About the venue
About HEIDELBERG
History: In Heidelberg and the surrounding area beside the Neckar River, already the Romans had founded settlements and even a large city, Ladenburg (8 km northwest), which had at that time the largest roman market hall of the Roman Empire located north of the Alps Mountains. A straight road connected Ladenburg with the area of Heidelberg which can be still seen in the landscape. Archeological evacuations in downtown provided many details and objects, witnesses of an already very lively period. On the hills beside the town, in particular on the Heiligenberg mountain across the castle, celtic communities raised protection ring walls on the top of the hill, ruins of them can still be seen at some places in the forest.
The first official note of the town was made in the year 1196. The castle was built in the 13th Century and with the extension of the town it became the residence place of the so called “Pfalzgraf bei Rhein”. A 500 year long period started as the main town of the “Kurpfalz” and a couple of other castles were raised in the Rhein-Neckar region as the Castle of Schwetzingen and Mannheim (largest castle in Europe, today used by University). In a war 1693 french troops destroyed the middle age town and the castle. The town was rebuilt on the old walls in baroque style. The residence location shifted to the city of Mannheim 1720, a city which was build with a famous square structure like a chess board, therefore also called the “Squares City”. Many philosophers and writers enriched the cultural life in Heidelberg, as Hölderlin, in the 19th Century. In the World War II the city was not bombed down, it became the Headquarter of the Army of the United States of America.
About The University of HEIDELBERg
The University of Heidelberg, Ruprecht-Carls University, was founded 1386 by Ruprecht the 1st Beside Prague and Vienna it was the third university in the “Holy Roman Empire” and is the oldest in Germany. Although the size of the city was only about 5000 people at that time a steady raise of reputation was achieved. Today the University left mostly the old town area and is mainly located in the new campus “Neuenheimer Feld”. Important disciplines are medicine, physics, chemistry and all other natural science fields. The university cooperates with the University Mannheim, focussed on economics and related fields and with KIT. About 35000 students are educated in Heidelberg. Other important institutions are the German Cancer Research Centre, a division of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Institutes of the Max-Plank-Gesellschaft, the Institute for Nuclear Physics, Cosmic Chemistry and Medical Research. A couple of noble laureates in different disciplines qualify the high ranking of the University as Kuhn (Chemistry) and Mößbauer (Physics).
About The kARLSRUHE iNSTITUTE OF tECHNOLOGY,
iNSTITUTE FOR TECHNICAL PHYSICS (ITEP)
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a foundation joining the University of Karlsruhe and the Research Centre Karlsruhe, which became official 2009. It is now a research institution with about 9000 people and active in Research and education.
The Institute of Technical Physics (ITEP) has long-time (>30 years) experience in the research on superconductivity. On the material side, the expertise covers the development of specialized LTS and HTS materials to a pre-industrial performance and modified for the prospected applications. In close cooperation with industry KIT contributes to national and international projects in the wide span from basic material science up to different applications (power applications, space applications, magnets for fusion devices, NMR magnets). The integration of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) into future power systems is part of the general road map of efficient and environmental friendly use of energy and is one of the central challenges of the ITEP. Reliability, efficiency and safety under operation are of the most important requested features to introduce such an innovation in comparison to the conventional technology. Power devices as Fault Current Limiters, transformers and energy cables are actually under investigation.
For the second generation, the coated conductors, the activities are strongly focussed on application issues. In particular low AC loss conductors are developed as Roebel bars and structures coated conductors. An in-house laser system is in use for successful application of striations to HTS-2G- superconductors. Characterisation and evaluation of the samples are another important strength of the institute.