Published on 13.05.2026

Helmholtz Imaging contributes to two Excellence Clusters in Hamburg

This image resembles an abstract mosaic or painting. It is composed of many irregular, crystal-like shapes in vivid shades of pink, yellow, turquoise, orange, blue, and black. The fragmented patterns create a textured appearance similar to stained glass or cracked ice illuminated by polarized light. What you can see here is a longitudinal thin section of a sea ice core. It has the size of approximal 8 cm x 8 cm. This thin section is made out of a 7-8 mm thick slice of an ice core form the Arctic sea ice, glued with water on a glass plate and processed by a microtome to a very thin layer of < 1 mm. To make the crystal structure of the individual sea ice crystals visible, the glass plate is illuminated with polarized light. Here we see a typical pattern for the so-called granular ice. That means the ice has grown under “rough”, maybe windy, conditions. The knowledge of the crystal structure of the sea ice is important to better understand and to model the light transition through the sea ice into the ocean, which is, for example, of relevance for the phytoplankton growth in the Arctic Ocean.
Image: Anja Rösel, DLR & Polona Itkin, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway | info

From sustainable materials to the study of ancient manuscripts, Helmholtz Imaging is contributing its expertise to two Excellence Clusters in Hamburg. As part of BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials and Understanding Written Artefacts (UWA), Helmholtz Imaging strengthens interdisciplinary research at the interface of natural sciences, engineering, and the humanities.

Funded under Germany’s Excellence Strategy, the clusters aim to advance cutting-edge research and reinforce Germany’s position as a leading research hub. Helmholtz Imaging plays a key role in both initiatives by providing advanced imaging methods that enable new insights across disciplines.

Imaging cultural heritage: Understanding Written Artefacts

The Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts (UWA), coordinated by the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg, explores handwriting as a fundamental cultural technique across time and regions. By focusing on the materiality of written artefacts, the cluster brings together expertise from the humanities, natural sciences, and computer science.

A striking example of this interdisciplinary approach is the development of the mobile X-ray scanner ENCI (Extracting Non-destructively Cuneiform Inscriptions). Designed by a team from DESY, Helmholtz Imaging and partners within the cluster, this technology allows researchers to look inside sealed cuneiform clay envelopes from the ancient middle east, without opening or damaging them. In a successful cooperation with the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Museum of Anatolian Cultures in Ankara, ENCI successfully revealed hidden cuneiform tablets that had remained unread for thousands of years.

“Advanced X-ray imaging allows us to access information that was previously completely hidden,” says Christian Schroer, physicist at DESY and Helmholtz Imaging Center Coordinator. “With imaging technology like ENCI, we can bring the scanner directly to museum collections and examine artefacts on site, reading ancient texts non-destructively while preserving these unique objects. This is a perfect example of how physics and cultural heritage research can come together to unlock the past.”

By combining imaging technologies with expertise from disciplines such as Assyriology, chemistry, and computer science, the cluster is opening entirely new ways of studying written artefacts, from their material composition to their cultural context.

Designing sustainable materials: BlueMat

Coordinated by the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH), the Excellence Cluster BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials takes inspiration from nature to develop sustainable materials whose properties are shaped by their interaction with water. The cluster follows a simple yet powerful principle: “If you can do it with water, do it with water.”

Water is not only ubiquitous but also a powerful tool for tuning material properties. By leveraging water-driven processes, researchers aim to create materials that can reversibly change their functionality, for example, storing energy, adapting optical properties, or altering mechanical flexibility.

Helmholtz Imaging contributes to BlueMat through a dedicated cross-area on imaging, which aims to unravel the complex physics of water-driven materials. This includes the development of novel imaging approaches with extreme temporal resolution, multiscale capabilities spanning many orders of magnitude, and advanced methods for correlative image analysis.

Using world-leading research infrastructures such as the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL) and PETRA III, researchers can observe dynamic processes at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales, from atomic interactions to macroscopic flow phenomena.

“Water-driven materials are highly dynamic systems, and understanding them requires us to observe processes across many scales, both in space and time, by advanced imaging,” says Martin Burger, Helmholtz Imaging’s Center Coordinator and Head of Research Unit at DESY, as well as one of the principal investigators of the imaging cross-area. “The development of novel models and computational methods for advanced dynamic imaging is essential to connect these different scales and reveal fundamental mechanisms. This will enable the future development of sustainable and functional materials.”

Imaging as a bridge between disciplines

Despite their different research goals, both clusters share a common need: making the invisible visible. Whether decoding the material properties of ancient manuscripts or tracking the dynamics of water in complex materials, imaging provides the tools to connect structure, function, and process.
By combining advanced imaging technologies with data science and machine learning, Helmholtz Imaging enables researchers to integrate information across scales and modalities. This not only accelerates discovery but also fosters collaboration between disciplines that traditionally operate separately.

Looking ahead

The new funding phase of the Excellence Clusters (2026–2032) offers a unique opportunity to further strengthen interdisciplinary research in Hamburg. For Helmholtz Imaging, participation in both clusters highlights its role as a key enabler of scientific innovation and for supporting cross-disciplinary research.