1966 Let there be (X-ray) light

Particle accelerators as light sources are several orders of magnitude stronger than common X-ray tubes that people know from medical facilities. DESY Ph.D. student Ruprecht Haensel became an X-ray pioneer: he led the first fundamental experiments with synchrotron radiation at the DESY accelerator ring. In an underground measuring station, he built the first laboratory for experiments using synchrotron radiation. In his experiments, Haensel, who later became rector of the Univeristy of Kiel, systematically confirmed the properties of the radiation and, for the first time, defined its large research potential.

"We knew then that we were dealing with a highly interesting thing," said Haensel later on. "But how the field thereafter developed – no one could have any clue about that."