Inaugural speech by Beate Heinemann

💪 Moin DESY! Beate Heinemann has a clear vision for DESY and big plans ahead.

Moin DESY!

I am very pleased to be taking over the Chair of the DESY Directorate tomorrow. Many of you congratulated me warmly last year and then asked me directly: 1. Why do you want to do this? 2. What do you want to change?

(...) Now to the two questions:

The first question is: Why do I want to be Chair of the Board of Directors? 

The short answer is that DESY is a great facility. Four reasons were particularly decisive for me:

The first reason is the people at DESY: We have highly competent, innovative, motivated and committed people here who not only do a great job, but are also warm-hearted and helpful! (...) There are few employers who have such a loyal and committed workforce.

The second reason: DESY is a first-class institute: the scientific assessment of an international panel of experts recently found that we are "excellent" in all aspects and even "outstanding" in most of them. (...) In fact, DESY is one of the very few research institutes in Germany (and Europe) that has ever successfully realised scientific projects worth billions. The last one so far was the accelerator for the ambitious 1.5 billion euro European XFEL project, which was completed in 2017, a real masterpiece! HERA was also a very ambitious large-scale project - and remained on schedule and on budget. The fact that DESY has carried out these projects so well is not down to luck, but to the outstanding DESY staff, who have the experience and expertise to design, build and operate large-scale research facilities. DESY therefore also has a major national and European responsibility. It is our responsibility to enable first-class research infrastructures from which many thousands of researchers throughout Germany and Europe benefit.

Third reason for me to want to take over the chairmanship: DESY is also highly valued and supported by politicians in Germany, Hamburg and Brandenburg. We can see this today from the fact that such high-ranking representatives from the two host states are our guests. The federal government has been funding DESY for 65 years, currently 90%, and is always in favour of DESY. In particular, the sub-department of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, headed by the Chairman of the Foundation Council, Mr Dietz, actively supports us. (...) Here in Hamburg, science has developed fantastically over the past 10 years. DESY and the University of Hamburg are very close partners. Cutting-edge science, innovation and modern living are to be combined in Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld. I look forward to driving forward the realisation of this vision, together with the University of Hamburg, the Ministry of Science, Research, Equal Opportunities and the districts and the City of Hamburg. And the state of Brandenburg is actively supporting DESY! The Zeuthen campus was recently renovated and expanded. It has become a real gem and radiates out into the entire region - even as far as Saxony, where the German Centre for Astrophysics is being established with the active support of DESY.

And last but not least, I have another reason: I am keen to communicate the importance of science for society: Fortunately, the value of science is recognised by all democratic parties in Germany. But unfortunately this is not the case everywhere in the world. And even in Germany, according to the Science Barometer 2024, 9% of the population have no confidence or rather no confidence in science. (...) Physics explains our everyday lives, e.g. why the sun shines or why icebergs and ice cubes float. This can also be discussed with small children, who are naturally curious, and also with adults of all ages. This kind of low-threshold communication is important to me, especially to attract young people - including girls - to science, because we need people with technical expertise to tackle the challenges of our time, for science and business. And we have no more valuable asset in Germany than talented people. (...)

And the second question that often comes from you is: What do I want to change?

This is also an important question. But just as important is: What do I not want to change, i.e. what do I want to keep?

I want DESY to continue to be a laboratory that is diverse in every respect, which 1. advances excellent research with photons, in particle and astroparticle physics, in accelerator physics and the necessary technologies, in particular detectors and computing, and 2. operates first-class research facilities for thousands of researchers.

We are currently working on many important projects in science and construction: the construction of the track detectors for ATLAS and CMS, the detectors for the IceCube upgrade in Antarctica, the telescopes for CTA and the camera for the ULTRASAT satellite, the expansion measures at the FLASH and European XFEL accelerators, and the completion of the DESYUM and CAST buildings and the DESY Innovation Factories. And all of these projects - some of which are really very difficult - are due to be completed in three years!  This can only be achieved through a huge effort from all of us, and is a top priority.

I also want DESY to continue to be a trustworthy partner for national and international scientific institutions and industrial partners - and to continue to stand up for freedom - freedom in science, but also in thinking and life in general.

I also want DESY to continue to primarily conduct outstanding basic research, but society should also benefit from our findings as quickly as possible. That's why the topic of innovation continues to be important to me.

And I want DESY to be a good employer that respects its employees and values their performance - and promotes and lives sustainability and diversity. And that DESY continues to invest heavily in the training of young talent at all levels. Over 13,000 schoolchildren already come to our two campuses every year, we train specialists from daycare centres and schools and we train dozens of apprentices and hundreds of doctoral students and postdocs every year. That is important to me.

Now to the things I would like to change:

(...) I would like us to build a major new project here on site: PETRA IV, the world's best source of X-rays, which has been prepared here for years by a very competent team. PETRA III already receives more than 7,000 visits every year from researchers, mainly from all over Germany and other European countries, who come to conduct cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields. With PETRA IV, this will increase significantly and PETRA IV also offers fantastic analytical methods for industry. Over the past two years, I have looked at a total of ten synchrotrons around the world - in the USA, China and Europe - and almost all of them are also planning to upgrade their facilities; in Grenoble, China and the USA, these are already complete or almost complete. PETRA IV will put Europe back at the forefront of international competition with the USA and China. And every euro invested in PETRA IV will have at least quintupled in value after ten years of operation. Our fantastic planning team has already drawn up a very detailed plan. We will therefore certainly be able to realise the project within the planned timeframe and budget if it is approved in the near future.

I would also like to drive forward the topic of computing and digitalisation: Digital methods (e.g. artificial intelligence) are developing rapidly and offer many opportunities in all kinds of areas at DESY, e.g. in the operation of the accelerators, in the evaluation of data, or also to achieve better transparency, more standardisation and a simplification of processes. Our research facilities provide very diverse and interesting data, which is why young people receive an excellent education here. Nothing is more exciting for data scientists than interesting data. Our surrounding area also benefits from this: many of the doctoral students go on to work in the local economy in the field of data science. The scientific review also rated our activities at DESY in the field of data science as "outstanding". We should use this to build a beacon for data science in northern Germany here in Science City together with the University of Hamburg: with a new joint, sustainably designed data centre and a competence centre in which experts from data science solve problems together with experts from the specialist sciences. Computing is also an important topic in Zeuthen, especially with the new Science and Data Management Centre, the Centre for Quantum Technology Applications and the nearby TU Wildau, which has a focus on computer science.

I would also like to promote collaboration and communication at DESY. How can we strengthen networking between people in all areas and at all levels and thus enable more exchange of ideas, expertise and experience? We should think about this together, e.g. in the area of AI, but also in the area of engineering expertise. I would like to further strengthen internal communication overall. In my opinion, the importance of communication cannot be overestimated. And please feel free to contact me directly if you see a need for improvement or even have direct suggestions for improvement! (...) We are living in difficult and uncertain times. And unfortunately, the financial pressure over the past 2-3 years has sometimes led to overwork and frustration among you. I will do everything I can to ensure that this difficult phase is hopefully overcome quickly. In my opinion, it is particularly important in difficult times that we stand together and support, inspire and listen to each other.

My father took me to the Volksparkstadion back in the 1970s, so I've been an HSV fan ever since and have experienced many highs and lows (...) In football, too, it's important to have outstanding individual talents (...), but it's even more important to have a team spirit. This is the only way to become world champions (or, in the case of HSV, to achieve promotion!) And it's the same at DESY: fortunately, we haven't been playing for promotion for a long time, we're already among the world's best.

But to stay there or to become world champions, we need exactly that: the strengths of all individuals - from senior scientists to trainees - and close collaboration between us all. Marie Curie said 100 years ago: "Individual brilliance is valuable, but great scientific breakthroughs only come about through teamwork". With this in mind, I look forward to working with all of you in this team over the next five years and am sure that we will play an outstanding role locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Finally, I would like to thank Helmut. Together with the respective members of the Board of Directors and all employees, he has developed DESY into a very modern, world-class research centre. In particular, the Photon Science division has grown strongly without weakening the other research areas. This is a real feat and I am now inheriting a truly diverse, modern and very efficient laboratory. The assessment speaks for itself: it couldn't be better. So, thank you Helmut for everything you have done for DESY and for the support you have always given me personally. (...)