New joint leadership for BESSY II
Andreas Jankowiak and Antje Vollmer have been working together on a trusting basis for many years. As the new dual leadership, they are driving forward the technical and scientific development of BESSY II. © HZB/M.Setzpfandt
Andreas Jankowiak as new Technical Director and Facility Spokesperson Antje Vollmer share management responsibilities.
Prof. Andreas Jankowiak has been appointed Technical Director of BESSY II with a term of office of three years as of 1 June 2024 by resolution of the HZB board of directors. Antje Vollmer will start her second term as BESSY II Facility Spokesperson on 1 July 2024. Together, they form the new management duo to coordinate the scientific and technical development of the BESSY II X-ray source on behalf of the HZB management.
They will coordinate with internal stakeholders and external partners, prioritise their requirements, make recommendations to the HZB board of directors and prepare management decisions.
With the establishment of the new management duo, Prof. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of HZB, wants to streamline the organisational processes around BESSY II and delegate related management tasks. "Our BESSY II+ application and the conceptual preliminary report for the BESSY III (pre-CDR) project have been evaluated extremely positively by scientific review committees," says Bernd Rech. "We must now create the conditions to successfully implement the strategy that has been positively assessed and supported by the supervisory bodies. The new division of labour should help to clearly identify and initiate the necessary steps."
The management duo will work on an equal basis and in mutual coordination. The Facility Spokesperson will focus on all priorities, project planning, investment plans and processes relating to user operation and the strategic and scientific development of the BESSY II user facility and the complementary lab infrastructure. The Technical Director is responsible for the operation of BESSY II and prioritises operational priorities, project planning, investment projects and processes as well as the strategic-technical development of the BESSY II facility and the central infrastructure required for this, including the IT infrastructure.
- Ultrafast dissociation of molecules studied at BESSY IIFor the first time, an international team has tracked at BESSY II how heavy molecules – in this case bromochloromethane – disintegrate into smaller fragments when they absorb X-ray light. Using a newly developed analytical method, they were able to visualise the ultrafast dynamics of this process. In this process, the X-ray photons trigger a "molecular catapult effect": light atomic groups are ejected first, similar to projectiles fired from a catapult, while the heavier atoms - bromine and chlorine - separate more slowly.
- Battery research with the HZB X-ray microscopeNew cathode materials are being developed to further increase the capacity of lithium batteries. Multilayer lithium-rich transition metal oxides (LRTMOs) offer particularly high energy density. However, their capacity decreases with each charging cycle due to structural and chemical changes. Using X-ray methods at BESSY II, teams from several Chinese research institutions have now investigated these changes for the first time with highest precision: at the unique X-ray microscope, they were able to observe morphological and structural developments on the nanometre scale and also clarify chemical changes.
- BESSY II: New procedure for better thermoplasticsBio-based thermoplastics are produced from renewable organic materials and can be recycled after use. Their resilience can be improved by blending bio-based thermoplastics with other thermoplastics. However, the interface between the materials in these blends sometimes requires enhancement to achieve optimal properties. A team from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has now investigated at BESSY II how a new process enables thermoplastic blends with a high interfacial strength to be made from two base materials: Images taken at the new nano station of the IRIS beamline showed that nanocrystalline layers form during the process, which increase material performance.