PSI by night

When the sun disappears behind the horizon and darkness settles over PSI, things familiar by day appear in new perspectives. Artificial light from interior spaces, outdoor lamps, and vehicles bathes the campus and buildings in a singular radiance. Join us on a nocturnal exploration.

PSI campus
Light sensors at PSI register the approaching dusk, and lighting switches on across the entire campus. From a bird's-eye view, Switzerland's biggest research institute, with its staff of more than 2,000, looks almost like a small town.
Light sensors at PSI register the approaching dusk, and lighting switches on across the entire campus. From a bird's-eye view, Switzerland's biggest research institute, with its staff of more than 2,000, looks almost like a small town.
(Photo: Scanderbeg Sauer Photography)
The containers of the Energy System Integration Platform ESI represent the facility's modular concept. With the help of ESI, PSI researchers are exploring how the energy supply of the future can function reliably, thus literally ensuring that the lights won't go out.
The containers of the Energy System Integration Platform ESI represent the facility's modular concept. With the help of ESI, PSI researchers are exploring how the energy supply of the future can function reliably, thus literally ensuring that the lights won't go out.
(Photo: Scanderbeg Sauer Photography)
Only the entrance area and the few rooms next to it are illuminated: The remaining 740 metres of the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL lie embedded in an earthen wall in the middle of the Würenlingen Forest under the starry sky. Inside, researchers observe ultrafast processes using light pulses the like of which can only be found in four other large research facilities worldwide.
Only the entrance area and the few rooms next to it are illuminated: The remaining 740 metres of the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL lie embedded in an earthen wall in the middle of the Würenlingen Forest under the starry sky. Inside, researchers observe ultrafast processes using light pulses the like of which can only be found in four other large research facilities worldwide.
(Photo: Scanderbeg Sauer Photography)
47° 32' 15" north, 8° 13' 30" east: The bridge over the Aare is, in a way, the geographic centre of PSI. Like a clamp, it joins together the areas PSI East and PSI West. Even at night, it is an essential link between parts of the institute on the two banks of the big river.
47° 32' 15" north, 8° 13' 30" east: The bridge over the Aare is, in a way, the geographic centre of PSI. Like a clamp, it joins together the areas PSI East and PSI West. Even at night, it is an essential link between parts of the institute on the two banks of the big river.
(Photo: Scanderbeg Sauer Photography)
Also operating around the clock, with its many measuring stations, is the Swiss Light Source SLS. Viewed from above, the circular, UFO-like building looks rather inconspicuous in the twilight. (See SLS in the aerial photo of PSI, above left.) In contrast, the illuminated entrance conveys an impression of the magnitude of the facility.
Also operating around the clock, with its many measuring stations, is the Swiss Light Source SLS. Viewed from above, the circular, UFO-like building looks rather inconspicuous in the twilight. (See SLS in the aerial photo of PSI, above left.) In contrast, the illuminated entrance conveys an impression of the magnitude of the facility.
(Photo: Scanderbeg Sauer Photography)
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