Three Questions for Katrin Tietz

What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

As the head of mechanical production at the HZB, I never have a boring day. Everyone in my team of 23, including 5 trainees, see themselves as service providers for the scientific community. Every day brings new and exciting challenges, whether it’s being called in for a quick repair or providing precision-engineered experimental setups for research on lithium-sulfur batteries, for example. When scientists use the equipment that we build to make new discoveries, and we even get mentioned in the paper, that’s our greatest reward.

If money and time were no object, what would your next project be?

I would immediately start construction of the planned new large-scale facility at the HZB, BESSY III – using all the innovative research equipment that is currently available, needless to say. This would also include a new, modern central workshop at one location; up to now we have been working at two locations, Berlin-Adlershof and Berlin-Wannsee. The workshop would, of course, be equipped with the latest technologies.

If you could choose anyone, who would you like to have dinner with and what would you talk about?

I would like to talk to Albert Einstein. I am fascinated by the fact that he was not only a great scientist, but also a true “citizen of the world,” not to mention his humanitarian, pacifist attitude. Since I am very interested in politics and history, I would ask him about the parallels between the time between the world wars and today. He would surely have some advice on how to counter the global political shift to the right. Maybe he could even explain quantum physics to me...