Lively exchange at User Meeting
More than 500 users of HZB's large-scale equipment met in Adlershof
From December 3 to 5, more than 500 users of HZB's BER II and BESSY II large-scale equipment met up to discuss the current state of technology and exchange their views on pressing scientific issues.
The Science Day on December 4 was held at the Bunsensaal in Berlin-Adlershof and featured the many scientific achievements that have been made thanks to BESSY II and BER II. The “neutron Day” on December 3 was held at Wannsee and the Sychrotron day on December 5 at Adlershof, both days were focused on instrumentation.
Exciting research: Molecular Lego, Cancer therapy and Solar Energy
Christof Wöll of KIT demonstrated in his keynote lecture how large organic molecules can be arranged to crystalline structures, doped and organized to new designer materials with amazing properties. Dentistry research was the topic of Paul Zaslansky of Charité Berlin, who studied the effects of root canal treatment at the BAM Beamline at BESSY II. He stressed the need of being able to publish negative results as well as positive ones, in order to develop a more evidence based medicine.
Pål Stenmark, Stockholm University, spoke about a new way of treating cancer, which is explored by a team on five Swedish universities. The concept is based on inhibiting a specific enzyme called MTH1, which cancer cells, unlike normal cells, require for survival. Without this enzyme, oxidized nucleotides are incorporated into DNA, resulting in lethal DNA double-strand breaks in cancer cells. The research group at Stockholm University has determined the structure of human MTH1 in complex with several key inhibitors. The detailed studies of how different molecules bind MTH1 has been essential to guide the development of efficient inhibitors and will now be used to develop these inhibitors into drugs.
The public lecture titled by Christoph Lienau, University Oldenburg, gave a glimpse into the future of organic solar cell research: short movies visualized simulations of charge transfer processes along the organic molecules. But to study such dynamic processes experimentally, much shorter light pulses would be needed, he pointed out.
With great interest the presentations in the Young Scientist Sessions at the Neutron and Synchrotron Day were received. Altogether 11 young researchers presented their research in very committed presentations.
Science Day awards
Full text in English will be available soon, here just the facts:
On December 4, the Helmholtz Centre Berlin Circle of Friends presented the prize winners of this year’s Ernst-Eckhard Koch-Prize and of the Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award.
Alex Manuel Frano Pereira, now at University of California Berkeley, was awarded the Ernst-Eckhard Koch-Prize for his thesis at TU Berlin about “Ordering Phenomena in Transition-Metal-Oxide Heterostructures”. Among his 15 publications, which have been cited more than 450 times, are some in Nature, Science and Physical Review B.
Markus Ries (HZB) received the Ernst-Eckhard Koch-Prize for his thesis at HU Berlin concerning “Nonlinear Momentum Compaction and Coherent Synchrotron Radiation at the Metrology Light Source”. His work contributes strongly to the understanding and to the further development of Storage rings with extremely short electron bunches. Markus Ries continues his work as a Postdoc at HZB working on BESSY-VSR.
The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2014 is given for an excellent achievement which has contributed significantly to the further development of techniques, methods or uses of synchrotron radiation within Europe. Among the 6 excellent proposals, the committee opted for the OMNY Team at PSI/Swiss Light Source, consisting of Mirko Holler, Ana Diaz, Manuel Guizar-Sicairos and Jörg Raabe.The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation is sponsored by SPECS GmbH and BESTEC GmbH, the Laudation was given by Stefan Eisebitt, TU Berlin.
The HZB User Committee's Best Poster Award went to Lucas Gierster for his presentation on Laser induced switching in TbFeCo and GdFeCo thin films.
184 posters, 49 vendors
During the poster session in BESSY experimental hall, a total of 184 posters documented the work done by both HZB and external researchers using the HZB research facilities, with topics ranging from the life sciences and basic physics research to applied research on industrial materials. In addition, the user meeting was accompanied by two satellite symposia with almost 200 participants; one was on Fragment Screening by Crystallography, the other one was the first in a series of foresight workshops, this time with the topic Tender X-Rays.
As in previous years, the user meeting featured a well-attended industry exhibit with 49 vendors of synchrotron spectroscopy and neutron diffraction experimental equipment showcasing a broad range of state-of-the-art products. Thanks to the vendors' generous financial support, the lavish "Berlin Buffet" on Thursday night, which offered yet another chance for conversation and networking, attracted many visitors. The organizers would like to thank Adlerhof con.vent, WISTA Management GmbH's event planners.
More Information:
Dr. Antje Vollmer
Tel.: (030) 8062-14666
Fax: (030) 8062-14746
Email: antje.vollmer(at)helmholtz-berlin.de