DESY

The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, founded in 1959 in Hamburg, Germany, is a publicly funded national research centre with approximately 2300 employees and member of the Helmholtz Association.

Researchers use the large-scale facilities at DESY to explore the microcosm in all its variety – from the interactions of tiny elementary particles and the behaviour of new types of nanomaterials to biomolecular processes that are essential to life.

The accelerators and detectors that DESY develops and builds are unique research tools. The facilities generate the world’s most intense X-ray light, accelerate particles to record energies and open completely new windows onto the universe, making DESY not only a magnet for more than 3000 guest researchers from over 40 countries every year, but also a coveted partner for national and international cooperations.

Committed young researchers find an exciting interdisciplinary setting at DESY. The research centre offers specialized training for a large number of professions. DESY cooperates with industry and business to promote new technologies that will benefit society and encourage innovations. This also benefits the metropolitan regions of the two DESY locations, Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin.

DESY operates the third-generation synchrotron light source PETRA III and FLASH, the first free electron laser in the world for vacuum ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiation, and has prepared the construction of the European XFEL in Hamburg. PETRA III is one of the world’s brightest sources of X-rays and has recently been extended with two new experimental halls to serve the large user community. FLASH has also been extended recently and operates now two FELs, FLASH1 and FLASH2, in parallel. Owing to its superconducting accelerator FLASH produces up to 8000 X-ray pulses per second.