The shell construction work for the high-performance Fair control center on the grounds of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt began on Tuesday. “With the Fair facility, researchers from all over the world will be able to investigate key questions about the structure of the universe by generating the fundamental processes in the laboratory, but also to advance applications in medicine, materials research and IT, for example,” explained the scientific managing director of GSI and Fair, Professor Paolo Giubellino.
The symbolic laying of the foundation stone for one of the largest and most complex construction projects for research worldwide took place in the morning with high-ranking guests from politics, science and the construction industry. Hessen’s Science Minister Angela Dorn (Greens) emphasized at the ceremony: “Fair is creating a globally unique facility that is also of outstanding importance for the Hessian research landscape.” Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), Hessen’s Finance Minister Michael Boddenberg (CDU) and Darmstadt’s Mayor Jochen Partsch (Greens) also took part in the symbolic laying of the foundation stone for the new control center.
Hessen’s Science Minister Angela Dorn is putting her contribution into the time capsule at the symbolic laying of the foundation stone for the Fair Center: a dove of peace in the Ukrainian national colors : Image: dpa
The start of the work is an important step in the course of the construction of the international accelerator center Fair, FAIR GmbH spokesman Ingo Peter said in a statement. The Fair Control Center – short for “Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research” – will be a crucial hub of the entire infrastructure on the GSI/Fair campus after completion.
The Fair accelerator facilities will deliver particle beams of unprecedented intensity and precision. These enable researchers to carry out unique experiments in order to gain new insights into the structure of matter and the development of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Therefore, an integrated state-of-the-art control center is required to control and monitor the extremely complex accelerator facility.
In addition to the new main control room, more than 200 new scientific office workstations as well as meeting rooms and a visiting gallery are to be created in the building. The five-storey Fair Control Center (FCC) has a total area of around 6,000 square meters. At the same time, Fair offers an ideal training location for the next generations of scientists and engineers. In the coming years, Fair should be gradually put into operation.
