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!