EU laser research centre inaugurated in Szeged – PHOTOS
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Budapest, May 23 (MTI) – The ELI Attosecond laser research centre was inaugurated in Szeged, in southern Hungary, on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the centre was the largest scientific investment in Hungary in modern history.
“The research centre is not an investment with the purpose of catching up with Europe; it is rather about making Europe catch up with the world,” he said.
The facility, part of the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project, will make a wide range of ultrashort light sources accessible to the international scientific community. The centre’s main areas of research and application are valence and core electron science, 4D imaging, relativistic interactions, and biological, medical and industrial applications.
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania won a joint bid for the ELI project in 2009. Other ELI projects include a particles and X-ray research facility in Prague and a photonuclear research facility on the outskirts of Bucharest.
The ELI Attosecond Light Pulse Source (ELI-ALPS) project in Szeged is expected to open new avenues to reveal the secrets of matter on ultrashort timescales.
“Hungary can be a winner in the future by creating an entire network of scientific research centres so that the country becomes not only a production centre but one devoted to research and development too,” Orbán said.
