Not everything in the universe is symmetrical

9 January 2015




Helmholtz Institute Mainz

Cooperation is an important aspect as it was cooperation that brought Budker from the renowned University of California in Berkeley to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in early 2014. Here he is in charge of one of the research sections at the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) founded in 2009, which is gradually taking form in a new building just a few hundred meters away.



Russia, USA, Germany


He then transferred to Berkeley where his academic career began to take off. He received numerous awards, including one for his outstanding doctoral dissertation, and by 2003 he held an eminent Miller Professorship. It was at Berkeley that he came into contact with leading scientists such as Saul Perlmutter, holder of the Nobel Prize in Physics, or Steven Chu, who worked as Barack Obama's Secretary of Energy.

"I lived for 25 years in Russia and for another 25 years in California," summarizes Budker. Will he stay for 25 years in Mainz now? "Well," he says with a smile on his face, "even as a professor you need to retire at some point."

Always new ideas, new people


However, Budker and his team are by no means limited to this one field. "Different people keep coming up with new ideas so we try out a lot of stuff. Outsiders may find it a bit chaotic, but we stimulate each other. That works well." For example, his colleague from Poland with the laptop on his knees is investigating how diamonds could be used to measure magnetic fields.

Getting things started

Even in this room with the bicycles and the wash basin in the corner, there seems to be a palpable feeling that something remarkable is in the offing. The new FAIR accelerator for antiproton and ion research currently being built at GSI in Darmstadt will make an entire series of new experiments possible. Budker is also involved in the Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter (PRISMA) Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and he is a member of the QUANTUM group at the JGU, in which several institutes of Mainz University are collaborating. When the HIM building will be finished, Budker will be moving once again, although this time around he will not have very far to go.
