Dear DESY colleagues,

Welcome back! Are you well rested, full of energy, just back from vacation? Here we report on what you may have missed (Taylor Swift concert), who you can look forward to (a Nobel Prize winner), and what you should definitely keep an eye on. For example the latest developments in our future project PETRA IV – our top topic in this edition.

Your DESY inform-team

Current situation: Four questions for Wim Leemans

For the past six months, Wim Leemans, DESY's accelerator director, has also been the authorized representative of the directorate for DESY's future project PETRA IV. Leemans talks to DESY inform about his new role, the current funding status, and what message he would like to pass on to the staff.

PRIORITIZATION PROCESS: IMPORTANT PHASE FOR PETRA IV

In mid-July, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) published the prioritization procedure for new, extensive research infrastructures. What exactly does this mean? And what does it mean for DESY and the PETRA IV team? Stephan Klumpp, head of the PETRA IV project office, explains it to us.

Parliamentary breakfast in Berlin

How does DESY reach influential people and decision-makers for our future project PETRA IV? Where can DESY do persuasive work at the highest level? The Parliamentary Breakfast in Berlin, to which DESY invited members of the Research Committee of the German Bundestag to the Paul Löbe House at the end of June (for the third time), is a tried and tested framework.

DESY DAY 2024: A Nobel laureate is coming

November 13 is DESY DAY 2024 - the day on which we celebrate special people, extraordinary commitment and brilliant research at DESY. This year's organiser is Ismar Kiseljakovic, personal assistant to DESY Director Helmut Dosch.

Ismar – is there a highlight this year?
We were able to win a Nobel Prize winner for our traditional Jentschke Lecture at DESY DAY: Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Together with two other researchers, he was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to attosecond physics, which observes and records the ultrafast movements of electrons in real time.

Have our 2024 DESY prizewinners all been chosen?
No. But we already have someone for our most important science prize, the Bjørn H. Wiik Prize. Just this much: it will go to a woman this year.

Can DESY colleagues actively contribute to DESY DAY right now?
Yes, you can still submit applications for the DESY Innovation Award until 5 September. How can you do this? All information can be found HERE. Proposals for the International Fellowship Award/Wilfried Wurth Prize can still be submitted until 15 September. Everything else HERE. And of course, all colleagues should make a note of 13 November in their calendars. It starts at 2 pm in the lecture hall. We are looking forward to it!

Concert: DESY measures SwiftQuakes

Somehow we are all Swifties at DESY: when US superstar Taylor Swift gave two concerts in Hamburg's Volksparkstadion at the end of July, the ground shook. Highly sensitive research equipment on our campus detected the vibrations caused by the rhythmic hopping of the 50,000 fans. “These were the biggest disturbances we have seen in our measuring apparatus,” says DESY physicist Axel Lindner about the SwiftQuakes. This was reported on extensively in the media, including on NDR radio and in the reportage magazine GEO.

“Summies” on campus

International, young, talented: 112 summer students from 27 nations have been on our campus in Hamburg and Zeuthen for weeks. What's special: for the first time, the DESY Ukraine Summer School is taking place at the same time as the DESY Summer School with 14 participants. “There was so much positive feedback on our Ukraine Winter School that we decided to expand the Summer School programme,” says Olaf Behnke, coordinator and DESY scientist. Making contacts, boosting careers: “Many of our ‘Summies’ come back to DESY later as doctoral students, postdocs, or even senior researchers,” says Behnke. “That's the best feedback ever!”

Also new this year was the “Summies' Career Talk”, in which seven alumni talked about their careers. The Zoom event was organised by the DESY CONNECT alumni network.

Summer will soon be over – and so will the programmes. They run until 5 September. Further information – also on the upcoming applications and deadlines – can be found HERE.

DESY company sports: Taking part makes you fit and happy

Recently, a team from the DESY company sports association won the “Hamburgiade Mercury”, the winner's trophy of Germany's largest company multisports event, for the first time. Reason enough to get you excited about company sports at DESY and ask Jens Iversen what and who is doing what on campus. Iversen is an engineer in the accelerator department and chairman of the DESY company sports association, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. On your marks, get set ...

New canteen, better fries

Good news: catering under the tent roof has come to an end. In July, the canteen was reopened after more than a year of renovation work. The focus was on the cooking area (new ventilation system, new dishwashing system, important fire protection measures, and much more). Arik Willner, DESY's acting Administrative Director, was delighted with the teamwork of the past months and thanked Alsterfood, the construction department, MKK, and the cleaning staff, among others, at the opening. The best culinary news of the day: the fries are finally coming out of the fryer again, golden yellow, crispy, and hot!

Powered up

How does electricity actually get to DESY – and how is it distributed on campus? At the beginning of July, the MKK 1 group led by Markus Faesing opened the doors of Building 16i to interested parties. The new building houses the modernised substation of main station A (one of three main stations in total), which now ensures a more stable power supply, which is particularly important for the operation of the sensitive accelerators. “After all, the old system lasted 60 years. But now there were simply no more spare parts,” says Faesing, Head of Division MKK1, General Power Supply. Main station B is currently being modernised. The entire project costs 6 million euros and is being financed with funds for non-scientific infrastructures.

DESY research with synchrotron radiation: a celebration, a farewell – and a conference

The success story of our research center began in 1964, when physicists with a pioneering spirit sent the first ever particles in Germany through the DESY electron synchrotron. The “original accelerator” gave our center its name, was the basis for ambitious research visions and, in retrospect, an X-ray revolution. DESY celebrated this 60th anniversary on 26 August with a festive colloquium and 300 guests on campus.

The event was also a worthy setting for the farewell for Edgar Weckert. The DESY Director for Photon Science had joined DESY in 2000 as a Senior Scientist. In 2004, Weckert took over the management of the PETRA III project and was appointed to the Directorate in 2008. Now he is going back to research at DESY.

And: last week, the world elite of research with synchrotron light met for the 15th International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI) in Hamburg. The five-day conference with more than 1000 experts was organized this year by DESY and the European XFEL.

International Sustainability Workshop in Madrid – DESY is also there

How can research be made more sustainable worldwide? Which methods have proven successful, which strategies are worth pursuing? At the end of September, international sustainability experts and representatives of research institutions will meet for a workshop in the Spanish capital Madrid. Topic and title: "Energy for Sustainable Science at Research Infrastructures". DESY's sustainability manager is on the event's organising committee and is leading the "Life cycle evaluation" session. Torben Warnecke and Andi Maier are DESY's PETRA IV experts on the topic "Energy and sustainabilty on future research projects".

"Creazione" for CERN: a performance in Berlin

Music + faith + research = art event: "Creazione/Creation - Fragments", the musical big bang by Gloria Bruni, will be performed in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin on 1 September. A choir of scientists from DESY and Universität Hamburg will also be taking part. Beforehand, there will be a discussion about science and faith with Beate Heinemann, DESY's Director of Particle Physics. The concert in Berlin is part of the celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the CERN research centre. If you want to be there too – tickets are still available. Further information HERE.

LHC research: Top jobs for DESYans

Soon, data analyses at two of the detectors at the world's largest particle accelerator will by default have DESY participation. Starting in autumn, Kerstin Tackmann and Andreas Meyer will take on the key positions of Physics Coordination at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN research centre in Geneva. DESY scientist Andreas Meyer will lead the physics programme of the CMS research collaboration starting in September 2024. Kerstin Tackmann, lead scientist at DESY and a professor at Universität Hamburg, will first be the deputy starting in October 2024, then in autumn 2025 Physics Coordinator of the ATLAS collaboration. With this, DESY is the first institute in the world to hold both coordinator positions at the same time.

FIVE YEARS OF THE SUSTAINABILITY OFFICE

It all started with a wall full of post-its and heads full of dreams – and ever since many thoughts and ideas are finding themselves again in concrete projects. DESY's Sustainability Office has now been in operation since five years. "We work together with wonderful people, who bit by bit make DESY more sustainable," says Denise Völker, the leader of the Office. "For that: thank you."

ROOM FOR QUESTIONS

Here is another reference to DESY's new format and feedback tool: the Sympathetic Ear. Members of the Directorate publish video messages there in turn to inform the staff about current topics. It is also possible to send concerns and questions to sympathetic.ear@desy.de. Or – password-protected and anonymous – via the Sympathetic Ear form.

You can find the latest video message from Franz Kärtner here:

DESY inform-team:

Editing and realisation: Kristin Hüttmann and Christina Mänz
Editorial team: Thomas Zoufal, Joseph Piergrossi, Barbara Warmbein, Miriam Huckschlag
Production and design: Cristina Lopez Gonzalez
Images: DESY: Werner Bartsch, Maike Bierbaum, Marta Mayer, Gesa Harms, Angela Pfeiffer; Science Communication Lab, Wave Collaboration, ALPS; MPI/Daniel Gerst
Contact: inform@desy.de