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.