News of December 12, 2024
Student group from Israel visits HZDR
On Monday, December 8, 2024, the group of students from Israel arrived at the campus in Dresden-Rossendorf together with students from Humboldt-Gymnasium Radeberg. Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt, Scientific Director, and the team from the DeltaX student laboratory welcomed the young visitors to the HZDR.
Source: HZDR / K. Zheynova
Over the past few days, from December 8 to 12, 2024, eight students from Israel visited the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the city of Dresden. Together with their peers from the 11th grade of the Humboldt-Gymnasium Radeberg, they enjoyed a diverse educational program with scientific workshops, guided tours of the HZDR research facilities and various social activities. The HZDR Student Laboratory DeltaX was responsible for organizing the week. On the Israeli side, the trip was carried out by the Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Centers, an institution under the umbrella of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
“With this exchange, we want to bring together talented young people from both countries so that they can expand their knowledge of physics and chemistry in our modern research facilities and laboratories,” says the Scientific Director of the HZDR, Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt, who welcomed the group to the DeltaX student laboratory on Monday. There, the students completed courses on radioactivity and the Wilson chamber, which can be used to observe particles as they decay. “These young researchers have the opportunity to experience first-hand that excellent science can only be achieved through international cooperation. The HZDR shares a particularly close partnership with its Israeli friends, to whom we stand in solidarity during these difficult times.“
Dr. Asaf Bar-Yosef, Director of the Rishon LeZion Campus of the Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Centers, adds: „This future scientists camp is a unique opportunity for students from Germany and Israel to take part in an international scientific program, cooperate in bi-national teams and get to know a new culture through the international language of science.“
At HZDR, the Israeli students clearly felt at home among all the interesting research facilities and exciting experiments. Together with the students from Radeberg, they visited the accelerator mass spectrometer at HZDR, which can be used to detect long-lived radioactive substances in the environment, and the ELBE light source, whose radiation is used for a wide range of research purposes from materials science to medicine. Another highlight of the week was an excursion to Freiberg with trips to the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at HZDR, the Terra Mineralia and the Freiberg Christmas market.
The Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Centers are an educational platform that trains talented young people in a special physics program in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rechovot, Israel. Their goal is to teach science in an in-depth and interactive way.
The Weizmann Institute and HZDR have been cooperating for many years. In 2017, the two organizations founded the Weizmann-Helmholtz Laboratory for Laser Matter Interaction (WHELMI), a research facility for particle acceleration with high-intensity laser beams. It is the first laboratory co-funded by the Helmholtz Association on the campus of a foreign partner.
This measure is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon State Parliament.
Further information:
Dr. Matthias Streller
Student Laboratory DeltaX at HZDR | Head
Phone: +49 351 260 3496
E-mail: m.streller@hzdr.de
