Dr. Ivan Miskun has been honored with the FAIR-GSI PhD Award 2020. The recognition, which is awarded annually, is endowed with 1000 euros donated by Pfeiffer Vacuum. The award was handed over in December during a virtual FAIR-GSI colloquium by Professor Paolo Giubellino, Scientific Director of FAIR and GSI, and Daniel Sälzer, Managing Director of Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH.

GSI scientist Danyal Winters was awarded a Fellowship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In this context, he received an invitation to spend several months of research in China within two years. At the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) in Lanzhou, he will research on the field of laser cooling of stored relativistic ions and further intensify the already successful collaboration between GSI and IMP.

An important component for the future CBM experiment, one of the four central pillars of the FAIR research program, has successfully performed the Site Acceptance Test (SAT) on the GSI/FAIR campus. On behalf of a team from the Nuclear Physics Institute (NPI) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) and from the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), Dr. Petr Chudoba (NPI) handed over the manipulator for PSD detector, an in-kind contribution for FAIR.

It is the entry in a new chapter in hadron physics: In a paper published today in the Journal “Nature”, the ALICE collaboration at the European Research Center CERN describes a technique that opens a door to many new high-precision studies at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the dynamics of the strong force between hadrons. From the beginning, GSI has played a leading role in the construction and scientific program of ALICE, one of the largest experiments at CERN.

The world has lost an outstanding and devoted scientist, which has left a legacy in science and particularly strengthened GSI and the FAIR project through his staunch support. The GSI/FAIR management is saddened by the news that academician Vladimir Fortov passed away on 29 November 2020 and sends heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

It is a strong signal for the future: GSI/FAIR and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) are promoting young talents in international cooperation and therefore jointly establish the "International Joint FAIR/GSI-JINR School". Representatives of both institutions have now concluded a corresponding agreement.

As part of corona prevention, GSI and FAIR decided in March to suspend the lectures of the series “Wissenschaft für Alle” until further notice. Since the lecture events can still not be held on the campus, a digital offer is now taking their place. Starting December, the speakers will offer their lectures as video conferences. Interested parties can join in via a dial-in link using a web-enabled device.

Dr. Antoni Woss has been honoured with the PANDA Theory PhD Prize 2020 for his doctoral thesis at the University of Cambridge. The award was presented at the most recent Online PANDA Collaboration Meeting. Physicist Antoni Woss received the prize of €200 and a certificate for her dissertation titled "The scattering of spinning hadrons from lattice QCD".

How was the universe created? What are we made of? What does the "world machine" at CERN investigate? These were the questions that science enthusiasts were able to pursue during the “Week of the Particle World” (Woche der Teilchenwelt) from November 2 to 8, 2020. All over Germany, the locations of Netzwerk Teilchenwelt invited visitors to explore research in the field of particle and astroparticle physics. GSI and FAIR also took part in an online Masterclass.