Projects for the Future: Research for the World of Tomorrow
As a member of the Helmholtz Association, the HZDR operates large-scale research facilities which are also available to guests from Germany and abroad wishing to conduct measurement studies. Part of the large-scale scientific equipment permits new insights into the behavior of matter under extreme conditions; that is, under extremely high temperatures, pressures, and electromagnetic fields as well as intense radiation. This core subject combines the HZDR’s in-house materials science research with the focal points cancer research and nuclear safety research; thus, permitting comprehensive research results in an interdisciplinary approach which help solve scientifically and socially relevant problems.
In order to prepare the Helmholtz center in Dresden even better for the future when it comes to the analysis of materials in extreme states, the Free State of Saxony finances three large building projects in Rossendorf. This creates, in part, very rare and unique research opportunities for researchers from around the globe.
Center for High Power Radiation Sources
With the expansion of the radiation source ELBE, a center for high power radiation sources is being built between 2009 and 2014. The new constructions include a high performance laser system in the petawatt range, a narrow and a broadband terahertz source as well as experiments for coupling the high performance laser with the ELBE electron beam. While high performance lasers are used in cancer research, the other facilities supplement the research conducted in the sector new materials.
Contact: Prof. Thomas Cowan, Prof. Ulrich Schramm, Dr. Peter Michel
Expansion of Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory
The Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD) is being expanded as an international user center. From 2011 to 2013, it will be equipped with a new capacitor bank and additional magnetic cells to meet the great demand for measurement times in ultrahigh pulsed magnetic fields. The Dresden researchers are already cooperating intensely with the European high magnetic field laboratories in Nijmegen, Grenoble, and Toulouse in the EU programs “EuroMagNET” and “European Magnetic Field Laboratory – EMFL.”
Contact: Prof. Joachim Wosnitza
DRESDYN
The objective of the DRESDYN project is the creation of a European platform for dynamo experiments and thermohydraulic studies with fluid sodium. Between 2013 and 2015, for example, the world’s first precision dynamo is to be developed with which it will be possible to simulate more realistically, for example, the evolution of the earth’s magnetic field, the magnetosphere, than has been possible with today’s propeller-driven dynamo experiments like the one in Riga. These methods will also yield detailed insights into metal melts to develop new liquid-metal batteries for storing energy and to research the safety of the next generation of liquid-metal-cooled nuclear reactors.
Contact: Dr. Gunter Gerbeth
Center for Radiopharmaceutical Tumor Research
The Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research has been successfully working on the development and testing of radiopharmaceuticals for many years, mainly for the diagnosis of cancer. To follow also new questions, in particular such concerning cancer therapy, the institute's infrastructure is going to be modernized and expanded. In the new building will be room for new laboratories, cleanrooms, and a new cyclotron as well as an area for the small animal's imaging. The building is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Contact: Prof. Jörg Steinbach