More than 100 participants at the Ultrafast X-ray Summer School

Interdisciplinary program features fundamentals and applications of ultrafast X-ray science.

More than 100 participants from 18 countries have attended this year´s Ultrafast X-ray Summer School UXSS 2023 at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL on the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld campus during this week.

The five-day course intends to give doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to learn about the latest developments and opportunities in ultrafast X-ray science. With a highly interdisciplinary program, topics ranged from accelerator physics to molecular biology. In lectures by eight internationally renowned experts, the participants could learn about the impact of the fast-developing ultrafast X-ray techniques on fields like structural biology, plasma physics, and chemistry.

The lecture program was complemented by practical group work, where participants wrote mock proposals for experiments at the world´s most powerful X-ray laser, the European XFEL in Schenefeld. In a poster session the best proposal was awarded.

“After these kinds of events were absent for a couple of years due to Covid-19, the UXSS 2023 was an important opportunity for young researchers to exchange new ideas and learn about the recent developments in the field”, says DESY organizer Ludger Inhester from the CFEL-DESY Theory Division.

UXSS 2023 was jointly organized by CFEL, the PULSE institute at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the U.S., and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland. It was financially supported by the Joachim Hertz Stiftung. The UXSS is held alternately at CFEL, PULSE, and PSI.