Turning the Ship: The Transformation of DESY, 1993–2009

Abstract

This article chronicles the most recent history of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) located in Hamburg, Germany, with particular emphasis on how this national laboratory founded for accelerator-based particle physics shifted its research program toward multi-disciplinary photon science. Synchrotron radiation became DESY's central experimental research program through a series of changes in its organizational, scientific, and infrastructural setup and the science policy context. Furthermore, the turn toward photon science is part of a broader transformation in the late twentieth century in which nuclear and particle physics, once the dominating fields in national and international science budgets, gave way to increasing investment in the materials sciences and life sciences. Synchrotron radiation research took a lead position on the experimental side of these growing fields and became a new form of big science, generously funded by governments and with user communities expanding across both academia and industry.

Co-authorship networks and research impact in large research facilities: benchmarking internal reports and bibliometric databases

“…Until recently, "LSRFs have been object of only a few studies" according to Lauto and Valentin (2013). Considering SLSs, there are a growing number of historical accounts (Hallonsten 2015;Heinze et al 2017;Kramer 2018). From a sociological and ethnographic point of view the interest on SLSs has been apparently pioneered by Doing (2009).…”

Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe: History and current trends

“…In this regard, the launch of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), a collaborative nuclear and particle physics laboratory, in the 1950s was Europe's first postwar experience in large-scale cooperation (Hermann et al 1987(Hermann et al , 1990Krige 1996). Other examples of Big Science in Europe, extensively studied by historians and sociologists, are the European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Blaauw 1991;Madsen 2012), the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) (Pestre 1997;Jacrot 2006; D'Ippolito and Rüling 2019; D'Ippolito and Rüling, ch 11 in this volume), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) (Cramer 2017(Cramer , 2020Simoulin 2012) and the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) (Heinze et al 2015a(Heinze et al , 2015b(Heinze et al , 2017. Attention has also been paid to the broader historical, political and macrosociological developments of Big Science in Europe (Krige 2003;Hallonsten 2014Hallonsten , 2016aCramer 2020).…”

Tailoring Leadership to the Phase-Specific Needs of Large Scale Research Infrastructures

“…Other authors have undertaken significant work to examine different facets of research infrastructures and experimental collaborations using such facilities (D'Ippolito and Rüling, 2019); these include the wider economic impact of LSRIs (Autio et al, 1996(Autio et al, , 2004, historic narratives (Hermann et al, 1987a,b;Krige et al, 1997;Hallonsten, 2011;Hoddeson et al, 2008;Heinze et al, 2015b;Riordan et al, 2015;Heinze et al, 2015aHeinze et al, , 2017 and some evaluation exercises (Irvine and Martin, 1984;Martin and Irvine, 1984a,b). Yet, despite the prominence of LSRIs in the public sphere, their consumption of significant public funds, and the well-established policies for managing the construction of such facilities in the US and Europe (ESFRI, 2018;NSF, 2019), the literature lacks a cohesive conceptual framework concerning the management of LSRI construction projects by the host organisation and whether the project influences the host.…”