XFEL: Looking forward to excellent cooperation!

The University of Hamburg and Hamburg University of Technology (TU Hamburg) have secured funding for Clusters of Excellence, as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. "Congratulations to the University of Hamburg and the TU Hamburg, and especially to our partners in the clusters CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter and BlueMat: Water driven Materials on this outstanding achievement," says Sakura Pascarelli, Scientific Director at European XFEL. “We are proud to be part of these great endeavours and look forward to many years of fruitful collaboration to continue unravelling the mysteries of matter together.”

The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) is a cluster of excellence of the University of Hamburg in cooperation with the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and European XFEL. Based on the Science City Bahrenfeld campus, CUI scientists are investigating how atoms bond to form solids, how molecules interact and react and how new functionalities are created in the process. The almost 200 scientists from disciplines like physics, chemistry or structural biology have joined forces to observe, understand and control these processes. They often come to Schenefeld to conduct research at the instruments of the European XFEL.

The aim of BlueMat is to develop nature-inspired, sustainable and interactive material systems that reveal their functionality in water or aqueous environments, or that derive their unique functionality from the special properties of water. An interdisciplinary team from TU Hamburg, University of Hamburg, DESY, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, the Helmholtz Centre Hereon, the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD), European XFEL and other associated partners in the Hamburg area are contributing to the cluster of excellence.