Darmstadt is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area. Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse after Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, and Kassel. Other major and local cities in the surrounding area are Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach, Wiesbaden and Mainz, Mannheim and Heidelberg.
Darmstadt holds the official title "City of Science" as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities, and high-technology companies. The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and the European Space Operations Centre are located in Darmstadt, as well as GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research, where several chemical elements such as bohrium, meitnerium, hassium, darmstadtium, roentgenium, and copernicium were discovered. The existence of the following elements were also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium, flerovium, moscovium, livermorium, and tennessine. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research is an international accelerator facility under construction.