The Foundation FIRSOL and the rectorate of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) have appointed Prof. Dr. Svetlana Berdyugina as Scientific Director of IRSOL Istituto Ricerche Solari “Aldo e Cele Daccò” and adjunct professor at the USI Faculty of Informatics starting from May 1, 2022. The Foundation Council of the Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) has supported this appointment as it opens new prospects for cooperation between the two institutes.

The strengths of KIS and IRSOL are complementary and their cooperation contributes significantly to increasing the visibility of solar research. Thanks to this cooperation, Europe's largest solar telescope GREGOR (Tenerife, Spain) operated by KIS is equipped with the most accurate solar polarimeter ZIMPOL of IRSOL. The VTF instrument being constructed by KIS for the world's largest solar telescope DKIST (Maui, USA) is equipped with a unique polarimetric unit for measuring solar magnetic fields developed jointly by IRSOL and KIS. In addition, KIS and IRSOL have laid the basis for new discoveries with joint advances in theoretical solar physics.

A personal link that is now created between the two institutes will further promote and strengthen these synergies. In particular, instrument concepts currently being planned for the European Solar Telescope (EST) and the EST Data Center are examples that suggest prolific alignment of German and Swiss ground-based solar physics activities, which are promoted through the commitment of Prof. Dr. Berdyugina. She takes up the new responsibility without restricting her activities and her full commitment at KIS.

The IRSOL press release is available at https://www.irsol.usi.ch/blog/new-director-22/