Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation
Martin Bluschke (MPI for Solid State Research, TU Berlin) receives the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize from Mathias Richter for his outstanding dissertation. © Screenshot
The prize for innovation in synchrotron research went to Guiseppe Sansone, Luca Giannessi, Carlo Callegari and Kevin Prince. © Screenshot
This year, the Friends of HZB awarded the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize to Dr. Martin Bluschke (MPI for Solid State Research and TU Berlin) for his outstanding doctoral thesis. The European Innovation Award for Synchrotron Radiation went to a team of four physicists for their work on the FERMI free electron laser at the Elettra synchrotron source in Trieste. The award ceremony took place at this year's HZB user meeting, which had to be held digitally this year.
The award ceremony was well attended with 197 spectators. The chairman of the Friends of HZB, Prof. Dr. Mathias Richter, led the award ceremony on screen and distributed hand-drawn bouquets of flowers as well as the award certificate. The prize committee had read the submitted proposals with great pleasure this year, he reported.
Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize 2020
The Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize went to Dr. Martin Bluschke, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, who completed his doctorate in 2019 at the Technical University of Berlin. The title of his dissertation is: "Resonant x ray scattering studies of collective electronic states in cuprates and nickelates controlled by isovalent chemical substitution and epitaxial integration". Bluschke has been studying so-called collective states in solids at BESSY II, which are related to the phenomenon of superconductivity.
"Mr. Bluschke's dissertation reveals a deep understanding of physics. The numerous results are published to a high standard, which is also reflected by the number of citations," Richter quoted from the prize committee. Bluschke will continue his research at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation 2020
The Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation 2020 went to Prof. Dr. Guiseppe Sansone (University of Freiburg), Dr. Luca Giannessi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Frascati, Italy), Dr. Carlo Callegari and Prof. Dr. Kevin Prince (Elettra, Trieste, Italy) for their achievements in the development and application of innovative investigation methods exploiting the radiation emitted by seeded free electron lasers at the FERMI free electron laser at Elettra in Trieste. The prize committee acknowledged "this development is of utmost importance for the future" and "concerns ground-braking experiments even on the attosecond scale". The Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation is endowed with 3000 Euros and is sponsored by SPECS GmbH and BESTEC GmbH.
- What vibrating molecules might reveal about cell biologyInfrared vibrational spectroscopy at BESSY II can be used to create high-resolution maps of molecules inside live cells and cell organelles in native aqueous environment, according to a new study by a team from HZB and Humboldt University in Berlin. Nano-IR spectroscopy with s-SNOM at the IRIS beamline is now suitable for examining tiny biological samples in liquid medium in the nanometre range and generating infrared images of molecular vibrations with nanometre resolution. It is even possible to obtain 3D information. To test the method, the team grew fibroblasts on a highly transparent SiC membrane and examined them in vivo. This method will provide new insights into cell biology.
- Prashanth Menezes awarded prestigious VAIBHAV Fellowship by Government of IndiaThe Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, has announced the recipients of the Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Fellowship, a flagship initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between the Indian STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) diaspora and leading research institutions in India. Among the 2025 awardees is Dr. Prashanth W. Menezes, Head of the Department of Materials Chemistry for Catalysis at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB).
- Technology Transfer Prize Ceremony 2025This year’s Technology Transfer Prize Ceremony will take place on October 13 at 2 pm in the Lecture Hall, BESSY II Building, Adlershof.