Cluster of ExcellenceCUI: Advanced
Imaging of Matter

The application and nomination process for the Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professorship Program for 2026 is open. Each year, the program honors an internationally outstanding female scientist with the senior award and a promising young scientist with the junior award.

Great success for the University and the city of Hamburg as a hub of scientific pursuit: The University of Hamburg will continue to carry the University of Excellence title for the next 7 years. As such, it remains one of only a few universities in Germany to receive this significant funding. The funds will be used to...

Researchers from Germany, Japan and India, led by scientists from DESY and the Universities of Kiel and Hamburg, report in the journal Nature Communications that they have found a way to collectively make molecules on a flat surface rotate by exposing them to light using ultrafast light pulses from DESY’s free-electron...

When molecules fall apart, their electric charge doesn’t stay put—it rearranges as bonds stretch and break. An international team of scientists, including researchers from the Cluster of Excellence "CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter", has now tracked these ultrafast changes in the small molecule fluoromethane (CH₃F). It was...

How much time do scientists actually spend in the laboratory? What do they study there? On Girls' Day and Boys' Day on April 23, 2026, the school laboratories “Molecules & Schools” and “Light & Schools” as well as various working groups from the Department of Physics will provide insights into scientific research, the...

Valence electrons determine a crystal’s material and chemical properties, shaping how solids conduct electricity, interact with light, and form chemical bonds. Yet directly measuring how these electrons rearrange and move on atomic length scales remains a major experimental challenge. In Physical Review X, an international...