The history of the Institute of Nuclear Physics was and is characterized by three essential factors, which only in combination can make its history a success story:
- the continuous, visionary and globally unique further development of accelerator technologies
- the realization of various high-precision experiments to investigate the components of the nucleus and their interactions
- close cooperation and thematic interlinking between the experimental and theoretical working groups
From the very beginning, the basis for the successful implementation of all construction and research projects has been the support of politicians, university decision-makers and financial sponsors, such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), which has approved several special research areas for the research work at the Institute of Nuclear Physics since the 1980s:
- SFB 201 “Medium Energy with Electromagnetic Interaction” 1982-1998 (Spokesperson: Dieter Drechsel; later: Thomas Walcher)
- SFB 443 “Many-body structure of strongly interacting systems” 1999-2010 (Spokesperson: Thomas Walcher; later: Dietrich von Harrach)
- CRC 1044 “The Low Energy Frontier of the Standard Model: From Quarks and Gluons to Hadrons and Nuclei” 2012-2020 (Spokespersons: Achim Denig and Marc Vanderhaeghen)
- CRC 1660 “CRC 1660 Hadrons and Nuclei as Discovery Tools” since 2024 (Spokespersons: Concettina Sfienti and Marc Vanderhaeghen)
Chronicle
| 1957 | Formal foundation of the Institute of Nuclear Physics (KPH) under Herwig Schopper as its first director |
| 1961 | Hans Ehrenberg is appointed Director of the Institute |
| 1964 | Topping-out ceremony for the accelerator building and start of construction of a linear accelerator for electrons |
| 1967 | First electron beam from the linear accelerator |
| 1971 | The appointment of Dieter Drechsel and shortly afterwards that of Hartmuth Arenhövel establishes theoretical nuclear physics research at the Institute |
| 1975 | First proposal for the realization of a racetrack microtron (RTM) by Helmut Herminghaus |
| 1979 | First electron beam of the prototype RTM (MAMI A1) with 14 MeV final energy |
| 1983 | Completion of the first RTM expansion stage (MAMI A2) with 183 MeV final energy; subsequent start of experimental operation with MAMI A |
| 1989 | Approval for the construction of an experimental hall for the installation of three large magnetic spectrometers for carrying out coincidence experiments (today’s A1 experiment); Discontinuation of operation of the linear accelerator |
| 1991 | Establishment of the energy tagging technique in the A2 experiment |
| 1992 | Following the departure of Helmut Herminghaus, Karl-Heinz Kaiser takes over as head of the accelerator group; completion of a source for polarized electrons |
| 1993 | Installation of a system for coherent X-ray radiation in the X1 experiment under Hartmut Backe |
| 2001-2006 | Construction of the third extension MAMI C in the form of an HDSM (harmonic double-sided microtron) with 1.5 GeV final energy; subsequent start of experimental operation with MAMI C |
| 2002 | Transportation of the Crystal Ball detector from New York to Mainz. Followed by installation at MAMI. |
| 2003-2008 | Installation and conversion of the KAOS spectrometer in the A1 spectrometer system for the investigation of so-called strange hadrons |
| 2008 | MAMI reaches 100,000 operating hours since 1991 |
| 2008 | Installation of a computer cluster for simulations in theoretical physics |
| 2010 | Kurt Aulenbacher and Andreas Jankowiak start designing the MESA electron accelerator; from 2013 design of the first prototypes as part of the PRISMA Cluster of Excellence |
| 2018 | Presentation of the JGU Medal of Honor to Helmut Herminghaus and Karl-Heinz Kaiser |
| 2020 | Laying of the foundation stone of the CFP I building for MESA |
| 2022 | Start of the development of MESA as part of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence |
