Building international research networks

PIER International

Research on Bahrenfeld campus has always been international in scope. Scientists from more than 40 different countries visit Bahrenfeld every year to conduct research at one of the research facilities available on campus.

PIER promotes international research collaboration between DESY and Universität Hamburg researchers and their international colleagues in the PIER research and competence fields. PIER activities on the international level focus on the support of research initiatives with selected partners abroad, for example by organizing joint workshops, granting seed funding for joint projects or providing administrative support for joint international training programs. In addition, PIER provides funding for short visits of international researchers in Hamburg. PhD students who are members of the PHGS can apply for travel grants.

»World-Class research goes hand in hand with international collaborations.«

Portrait of Franz Kärtner/ © Franz Kärtner

Prof. Franz Kärtner

Lead Scientst at DESY

Hamburg-MIT/Boston Network

For the years 2019 - 2022, PIER received funding from the Hamburg Ministry of Science, Research, Equality and Districts (BWFGB) to help establish and strengthen research collaboration between Hamburg researchers and their colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For this purpose, PIER organized a networking workshop of Hamburg and MIT researchers in Hamburg in January 2019. After the event, participants had the opportunity to apply for funding to develop their ideas in joint Hamburg-MIT seed projects. Follow-up meetings took place in June and October 2019.

In addition, PIER organized short-term research stays of MIT undergraduate students in Hamburg research groups in collaboration with the MIT-Germany Program. A total of eight slots were available for highly qualified MIT students who are interested in getting to know the dynamic research environment of the science campus Hamburg Bahrenfeld. Between 2019 and 2022, eight MIT undergraduate students spent three- to six-months-long research stays in Universität Hamburg and DESY groups and had the chance to gain hands-on research experience in Germany.

In the scope of the project, the PIER Office carried out different activities in order to establish contacts and intensify collaboration between researchers from Hamburg and MIT/Boston. An important pillar of the project activities were the organization of internship stays of MIT undergraduate students in Hamburg research groups. Some of the interns shared their impressions and experiences with us:

Lenna Kanehara

Student Intern

Lenna Kanehara, student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spent three months as research intern in Professor Christian Bressler’s group at European XFEL.

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Octavio Vega

Student Intern

MIT graduate Octavio Vega has been spending the past ten weeks as an intern in the Gravitational Wave Detection Research Group of Prof. Oliver Gerberding (Universität Hamburg).

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»I would absolutely consider coming back to Hamburg in the future.«

Octavio Vega, recent MIT graduate, spent ten weeks as an intern in the Gravitational Waves Detection research group of Prof. Oliver Gerberding (Universität Hamburg).

»I would absolutely consider coming back to Hamburg in the future.«

Octavio Vega, recent MIT graduate, spent ten weeks as an intern in the Gravitational Waves Detection research group of Prof. Oliver Gerberding (Universität Hamburg).