Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was created on 1 October 2009 when the Helmholtz Association’s Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe merged with the Universität Karlsruhe. KIT is one of the world’s largest institutions for teaching and research and has the potential to become an international leader in certain fields. The institute is active in the following areas: energy, climate and environment, nano and microtechnology, elementary particle physics and astroparticle physics, communication and computation, people and technology, mobility systems, new and applied materials, and optics and photonics.

From cell research to cosmic rays: The research areas

KIT is embedded in the program structure of the Helmholtz Association in five research areas:

• In the Energy research area it is a major objective of the KIT to maintain nuclear engineering competence in Germany, even more so as there are hardly any young scientists and engineers working in this field in Germany any more. Under the Efficient Energy Conversion Program, novel energy production processes based on renewable resources or superconductors for energy technology are tested. The bioliq^® process developed in Karlsruhe focuses on the use of straw and wood residues to produce high-tech fuels or basic materials for chemical industry. It is also concentrated on the development of technologies for future fusion power plants. For instance, components have been developed and supplied for the Wendelstein 7-X fusion plant at Greifswald. The future European fusion experiment ITER will not be feasible without technology from Karlsruhe.
• Sustainability and technology are in the focus of the research area of Earth and Environment. This includes technologies for a sustainable handling of resources of our environment as well as systems analysis and technology assessment. Matters related to the atmosphere and climate are studied. The MIPAS remote sounding instrument, for instance, is based on a development made by Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. It is one of ten large experiments on board of the European environmental satellite ENVISAT. MIPAS measures a number of atmospheric trace gases in parallel in order to better understand ozone chemistry, for instance. The instrument will be developed further for a future ESA mission. Other topics covered are the atmospheric water cycle, aerosols, or the investigation of various levels of the atmosphere.
• Health research at Karlsruhe is devoted to identifying the genetic and non-genetic causes (e.g. the environment, living conditions, etc.) of complex diseases. Major topics comprise the formation of cancer, the development of tumor metastases, and the control of embryonal development. Another field of work is the analysis of proteins, basic constituents of the cells.
• Astroparticle physics is a young, interdisciplinary field at the interface of elementary particle physics, astrophysics, astronomy, and space research. It is covered by the research area of Structure of Matter. The KIT is involved in the international Pierre Auger project in Argentina that studies the origin and propagation of galactic cosmic rays at highest energies. The international tritium neutrino experiment KATRIN that is currently being set up at the KIT is aimed at measuring the mass of a neutrino. GridKA represents the German computing center that is presently being set up for supplying high-energy particle physicists with highest computing power.

KIT studies Key Technologies of particularly high potential, such as microsystems engineering, nanotechnology, and grid computing. The Nano Valley (Upper Rhine Valley) has become the leading nanotechnology location in Europe. Together with partners from German industry, the Fraunhofer Society, the Max Planck Society, and various universities, the strategic alliance “NanoMat” was established  in Karlsruhe. In microsystems engineering, Helmholtz scientists from Karlsruhe assume a leading position. One of their most important instruments is the ANKA Synchrotron Radiation Source. Users from science and industry use this large facility for analysis and microstructuring purposes. Under the Scientific Computing Program, the KIT focuses on Grid, a global computer and data network for science. A node of this network, GridKa, is run by the KIT.