An initial ceremony roughly two years ago was held with North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Science and Research, attendance of which was limited due to the pandemic, but now the FTD actually commenced operation within the framework of a scientific symposium on “Cutting-Edge Detector Technologies.” “At today’s symposium we saw in impressive fashion how we are very much on track in our efforts to make the FTD a leading location for detector physics in Europe and beyond. The FTD provides a state-of-the-art work environment for our researchers where they can closely collaborate with other major centers for particle physics around the world,” commented University of Bonn Rector Professor Michael Hoch.
At the start-up ceremony, high-profile international particle and hadron physicists had opportunity to learn about the new infrastructure while making new research contacts. Scientific lectures were also held as part of the symposium, and guests were given a tour of the FTD affording insights into the research and development work on particle detectors currently ongoing at the University of Bonn.
Professor Beate Heinemann, Director in charge of Particle Physics at DESY in Hamburg, commented: “It’s impossible to overstate the critical role of detectors in achieving future advances in the natural sciences.” University of Bonn research groups develop and build these detectors to conduct experiments at CERN, DESY and GSI/FAIR - the big European research institutions. Numerous partnerships are also maintained with universities and research labs around the globe.
“University of Bonn Physics is a major partner for CERN, making key contributions to our experiments and scientific program,” said Professor Joachim Mnich, Director for Research and Computing at CERN, “they have unique infrastructure in place for these purposes.”
The FTD provides an outstanding environment for researchers active in different areas of detector physics to collaborate, sharing usage of state-of-the-art infrastructure that individual working groups could never otherwise have access to, including clean rooms, subterranean labs and large equipment.
“Centers like the FTD can play an important role in Germany and Europe in promoting scientific advancements and furthering German high-energy and nuclear physics generally by developing technologies used in experimentation and lab work at other institutions,” commented Professor Paolo Giubellino, Scientific Managing Director of GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt.
Advancements made at the FTD can prove fruitful in many different fields, like medical technology, life sciences and materials science. “Making gains in our microcosmal understanding requires ever more precise and faster particle detectors,” said Professor Bernhard Ketzer, who is one of the FTD’s two speakers. Co-speaker Professor Jochen Dingfelder added: “Technologies developed at the FTD help us find answers to some of the big questions about our universe.” And students benefit as well, who can directly access the latest FTD research for their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral theses.
