1945-1977

GWI - Gustaf Werner Institut

FROM IDEA TO PARTICLE BEAMS

The cyclotron was built in the late 1940s according to newly invented accelerator technology, which meant that it could produce one of the highest beam particle energies in the world.

The facility was inaugurated in 1949.

The first particle beam was only produced in 1951

PIONEER RESEARCH 1951-1977

The activities were focused on nuclear structure and bio-medicine:

Here, the shell model for the structure of atomic nuclei could be directly proven for the first time.

Here the "atomic knife", aka "gamma knife", was developed for surgical interventions in medicine. The world's first proton beam cancer treatment was performed at GWI in November 1957.