Photon Science 2025
Highlights and Annual Report
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
a great pleasure and honor for me to address you for
the first time as Director in charge of DESY Photon Science.
When I took on this role at the beginning of 2025, I joined a
vibrant, talented and deeply committed community that
drives science with X-rays forward with great creativity,
resilience and collaboration. This spirit has shaped an
impressive year of achievements—a year which in many
ways has prepared us for the next era of discovery.
The outstanding results of the evaluation by the Helmholtz
Association have provided valuable confirmation of our
strategic direction and highlighted the strong scientific and
technological foundation across Photon Science and with
PETRA III and FLASH in the Helmholtz research field ‘Matter’.
We are now preparing thoroughly for the upcoming strate-
gic evaluation to ensure that our priorities, technologies
and scientific vision are clearly aligned with long-term
goals of the Helmholtz Centers in ‘Matter’.
Meanwhile at PETRA III, user operation continued at a high
level of excellence thanks to our truly dedicated teams
even under strained circumstances, and with two new
beamlines P25 and P63 soon expanding our scientific
capacities for academia and industry. Progress in AI-assisted
data handling workflows and rolling access models
strengthen the current operation and initiate the transition
to the novel level of service envisioned for the future.
Across our interdisciplinary research centers and our facili-
ties, 2025 brought remarkable scientific highlights—from
breakthroughs in high-pressure physics to following
catalytic reactions in operando and insights into dynamic
biological processes (for further examples see Highlights
Section of this report). The discoveries demonstrate how
light from our accelerators continues to reveal the invisible.
Beyond the large-scale projects, DESY Photon Science
thrives through strong collaborations, exceptional talents
and an international outlook. Successes in the ERC Starting
as well as Synergy Grants, in BMFTR, German Research
Foundation (DFG) and EU funded projects, long-standing
partnerships in LEAPS (League of European Accelerator-
based Photon Sources) and with the SESAME synchrotron
in Jordan, the inauguration of the Center for Molecular
Water Science CMWS: all reflect a vibrant, outward-looking
community committed to global scientific progress. This
spirit of collaboration also defines our new strategic part-
nership with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, which creates a
powerful bridge between fundamental discovery and appli-
cation-oriented innovation.
This year also marked important transitions. With the
retirement of Helmut Dosch in March 2025, we bid farewell
to a director whose vision and leadership shaped DESY
for more than a decade. Thanks to Helmut, we enter a new
chapter with vision, ambition and international visibility.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Edgar
Weckert for his many years of leadership of Photon
Science and to Franz Kärtner for ensuring continuity as
interim director in 2024 until my start on 1 January 2025.
From my very first days in this role, I have experienced
exceptionally constructive, open and forward-looking
discussions within the DESY directorate. In April 2025,
Beate Heinemann took over as chair of the board of direc-
tors, and while we have been working together in changing
compositions over the year, the directorate has become more
diverse but kept the contagious and convincing team spirit.
Stepping into this new and demanding role has been both
an exciting and deeply rewarding experience. I am truly
grateful for the warm welcome, great support, open
exchange and constructive spirit I have encountered
across Photon Science and the wider DESY community,
our international user community and all strategic partners.
These interactions have made the transition not only
smoother, but also inspiring and rewarding, and they
reinforce my enthusiasm for shaping the next chapter
together.
Autor*in
Themen in »Photon Science 2025«
Photon Science Annual Report Highlights