The television journalist and presenter Kerstin Straub (55) has been appointed new head of DESY's press and public relations department. She is taking over from Christian Mrotzek (49), who will concentrate on setting up the planned DESY Visitor Centre. Before joining DESY, Straub was the head of communications and spokeswoman for the child welfare NGO Plan International Deutschland.

“As an experienced journalist and creative PR expert, Kerstin Straub will be taking care of public relations for our research centre. DESY stands to benefit enormously from her competence,” says Helmut Dosch, the Chairman of DESY’s Board of Directors. “Science is an important part of life in society: formative, open and interconnected. We want our external communications to be equally dynamic, and we want to involve people in our plans and our work. DESY’s public relations are in excellent hands with Kerstin Straub and her time-tested team.” Helmut Dosch also thanked Christian Mrotzek for all he has done. “We are happy that we will be able to profit from Christian Mrotzek’s profound experience when setting up DESY’s Visitor Centre.”

According to Kerstin Straub, the new tasks she will be facing at DESY are just the right step: “We live in times when new questions about the future are emerging every day. As one of the largest research centres in Germany, DESY helps to shape that future in positive ways. Everyone can participate in this – the new creative spaces that are emerging encourage the cooperation between science, business and society. I am very happy that I will be promoting and attending to this development together with my new colleagues using the tools of communication!” Over the past eight years, Kerstin Straub successfully expanded the public relations activities of Plan International Deutschland. Before this, she worked as a writer, editor and presenter for radio and television networks such as the NDR, Hessenfernsehen, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, n-tv, RTL and ProSieben. During this time she displayed a special interest in science – also setting up and running press conferences and congresses in this field.

As its 60th anniversary draws closer, DESY is taking large strides into the future: not only with the planned Visitor Centre, the sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen, near Berlin, are to be significantly expanded. For example, DESY is currently developing the world’s best X-ray microscope PETRA IV. Also, the City of Hamburg plans to establish a new science quarter centred around DESY’s Hamburg campus in association with the University of Hamburg and DESY. This Science City Bahrenfeld is to become home to a mix of scientific institutes, innovative start-ups and residential units. DESY and the University of Hamburg are currently setting up the first component of this, the joint Innovation Centre, the ground-breaking ceremony for which took place just recently. At the same time, the Zeuthen site is to be expanded to become an international centre for astroparticle physics.