Foundation stone laid for CFEL building

Model of the CFEL building (Courtesy: hammeskrause architekten).

On 29 September, the foundation stone was laid for the Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) building at DESY. Hamburg Science Senator Dr. Herlind Gundelach, Hamburg University Vice-President Professor Hans Siegfried Stiehl, DESY Director of Administration Christian Scherf, and Chair of the CFEL Management Board and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), Professor Joachim H. Ullrich placed a time capsule into the foundation of the building, according to tradition.

Under the roof of the CFEL building, a Europe-wide unique centre of excellence comes into being, created for research with and regarding light sources of the next generation. Thus, basic and applied research in the field of physics and chemistry and particularly in materials and life sciences research will be closely interlinked.

The construction costs of this new research building amount to nearly 49 million Euros, funded by the City of Hamburg and the Federal Government. End of construction is scheduled for August 2011.

The collaboration between the University of Hamburg and DESY in the field of particle physics, accelerator physics and photon science has a long and fruitful tradition. With the purpose to interlink more closely university and non-university research, the University of Hamburg and DESY founded CFEL, jointly with the Max Planck Society. CFEL is already active since 1 January 2008.