All BESSY II instruments reconnected to the network
© HZB / D. Laubner
Thirteen months ago, HZB fell victim to a criminal cyberattack that also took BESSY II light source and the instruments in the experimental hall out of operation. BESSY II was up and running again after just three weeks and the instruments were gradually put back into operation. Now HZB can report some good news: All experimental stations are again integrated into the new IT networks and can record data.
In a task force led by Andreas Jankowiak and Jens Viefhaus, a team led by Ruslan Ovsyannikov succeeded in implementing a new IT infrastructure and a resilient network architecture. This project is now to be firmly established and perpetuated at HZB. The aim is to achieve the full functionality of the BESSY-II user service, to establish new possibilities for remote experiments and better data management.
The project also benefits from the successes of an international cooperation that is developing a new basis for experimental data management at light sources and small labs called Bluesky. With Bluesky, a new type of experimental data acquisition system is being introduced throughout BESSY II (under the leadership of HZB employees William Smith and Simone Vadilonga). It is already in operation at several BESSY beamlines. The introduction of Bluesky at BESSY II is a milestone and has attracted much attention in the scientific community. Several European accelerators are interested in the novel data control system.
HZB is also participating in the Helmholtz project ROCK-IT (Remote, Operando Controlled, Knowledge-driven, and IT-based) to meet the future challenges of data management and the IT structures of large-scale scientific research facilities. The aim is to develop all necessary tools for the automation and remote access of in-situ and operando experiments at synchrotrons. Simplified access to the experiments is a central concern of the user community.
- New method shows how molecular switches are influenced by their neighborsResearchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) have, for the first time, been able to directly observe how the environment surrounding a molecular switch influences its electronic structure. Molecular switches are molecules that can be switched between two states by external influences such as changes in temperature—similar to a switch with the positions »On« and »Off«. Such molecules are being investigated as potential building blocks for future data storage devices or sensor materials. Using magnetic-field-dependent terahertz spectroscopy, the researchers have now, for the first time, been able to distinguish whether neighbouring molecules in a material are in the same or different states. The results have been published in the journal »Angewandte Chemie International Edition«.
- BESSY II is back in operation after maintenance shutdownOn 7 September 2026, BESSY II was set into operation after a four-week shutdown. BESSY II is scheduled to resume full user operation on 22 September.
- SEAlab accelerator project completed: Achievements and outlookThe SEAlab accelerator project successfully completed its final measurement campaign in summer 2026. The facility is now being dismantled, with many components set to be reused. The two accelerator physicists, Axel Neumann and Thorsten Kamps, explain what the project has achieved and provide an outlook for the future.