The ASCERI emblem shows three athletes surrounded by the electron paths of a stylised atom model.
Gunther Herdam from HMI-Berlin was elected as vice co-ordinator in 2000 beside Michèle Ulma.
In 1966, the football team of the German "Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe" (KfK) had the idea to play against other teams from institutes also involved in nuclear research. Therefore, six teams from different German centres were invited to take part in a "Reaktoren Fußballturnier" in Karlsruhe on 2 July 1966.
This tournament was a great success and the following year saw the event move to Jülich (Germany) and back to Karlsruhe in 1969 due to an invitation from EURATOM-Karlsruhe. This time, teams from research centres outside Germany were invited as well. As a consequence, the event was now called "Internationales Reaktoren Fußballturnier (IRF)".
In 1972, such a tournmaent took place in Austria following an invitation to stage a joint football and a table tennis tournmanet issued by the Research Institute Seibersdorf.
In 1973, the football contest was extended to include nine different kinds of sports, a proposal made by Heinz Rhein, then chairman of the local company sports society KFA-Jülich. The event attracted 540 participants from 13 research institutes in five countries and was named "ATOMIADE". The name is derived from the work the different institutes are engaged in: nuclear (atomic) research.
From this time on, the competitions took place regularly: the football teams meet once a year and the ATOMIADE is organised once every three years.
As more and more research institutes participated in these competitions, it was necessary to better plan and organise these events. A person who was willing and equipped with the right qualifications to guarantee the smooth running of the contests was looked for. This individual was also to act as a contact person for the teams taking part in the sports events.
The delegate from the research centre Jülich, Heinz Rhein, was considered to be the ideal person for this job as he had recently stepped down as chairman of the local company sports society. He was elected co-ordinator for future sports contests between European research centres at the 10. IRF delegate meeting in Mol on 27 May 1978.
Heinz Rhein started his job as "Co-ordinator for Sports Meetings between European Research Institutes" (KSEF) with the support of the sports teams of the European research centres on 27 May 1978.
There was a delegate meeting during every sports event during which problems concerning the contests could be debated. Unfortunately, time was always short and it was hardly ever possible to discuss all the matters introduced properly. Therefore, the urgent wish to hold delegate meeting independently of the competitions was voiced during the 13. Football Match in Garching in 1981. Helmut Karl, then mayor of Garching, provided the means for a delegate meeting outside the sports contests to be held in October 1981. 13 delegates from six countries took part in the "1. Working Conference of the delegates of the Sports Communities of European Research Institutes" (1. DATEF).
At first, these delegate meetings were only called on demand. From 1989 onwards, however, they were turned into a regular, annually re-occurring event.
In 1981 there was organised a Winter-ATOMIADE for offering additional sports disciplines in winter. The first Winter-ATOMIADE took place in Chamrousse in 1981 and was organised by the French research centre ILL-Grenoble. 200 participants from five research institutes in four countries attended the event. The Winter-ATOMIADE is also set up every three years and alternates with the Summer-ATOMIADE.
More and more sports were included in these two ATOMIADEs. It was now necessary to have a common book of rules regarding not only the organisation but also the way of competing in these sports. Following a proposal by the chairman of the company sports team HMI-Berlin, Gunther Herdam, a common rule book called "Vademecum" was introduced during the 3. DATEF meeting in Karlsruhe on 27. March 1987. The book was first distributed to all European research institutes which were members of the sports society in December 1987. The rule book is constantly up-dated and extended by Gunther Herdam.
By now, this rule book is available not only in German but also in English, French and Italian with Gunther Herdam also being responsible for these editions.
Expert committees for every sport were also introduced during the 3. DATEF meeting in order to support the work of the coordinator.
Heinz Rhein felt that the name "European Sports Competitions" was only partly correct as long as athletes from the Eastern part of Europe could not take part in the events. In 1985, he established contact with the research centre KFKI in Budapest. Already in 1986 the sports society "Petöfi" of this Hungarian research institute issued invitations to a football tournament for mature gentlemen in Budapest under the direction of Julius Tímár.
In order to compete for the famous football challenge cup together with Western athletes, the 1989 football tournament in Budapest also attracted teams from the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and German Democratic Republic.
The match resulted in an invitation for Heinz Rhein to come and visit the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow in Dezember 1989. There, he successfully held talks concerning the participation of Russian institutes in future sports events.
Already one year later, four Western European teams travelled to Moscow in December 1990 to participate in an indoors football tournament which had been organised by the Kurchatov Institute featuring six teams altogether.
As a result of the relaxation of cross-border travel regulations for citizens of Eastern Europe, it was possible for Eastern European athletes to take part in the 22. Football Tournament in Berlin in Western Europe for the first time in 1990.
The integration of the Russian teams into the sports events of the European research institutes was finally completed in 1992 when the Kurchatov Institute issued invitations for the international tennis tournament (8. ITEF) in Moscow for 14 teams including 11 teams from Western Europe.
In 1992, Miss Michèle Ulma from ASCEA-Saclay was elected vice co-ordinator during a DATEF in Pierrelatte (France) with the task to assist the co-ordinator.
Following an initiative by Gunther Herdam from HMI-Berlin in 1998, the sports society of the European research institutes was given a new name: ASCERI.
This name is an abbreviation for
|
Association
of the Sports Communities
of the European Research
Institutes.
The ASCERI emblem shows three athletes surrounded by the electron paths of a stylised atom model. Gunther Herdam from HMI-Berlin was elected as vice co-ordinator in 2000 beside Michèle Ulma. |
In the year 2003, during the 11th ATOMIADE 2003 in Jülich, Heinz Rhein gave the duty of the co-ordinator for sports meeting of the European Research Institutes after 25 years to another person. Gunther Herdam from the HMI-Berlin was unanimously elected as his follower.
Therefore the duty of a vice co-ordinator became vacant. Beside Michèle Ulma the delegate Hans-Günther Schneider from ITU-Karlsruhe took over this duty of the vice co-ordinator.
In 2007 the duty of the co-ordinator was renamed into president, the vice-co-ordinators into vice-presidents.
In the association are affiliated 36 research institutes out of 13 European countries (see members).