From left to right: Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association, Herlind Gundelach, Hamburg´s Science Senator, Annette Schavan, Federal Minister for Education an Research and DESY Director Helmut Dosch push the start button for PETRA III.

In Hamburg, researchers from all over the world will be able to use a new research facility of superlatives: on the campus of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, a research centre of the Helmholtz Association, the world’s most modern storage-ring-based synchrotron radiation source was inaugurated on Monday. With PETRA III, scientists expect to get fundamental new insights in the structure of matter. “This Hamburg-based facility offers unique perspectives,” said Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan at the inauguration. Acknowledging the achievements of the project team around DESY Photon Science Director Professor Edgar Weckert, she said “PETRA III is now inaugurated after a refurbishment of barely two and a half years, within the projected cost and time schedule. This is exemplary. I look forward to the discoveries that will be made with the PETRA III X-ray light.”

PETRA III opens up completely new opportunities, especially in the field of structural biology, for example in the research of protein structures. This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry shows the importance of this field of research. One of the laureates was Ada Yonath, who from 1986 to 2004 decoded the structure of ribosomes on the DESY campus, at PETRA III’s predecessor DORIS III. “I welcome the plans to build a Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in the immediate vicinity of PETRA III,” Minister Schavan said. “The collaboration between physicists, biologists and infection researchers offer great opportunities for important medical applications.”

“With PETRA III at DESY, we inaugurate the world’s best synchrotron radiation source of its kind,” said Professor Helmut Dosch, Chair of the DESY Board of Directors. “The hair-thin high-energy X-ray beams of PETRA III will give researchers from many disciplines the opportunity to obtain an accurate view of nano- and biomaterials, a vital prerequisite for tomorrow’s medications and high-performance materials.”

“Interdisciplinary projects based on the cooperation of universities with non-university research facilities are a trademark of the Hamburg science region,” Hamburg Senator for Science and Research Dr. Herlind Gundelach emphasised. “New large-scale facilities bring about the creation of focal points, for example in the field of structural biology, for which scientific concepts are currently being designed, or for the field of materials science. In this context, I am very pleased that four successful clusters of our Federal Excellence Initiative are realised with the participation of DESY, with the use of PETRA III.”

The modernisation of PETRA and the construction of the new experimental hall for PETRA III were jointly funded by the German Government and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg with 233 million Euros, nearly 150 million of which coming from special funds. Following the rule for Helmholtz Association facilities, Hamburg has contributed 10 percent and the Federal Government 90 percent of the total. Within the framework of collective research, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research provided an additional 12.2 million Euros for experiments in the current funding period, which give scientists from German universities the opportunity to optimally exploit PETRA III for their research projects.

The existing PETRA ring accelerator has been converted into a state-of-the-art facility for X-ray light. Moreover, a 280-metre-long experimental hall was built, housing 14 beamlines and 30 measuring stations for simultaneous use. PETRA III’s most innovative technology are the undulator magnets which force the accelerated particles onto a zigzag path, thus making them emit especially intense X-ray radiation. PETRA III has already established a record before its final commissioning: the facility produced the world’s finest X-ray beam.

Laser show for DESY´s new light source