The Second European XFEL Users’ Meeting during the photon-week at DESY

One thing is clear: the fourth week of January 2008 will go down as the first photon week in the history of DESY! All six sessions, some of which even took place in parallel, were very well attended. They provided a wealth of new and interesting information, sparked lively discussions, created a good atmosphere and – last but not least – were very well organized.

On occasion of the second European XFEL Users’ Meeting, which started on 23 January at 9:00 and ended on 24 January at 12:30, more than 250 participants from 25 countries filled the DESY auditorium. Among them were 20 young scientists from nine countries who are either currently writing their PhD thesis or have just obtained their PhD. They were invited to Hamburg within the EU project PRE-XFEL.

The first day featured 11 overview presentations on the status of the European X-ray laser project and the perspectives of various scientific fields. In his opening address, John Wood, the chairman of the International Steering Committee (ISC) for the XFEL, revealed that the eagerly awaited signing of the agreement on the foundation of the European XFEL GmbH is expected to take place in May 2008. He also announced that the ISC recently appointed Andreas S. Schwarz and Thomas Tschentscher as two further Directors of the future European XFEL GmbH, and that the search for a Technical Director is now in full swing. Massimo Altarelli, the head of the European XFEL Project Team, emphasized in his review of the year 2007 that thanks to the contribution by Russia of 250 million euros, which was made official a short time ago, financing of a “start-up” version with three FEL systems is now secure. This allows the construction of the European XFEL facility to begin speedily. The underground buildings will at any rate be realized as planned, so that the two missing FEL systems can be added anytime. The second day focused on “Ultrafast Magnetization Dynamics”, a session attended jointly by the participants of the international workshop “X-Ray Spectroscopy of Magnetic Solids”.