11.11.2011

CAU and DESY sign cooperation agreement

Joint laboratory is named after X-ray pioneer Ruprecht Haensel

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) and DESY in Hamburg will cooperate more closely in the future. On Friday, 11 November, a cooperation agreement was signed in Hamburg on behalf of the University of Kiel (CAU) by President Professor Gerhard Fouquet and Professor Lutz Kipp, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and on behalf of DESY by Professor Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, and Edgar Weckert, Director in charge of Photon Science. The agreement provides that biology, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials science, theory and physics working groups of Kiel University focussing on nanoscience and surface research will actively participate in the development and use of the excellent synchrotron radiation sources at DESY in Hamburg. The cooperation between the University of Kiel and the Helmholtz research centre includes the establishment of two working groups with jointly appointed professors. This strengthens the close cooperation, already existing since the 1970s, of both research locations.

Signing the cooperation agreement at DESY (from left): Prof. Edgar Weckert, Prof. Helmut Dosch, Christian Scherf (all DESY), Frank Eisoldt (Chancellor CAU), Prof. Gerhard Fouquet (President CAU) and Prof. Lutz Kipp (Dean of MIN faculty at CAU).

“Nearly all research activities in the field of nanoscience and surface research need peak performance instruments which are commercially not available in most cases. Moreover, the interpretation of the measuring results requires a close communication between experimenters and theorists. The direct on-site interaction of scientists responsible for the source, instrumentation and user operation is the perfect basis for the development of excellent scientific and methodological competences at CAU and at DESY”, Vice-president Professor Thomas Bosch, in charge of research funding, acknowledged the established cooperation between both locations which are now getting a strong basis.

“The close cooperation of scientists in Kiel and Hamburg is another step towards a world leading photon science centre”, said Professor Helmut Dosch. Professor Edgar Weckert added “Only the combination of highly developed experimental techniques with elaborated theoretical procedures enable the discovery of new and unexpected phenomena in the field of nanomaterials. DESY´s X-ray sources FLASH and PETRA III are the perfect super microscopes to observe and understand structures and processes in the nanoworld.”

The ideational link between CAU and DESY is the former Head of the University of Kiel, Professor Ruprecht Haensel. Already in the 1960s, the X-ray pioneer specified the radiation characteristics at the synchrotron ring DESY and for the first time opened up its large research potential. For Professor Lutz Kipp, a development circle is now completed with the appointment of a joint research facility, the Ruprecht Haensel Laboratory (RHL), which could lead to a new cluster of excellence: “With the RHL we now have an outstanding platform which will bundle instrumental and methodological development, make available designed techniques to international cooperation partners and – with joint appointments - strengthen teaching in close proximity to research in the field of nanoscience and surface research. What started with Haensel’s fundamental experiments is now coming to its logical fulfilment.”