Germany’s largest accelerator centre celebrates its birthday on 18 December: the research centre Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY turns 50. Since its foundation in 1959, DESY has developed into an internationally renowned centre for fundamental research. “DESY stands for top-level research in the development of particle accelerators and in the utilisation of these facilities to study the structure and function of matter,” says Professor Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors.

DESY was established on 18 December 1959 with the signing of the State Treaty between the City of Hamburg and the Federal Republic of Germany. The founding father and first director, Professor Willibald Jentschke, wanted to set up a competitive particle accelerator to take an active part in the upcoming research field of particle physics. In 1964, the first accelerator, which incidentally also gave the research centre its name Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, took up operation. The DESY accelerator, the largest one at its time, was followed by the storage rings DORIS in 1974, PETRA in 1978 and HERA in 1990. All these accelerators were used for the thorough investigation of the innermost structure of matter by measuring subatomic particle collisions in detectors, some as big as a house. Researchers working on PETRA detected the gluon, the “glue” particle that transmits the strong force between quarks and holds these elementary particles together, and HERA accurately resolved the complicated structure of the proton. These insights are now standard material for physics textbooks and will help in the analysis of data taken at experiments like the Large Hadron Collider LHC at CERN.

From the very beginning, scientists at DESY pioneered a second field of research based on the use of particle accelerators: research with synchrotron light. This special light is emitted from particles in the accelerator, thus making them the brightest X-ray sources of the world. The synchrotron light of DORIS and PETRA III gives access to much clearer insights into the nanocosmos; the free-electron lasers FLASH and the future European XFEL, both using superconducting linear accelerators, will enable “movies” of the nanocosmos. With these glimpses into the nanoworld, it is possible to study the function of bio molecules or materials at the atomic level – a prerequisite to develop new medication or advanced materials. The best example for success in this field is this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Professor Ada Yonath, who headed a Max Planck Working Group at DESY for 18 years and decoded the structure and function of the ribosome.

After the German reunification, DESY in Zeuthen joined the lab in Hamburg. In Zeuthen in Brandenburg, scientists are focusing on astroparticle physics and the development of high-performance computers.

Today, DESY celebrates its 50th anniversary with a reception in the Hamburg City Hall. Nobel Prize winner Ada Yonath will be the guest of honour and sign the Golden Book of Hamburg.