We talked about my job. She always said: 'If you want to do low-level RF, DESY is the place to be'. And that's true."

The award will be presented tomorrow in the lecture hall. Julien Branlard's words of thanks are already here: "I want to thank my wife because she told me to go to DESY. And I'd like to thank Hans Weise for bringing me to DESY. And my boss at MSK, Holger Schlarb, who trusted me that I could do the job."

Please note: there is supposed to be a concert by the All Pass Band at Christmas time.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
for personal engagement and life's work

This year, the DESY Directors honour our former colleagues

Thomas Adams, Klaus Balewski, Michael Bieler, Antje Brandes, Erwin Deffur, Jürgen Heinatz, Andreas Hoppe, Brunhilde Racky, Andrea Schrader, Ivan Vartaniants, Martina Volmari, and Manfred Zimmer.

We congratulate you all!

DESY INNOVATION AWARD
for the development of a completely new pressure sensor

The award-winning idea 2023 is a membrane-based sensor for measuring the pressure and mass of particles of a gas. It works at extreme temperatures or magnetic fields, is compact, robust and does not need to be calibrated! For this idea, the DESY Innovation Award this year goes to Christoph Reinhardt (DESY-FH) and Hossein Masalehdan (Universität Hamburg).

By the way: in addition to a patent application, the devlopers are looking into areas of application, for example in the aerospace industry. The two winners developed their idea while designing new experiments to search for gravitational waves. This just goes to show how much innovation potential there is in fundamental research!

GOLDEN BADGE OF HONOUR
for Paul Söding

"We felt like the discoverers of a whole new land"

Without him, there'd be nothing here to read. Paul Söding, particle physicist, DESY research director from 1982 to 1991, from 1992 until 1998 rescuer of Zeuthen and Director. A humble humanitarian and an enthusiastic inquisitive spirit. A DESY eyewitness from the times when there was not yet a DESY. A protegé of Jentschke. The 90-year old has held the Federal Cross of Merit since 2001. On DESY DAY, he will receive DESY's Golden Badge of Honour. It's high time that we spoke to him. "Don't give me too much room," he requested before answering the first question. What followed was an incredible lesson about the history of DESY and research. Here is the essence of what he had to say:

Mr Söding, when was your first day at DESY?
That depends on how you see it. Officially, I first received an offer from DESY in 1969. I had emigrated at that point to the US and I came as a leading scientist to DESY. But I had my first contact with DESY in 1956 already, practically three years before the founding of DESY. At that time, I was 23 ...

SILBERNE EHRENNADEL
for Robert Feidenhans’l

He has been involved in the European XFEL project from the very beginning. Since 2017, he has led the project from the end of the construction phase to its commissioning and to the establishment of the X-ray laser as a unique research facility in the following years. Now Robert Feidenhans'l, Managing Director of the European XFEL, is retiring. The Danish physicist and science manager has always maintained a cooperative relationship with DESY, which operates the accelerator for the European XFEL. On DESY DAY, Robert Feidenhans'l will receive the DESY Silver Badge of Honour.

DESY AWARD FOR EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
and the nominees are ...

In 2023, this award will be presented in three different categories. Exciting: the presenter of the awards will be Joachim Ullrich, President of the German Physical Society and the Chairman of the Prize Committee. And the nominees are:

In the category Administration, Organisation, and Management:
Michael Bieler +++ Sonja Gebert

In the category Social Engagement and Outreach:
Axel Lindner +++ Adelheid Sommer +++ Stefan Ohm und Olaf Behnke +++ the Ukraine-Support Team/International Office/Hostel&Housing

In the category Engineering and Technical Service:
Kai Tiedtke/Yilmaz Bican/Susanne Bonfigt/Maciej Brachmanski/Fini Jastrow/Svea Kreis +++ Michael Koepke and Torben Warnecke +++ Stefan Dietrich +++ Marcus Seidel/Federico Pressacco/Önder Akçaalan/Uwe Grosse-Wortmann

Good luck to all nominees!

"Measuring our sustainable future – how metrology contributes to energy- and climate change"

The nuclear physicist Willibald Jentschke was the founder and first director of DESY. He led the research centre until 1970 and died in 2002 shortly after his 90th birthday. His competence, vision, and humanity provide the core of DESY's values to this day. To honour him, DESY has organised the Jentschke Lecture for the past 20 years. This year, the lecture will be given by Cornelia Denz, President of the German National Metrology Institute (PTB) on the topic of "Measuring our sustainable future – how metrology contributes to energy- and climate change." The Jentschke Lecture is – as always – in English and lasts an hour, including a Q&A round at the end.

Once DESY – always DESY!

This year there are members of the alumni network DESY CONNECT amongst the audience in the auditorium. And active DESYans can also be members. You can learn how it works and more information about the network HERE.

For those of you who are unable to join us in the auditorium tomorrow, we have set up a livestream!

Special Issue of DESY inform:

Concept, Implementation, Texts, Interviews, Editing:
Christina Mänz
Coordination:
Ismar Kiseljakovic
Production and Design:
Stefanie Fahlfeder and Cristina Lopez Gonzalez
Translation, Support, and Proofreading:
Christina Mänz, Joseph Piergrossi, Barbara Warmbein, and Thomas Zoufal
Photos:
DESY Archive, Private, Paul Glaser, Christina Mänz, Marta Mayer, Hossein Masalehdan, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Reimo Schaaf / European XFEL

Contact: inform@desy.de