Previous HZB Foresight Workshops

The "Joint BAM-HZB Symposium on Multimodal Synchrotron Experiments for Next-Generation Materials Research" took place February 25 to 27, 2026 (lunch-to-lunch) at the BESSY lecture hall and served as a focused platform to advance and discuss multimodal synchrotron-based experiments as a key strategy for comprehensive materials characterization. With growing demands for efficient, sustainable, and function-driven materials development, combining complementary techniques in a single beamtime has become not only desirable but essential - especially for in situ and operando studies such as catalysis or battery cycling.

The event brought together scientists, engineers, beamline staff, and users from across the few existing beamlines currently enabling multimodal experiments. It also highlighted the importance of joint lab and beamline infrastructures, such as the envisioned battery village at HZB, to support coordinated online and offline measurements.

Beyond performance optimization, multimodal synchrotron methods are increasingly vital for the development of safer materials, within BAM's mission - from non-toxic battery components and fire-resistant composites to corrosion-resistant alloys for critical infrastructure. By revealing how structure, composition, and dynamics evolve under real-world conditions, multimodal experiments enable early identification of degradation pathways, failure mechanisms, or hazardous byproducts, guiding the design of inherently safer material systems.

Key topics included:

• The current landscape of multimodal experiments, instrumentation, and synchrotron infrastructure
• Practical and technical challenges in combining methods, especially in complex sample environments
• How multimodal approaches inform the development of safer, more robust materials across applications
• Data integration across techniques, and the role of machine learning in correlating descriptors in real-time
• Community-driven visions of an ideal multimodal beamline
• Strategies for fostering stronger connections with industrial partners

Through open discussion and shared expertise, the symposium aimed to define a roadmap for making multimodal synchrotron science more accessible, integrated, and impactful in both scientific and societal terms.

Scientific Committee: Prof. Dr. Franziska Emmerling (BAM), Dr. Antje Vollmer (HZB)

This Lunch-to-Lunch Satellite Workshop (December 3 to 4, 2019) attached to the HZB User Meeting (December 4 to 6, 2019) was organized in cooperation with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany’s National Metrology Institute, and was a part of Foresight Workshop Series dedicated to the BESSY III project.

BESSY III is expected to be a globally competitive synchrotron radiation source in the field of XUV, soft and tender X-rays for research and industry and will be optimally tailored to the needs of HZB and strategic partners like PTB, MPG, BAM, Berlin Universities, guest researchers and external Users.

The main goal of this first workshop in this series was to underline the significance of Materials Metrology nowadays, to point attention to a special importance of standardized, validated, and authenticated measurements, to show the necessity of quality management and developing standardized procedures of SI-units traceable measurements, data acquisition, storage and archiving, including their effective implementation in research of new functional materials. Further aspects were related to Fair Data and Open Science that will become relevant or even mandatory in the near and long-term future as well as to the question of Metadata, widely discussed in scientific community and politics.

For more detailed information on the previous workshop on 'Materials Metrology' please download the Booklet. The answers on questions collected within on-line questionnaire could be found here. 

The BESSY II Foresight Workshop on 'Energy Materials Research' was held from October 10 to 11, 2016 in Berlin-Adlershof.

The „Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie“ focuses on developing advanced materials for solar energy conversion and storage. With our research we aim to contribute to a sustainable, economic and secure energy supply comprising the full value chain from dedicated infrastructures that allow guided design, synthesis and analysis, research of basic principles, to the transfer to applications for the society.

One of the infrastructures at BESSY II is EMIL, the Energy Materials In-situ Laboratory. In a concerted effort together with the Max Planck Society, EMIL offers a pivotal, unique infrastructure for Energy Materials Research at our synchrotron light source. In addition to EMIL a variety of experimental set-ups facilitate experiments on photovoltaics, energy conversion, energy storage and energy saving.

Scope of the workshop

After introductory overview talks on the main topics of Energy Materials Research, topical sessions allowed an intense exchange of ideas and were completed by a common discussion on needs and expectations concerning beam properties, instrumentation, and sample environment. A poster session and a facility visit were also also part of the programme.

As a parallel workshop a HERCULES Workshop was held. The HERCULES Workshop pointed out the main results and highlights of the work carried out in the HERCULES project. Furthermore, it aimed at providing a platform for discussion of these results in the broader context of photovoltaics research, development and industrialization in Europe.

Scientific Committee
Marcus Bär
Klaus Lips
Simone Raoux
Bernd Rech
Roel van de Krol
Antje Vollmer

For more detailed information on the previous HZB Foresight Workshop on 'Energy Materials Research' please download the Booklet.

The HZB Foresight Workshop 'Tender X-rays in MX' was held on December 11, 2015 in Berlin-Adlershof and was attached to the HZB User Meeting (December 9 to 10, 2015).

Scientific organizer: Dr. Manfred Weiss

The central theme of the workshop was the use of tender X-rays in the field of macromolecular crystallography (MX). While typical MX experiments are conducted at wavelengths of around 1.0 Å (energy 12.4 keV), there is an ever growing tendency to also consider wavelengths in the tender X-ray region (1.5-3.0 A and beyond) for MX applications. Examples are the possibility to determine the structures of native proteins by sulphur anomalous scattering (native SAD), the unambiguous discrimination from protein-bound solvent ions from water molecules, the determination of oxidation states of relevant metal ions in protein structures, the investigation of solvent and substrate channels using Xenon mapping, etc. In the workshop, some of these modern developments were highlighted and a case was made for the increased use of tender X-rays for MX applications.

 

Manfred Weiss HZB	On the Use of Tender X-rays in Macromolecular Crystallography
Wayne Hendrickson Columbia University	Optimization of Anomalous Diffraction Analyses for Native Biomolecules
Oliver Einsle Universität Freiburg	Analysis of Bioinorganic Metal Sites by Spatially Refined Anomalous Dispersion
Andreas Förster DECTRIS	Pushing the limits of experimental phasing with new HPC detectors
James Holton Berkeley	SHSSS! The dominant source of error anomalous difference measurements
Michele Cianci EMBL Hamburg	Data collection with a tailored X-ray beam size at 2.69 Å wavelength (4.6 keV): Sulfur SAD phasing of Cdc23Nterm
Meitian Wang SLS at PSI	Native-SAD Phasing in de novo Macromolecular Structure Determination
Leo Chavas SOLEIL	Structure Determination of Naturally Occurring Crystals via Soft X-rays
Armin Wagner Diamond	The long-wavelength MX beamline at Diamond Light Source
Markus Wahl FUB	Structure validation and phasing using tender X-rays
Oliver Daumke MDC	Structural studies of dynamin superfamily GTPases
Manuela Gorgel LMU Munich	Against the Odds? De-novo Structure Determination of a Single Cysteine Bridge Protein
Karol Nass MPI for Medical Research	Towards protein crystal structure determination using sulfur phasing at X-ray free electron lasers

 

The HZB Foresight Workshop on 'THz to Soft X-ray' was held from December 7 to 8, 2015.

Covering resonance energies of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and 3d transition metals, soft X-ray photons provide element specificity and unravel the local electronic structure of materials in energy research, magnetism, spintronics, electron correlations, (surface) chemistry and catalysis. VUV photoelectron spectroscopy is at the heart of connecting electronic band structure with macroscopic properties. Infrared light is especially helpful to investigate biological systems as well as vibrational, structural and electronic properties of liquids, solids, surfaces and thin layers while coherent THz radiation is unique for magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

BESSY II offers a suite of photon energies to study materials with future impact in challenging fields such as efficient energy conversion, information technology, as well as catalysis and life sciences.

The scope of the workshop was to present achievements and perspectives of the various fields, and to foster discussion about future requirements for source and instrumentation to exploit synchrotron radiation from THz to soft X-rays.

Scientific Committee
Norbert Koch
Oliver Rader
Alexander Schnegg
Christian Schüßler-Langeheine
David Starr
Antje Vollmer
Philippe Wernet
Eugen Weschke

For more detailed information on the previous HZB Foresight Workshop 'THz to Soft X-ray' please download the Flyer and the Booklet.

The HZB Foresight Workshop on 'Imaging' was held from October 5 to 6, 2015 in Berlin-Adlershof.

Synchrotrons have opened multiple opportunities for exploring the structure and properties of matter. With nanoscale resolution, modern spectromicroscopies based on photon-in/photon-out and photon-in/electron-out techniques deliver unique elemental, chemical, structural, magnetic, and electronic information.

The workshop focused on recent advances and future prospects in synchrotron imaging technologies and their applications. World leading experts illustrated current achievements and future developments in PEEM (photoemission electron microscopy), X-ray microscopy, coherent X-ray imaging methods (ptychography, holography) and synchrotron X-ray tomography.

This workshop provided the opportunity to present and exchange ideas for imaging at current and future synchrotron light sources. An important focus was the development of a roadmap to couple instrumentation with scientific applications to open up new areas to imaging at future coherent light sources.

Scientific Committee
Stefan Eisebitt
Florian Kronast
Bernd R. Müller
Simone Raoux
Gerd Schneider
Antje Vollmer

For more detailed information on the previous HZB Foresight Workshop on 'Imaging' please download the Flyer and the Booklet.

This HZB Foresight Workshop on time-resolved studies at BESSY II 'From PICO to FEMTO' was held from January 26 to 27, 2015 in Berlin-Adlershof.

Synchrotron-based, time-resolved techniques provide unprecedented insights into various areas of applied and fundamental science, this being largely due to their unique capabilities of allowing for a direct view onto the constituent building blocks of matter (electrons, spins, atoms, and molecules) on their characteristic length- and time-scales.

Prominent examples are the detection of non-equilibrium phases of matter, the characterization of transient and metastable magnetic and chemical states and the real-time observation of light-harvesting materials and biological systems, just to name a few.

As such, there is an increased demand ofthe user community for high brilliance X-ray light sources with flexible time structures that could accommodate such time-resolved techniques covering the full spectral range from far-IR to hard X-rays.

Scientific Committee
Marcus Bär
Iver Lauermann
Tobias Lau
Nico Pontius
Ilie Radu
Christian Schüßler-Langeheine
Philippe Wernet
Antje Vollmer

For more detailed information on the previous HZB Foresight Workshop 'From PICO to FEMTO' please download the Flyer and the Booklet.

This HZB Foresight Workshop on 'Tender X-ray' was held from December 1 to 2, 2014 in Berlin-Adlershof.

Synchrotron Radiation from Terahertz to hard X-rays is a very powerful tool in various fields of modern science. However, many scientific questions addressing the grand challenges of today’s society indicate a growing demand in experimental infrastructure, particularly in the photon energy range between 1.5 keV and 8 keV – the Tender X-ray regime.

These excitation energies allow in-air or high-pressure experiments as well as depth-resolved analysis of (buried) interfaces in UHV.

Examples are spectroscopic investigations of modern catalytic and solar energy conversion materials, i.e., lighter transition metals for solar fuels production as well as in situ studies of electrochemical or biological processes. An increasing demand for Tender X-rays might also be expected from scientists in life science, renewable energies, and battery research.

Scientific Committee
Marcus Bär
Iver Lauermann
Tobias Lau
Nico Pontius
Ilie Radu
Christian Schüßler-Langeheine
Philippe Wernet

For more detailed information on the previous HZB Foresight Workshop 'Tender X-ray' please download the Flyer.