More space for basic research

Many technologies that shape our everyday lives trace back to basic research whose practical benefits no one could foresee at first. Laser physics, for example, led to a wide range of applications, including in medicine and biotechnology, and quantum mechanics is now found in every computer chip. At the Garching campus, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now opened a new laboratory building where researchers from physics and the biosciences work under one roof.

The new research building for physics and the life sciences at the TUM Garching Campus. (Photo: A. Eckert/TUM)

The Free State of Bavaria financed the new building. Science Minister Markus Blume said at the official opening: “Arguably Germany’s most excellent building: five of TUM’s seven clusters of excellence have docked in the brand-new physics building of the Technical University of Munich – a record that reinforces TUM’s standing as the best university in the European Union. Here, we have invested more than 87 million euros in Bavaria’s most modern laboratory for research into the laws of nature. From the Big Bang to the magnetic field of the Sun – everything comes under close scrutiny here; the invisible is made visible here. The new building is the Fort Knox of physics: a true purpose-built facility with 44 laboratories and 18 measurement rooms – and perhaps the incubator for the next Bavarian Nobel laureates.”

TUM President Thomas F. Hofmann said: “Genuine innovations rarely come about by a direct route. They are often based on the insights of researchers who are free to ask fundamental questions without already having to keep applications in mind. That requires freedom and high-performance infrastructure. With this new building, the Free State is investing in precisely these conditions. For that, I would like to thank State Minister Blume most warmly. The TUM School of Natural Sciences is one of the foundations on which TUM’s innovative strength and scientific excellence are rooted.”