A high-level delegation from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) visited GSI and FAIR on 11 September 2026 to explore opportunities for closer cooperation in science and technology and in Science for EU Policies.

FAIR is a particle accelerator of superlative proportions. The exhibition “Form Follows Beam. Architektur für einen Teilchenbeschleuniger” at the Architektur Galerie Berlin showcases how its architecture is taking shape. From September 4 to October 10, 2026, the ion42 consortium (DGI Bauwerk and schneider+schumacher) will provide insights into the construction of this mega-research facility through photos and multimedia content. The exhibition opened on September 3.

This year’s GSI and FAIR summer party featured a special highlight: expressing gratitude to the emergency services who extinguished the fire at GSI on February 5, 2026. As a token of appreciation, they were given exclusive tours of the campus, and the management presented an art book featuring drawings of GSI/FAIR’s research and facilities to incident commander Johanna Herdt on behalf of the entire team.

The 2026 summer outcome for the GSI/FAIR SCIENCE POP-UP is extremely positive: The activities in the interactive hands-on space were among the summer attractions in downtown Darmstadt. Despite the sometimes very hot temperatures, more than 1,200 science enthusiasts of all ages visited the exhibition space in Darmstadt’s pedestrian zone during the school vacation and took the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge research using particle accelerators.

Physicist Professor Maxim Mai has been appointed to the professorial chair of Theoretical Hadron Physics at Justus Liebig University Gießen (JLU), starting on September 1, 2026. This is a joint appointment with the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, to which JLU has been closely linked through a cooperative partnership for more than 15 years. The professorship is being established as part of the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Heisenberg Program.

Researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung have succeeded for the first time in decelerating highly charged ions from the GSI accelerator to low energies and subsequently storing them in a Penning trap. They were also successful in performing the first-ever electron cooling of highly charged ions in such a trap. The results have now been published in the journal “Physical Review X (PRX)”.

FAIR has joined the Science|Business Network, one of Europe’s leading networks connecting research organizations, universities, industry and policy-makers to strengthen the European research and innovation ecosystem. By becoming a member, FAIR reinforces its commitment to cross-border, cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing across key research and innovation domains.

The new Secretary General of the CDU in Hesse, Leopold Born, visited GSI and FAIR together with Hartwig Jourdan, a member of the state parliament of Hesse from Darmstadt, and Paul Georg Wandrey, a city council member and head of public order for the City of Darmstadt (both CDU). The visit focused on scientific activities, the progress of the FAIR project, and the repair and restoration measures following the fire.

How can astronauts and satellites be protected from cosmic radiation? What part do particle accelerators play in this? These questions are the focus of the “ESA-FAIR Space Radiation Summer School 2026”, which is currently being held in Darmstadt. This renowned event is the world’s leading training program in the field of space radiation research and brings together young researchers from more than ten countries to spend two weeks intensively addressing the challenges posed by cosmic radiation...