Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
The Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy ( HZB), until June 4, 2008 Hahn- Meitner- Institut Berlin ( HMI), since November 11, 2008 legally merged with the Berlin Electron Storage Ring Society for Synchrotron Radiation ( BESSY ) is a scientific research of the Federal and the State of Berlin. It was founded in 1959 under the name of the Hahn-Meitner - Institute for Nuclear Research. HZB has the legal form of a GmbH and is funded 90 percent by the federal government (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and to 10 percent by the State of Berlin ( Senate Department for Science, Research and Culture ) bequests. On January 1, 2009, the merger of the Helmholtz Centre Berlin with the Berlin Electron Storage Ring Society for Synchrotron Radiation ( BESSY ) was visible.
The Helmholtz Centre Berlin operates at two locations in Berlin -Wannsee ( Lise- Meitner Campus ) and in Berlin -Adlershof ( Wilhelm- Conrad-Röntgen - Campus ) basic research in the fields of the structure of matter, solar energy and to a small extent health. It operates two large-scale equipment, the Berlin experimental reactor ( BER II ) with the facilities Berlin Center for Neutron Scattering ( BENSC ) and neutron activation analysis (NAA ) and the electron storage ring BESSY II By the end of 2006, the accelerator in Wannsee was used for research.
In addition, the facility has in cooperation with the Charité through a unique in Germany, department of medical proton therapy, for which a cyclotron protons with an energy of 68 MeV provides. There eye tumors are treated primarily. It operates the state collecting Berlin ( Central Agency for radioactive waste - ZRA ) of the State of Berlin.
It has about 1,100 employees, about 40 percent of them are scientists. Primarily plans BENSC, NAA and BESSY II are used by many scholars. The Institute is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. The patron of the center is the physiologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, for the HMI there were the two pioneers of Radiochemistry and Nuclear Physics, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner.