They already saw Earth from 400 kilometers above in space – now two astronauts, together with international space experts, visited the accelerator facilities of GSI and FAIR, where scientists explore the universe in the laboratory. During their visit to the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and the international accelerator center FAIR currently under construction here, they were welcomed by the management and scientists from GSI/FAIR. They had the possibility to gain exclusive…

A new round started for the ESA-FAIR Space Radiation Summer School 2025, one of the leading training programs in the field of radiation research. The renowned program brings together young scientists from all over the world to spend two weeks intensively exploring the challenges of cosmic radiation – a topic that is crucial for the future of space travel. The first-class summer school for radiation research is jointly organized by ...

How do particle accelerators work? What does the inside of a neutron star look like? Can ion beams be used to destroy tumors? Answers to these and other exciting questions were provided to 56 visitors to the GSI/FAIR campus in August as part of “Tage der Industriekultur Rhein-Main” (Industrial Heritage Days Rhine-Main) under this year's motto “shift change.” They gained an insight into the accelerators and experiments at GSI and the FAIR construction project.

A team of scientists from the Helmholtz Institute Mainz, a branch of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, has secured funding under the Helmholtz Enterprise spin-off program. Dr. Dominik Studer, Dr. Tom Kieck, and their colleague Yuki Ishikawa received €230,000 in funding over 14 months for their spin-off project AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) with the aim to prepare for the establishment of a company. The developed…

The research project “BARB – Biomedical Applications of Radioactive Ion Beams” funded by a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant to Professor Marco Durante, head of the Biophysics Department at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, has reached an important milestone: the first treatment of an animal tumor with radioactive ion beams has been demonstrated and published in Nature Physics. The study marks a decisive step towards the further development of particle therapy and is based on…

On the occasion of Christopher Street Day (CSD) in Darmstadt, the rainbow flag was raised on the GSI and FAIR campus to promote diversity, acceptance, and visibility. The management opened with a welcome address expressing solidarity with queer people and emphasizing the importance of an open, non-discriminatory work culture. Prior to this, during Pride Month in June, all employees were invited to attend a lecture entitled “Queer in the Workplace: LGBTIQA+ and Intersectionality in the Company.”

The new open-access volume “Hans Joachim Specht — Scientist and Visionary”, published in July 2025 by Springer, honors the life and work of Professor Hans Joachim Specht, who passed away in May 2024 at the age of 87. By tracing Specht’s scientific career and leadership role, it offers an insightful portrait of a physicist who profoundly shaped both the scientific agenda and institutional landscape of modern nuclear and heavy-ion physics in Europe.

A piece of GSI/FAIR's cutting-edge research is scheduled to be launched into space next year: the Biophysics department will be involved in one of the next scientific missions on the International Space Station (ISS) with a highly innovative research project. The “HippoBox” project was successfully reviewed by the German Space Agency at DLR and recently selected for participation in the CELLBOX-4 mission on the ISS. The aim of the project is to use brain organoids (“mini-brains”) to…

GSI/FAIR will continue its popular public lecture series “Wissenschaft für Alle” in a hybrid format in the second term of 2025. Interested parties can either attend the event in the lecture hall of GSI/FAIR following a registration or dial into the broadcast of the event via video conference using an internet-enabled device such as a laptop, cell phone or tablet. The program begins on Wednesday, August 20, 2025, with a lecture by Dr. Christina Will on the use of computer-aided design in the ...