The search for an as-yet undiscovered elementary particle has been given fresh momentum as the German Research Foundation (DFG) has now greenlit the construction of a special €6 million magnet system in the Color meets Flavor Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn, University of Siegen and TU Dortmund University. Dubbed “BabyIAXO,” it is being built to hunt for the axion, a hitherto undetected elementary particle that could unlock one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in particle physics.

Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? How does the strong interaction create it? And what is the secret of dark matter, which is believed to constitute the bulk of what makes up the Universe? These fundamental questions are being studied by the new Color meets Flavor (CmF) Cluster of Excellence at the Universities of Bonn and Siegen, TU Dortmund and Forschungszentrum Jülich. The cluster was officially inaugurated at a ceremony held on July 1 in the Wolfgang Paul lecture hall at the University of Bonn in the presence of Ina Brandes, Minister of Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and a member of its state parliament. Accompanying her were Professor Michael Hoch, Rector of the University of Bonn, Professor Stefanie Reese, Rector of the University of Siegen, and Professor Manfred Bayer, President of TU Dortmund.

The winning teams of the 13th edition of the Beamline for Schools (BL4S) physics competition have been chosen. BL4S, initiated by CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, is open to secondary school pupils from all around the world. Participants are invited to submit a proposal for a physics experiment to be undertaken at the beamline of a particle accelerator, either at CERN or at one of the partner institutes DESY and ELSA at the University of Bonn. In 2026, five winning teams have been chosen, based on the scientific merit of their proposals.

Ina Brandes, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Science, presented a funding commitment of 113 million euros for the renovation of the Physikalisches Institut at the University of Bonn’s administration building. The funds come from the “North Rhine-Westphalia Plan for Good Infrastructure.”

Once again this year, the physics department at the University of Bonn took part in the nationwide Girls' Day.

The DFG is funding the development of ring laser interferometers for the high-precision measurement of rotational motions in the field of Earth sciences.

This year, the Physics Institutes once again held a Carnival celebration in the foyer of the Wolfgang Paul Lecture Hall on Weiberfastnacht.

The German Physical Society (DPG) is awarding Prof. Herbert Dreiner, Ph.D., from the Physics Institute of Bonn University, the Georg Kerschensteiner Prize 2026. He is being honored for his extraordinary commitment to making science accessible to a broad audience — in particular through the Bonn Physics Show, which he founded and has directed for many years. The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, during the 89th DPG Annual Meeting in Erlangen.