Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation
Dr Fredrik Johansson (Institut des NanoSciences de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne) receives the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize for his outstanding dissertation. © F.J.
The prize for innovation in synchrotron research went to Professor Marianne Liebi and Dr Manuel Guizar-Sicairos, both from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland. © PSI
This year, the Friends of HZB awarded the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize to the outstanding doctoral thesis of Dr Fredrik Johansson (Institut des NanoSciences de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne). The European Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation went to Professor Marianne Liebi and Dr Manuel Guizar-Sicairos, both from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI, Switzerland). The award ceremony took place at this year's HZB user meeting, which had to be held digitally again this year and attracted nearly 400 participants.
The chairman of the Friends of HZB, Professor Mathias Richter, guided the award ceremony on screen. Six high caliber nominations were up for selection this year for the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize.
Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize 2021
The Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize went to Dr Fredrik Johansson (now Institut des NanoSciences de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne) for his dissertation at Uppsala University on "Core-hole Clock Spectroscopy Using Hard X-rays - Exciting States in Condensed Matter".
"Overall an exceptional dissertation achievement" said the expert jury, highlighting the number of Johansson’s high-quality scientific publications. "Also impressive is the demonstration of orbital and directional selectivity in ultrafast charge transfer in SnS2 using core-hole-clock," the jury said. Johansson then presented the method in a clear and concise talk: it allows a precise measurement of charge transfer times in different solids and promises deeper insights into solar cells, for example.
Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2021
The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2021 went to Professor Marianne Liebi and Dr Manuel Guizar-Sicairos, both from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland. They developed and implemented a method to obtain information about textures in materials on the nanoscale from small angle scattering data using mathematical methods (Small Angle Scattering Tensor Tomography). The expert jury emphasised that this method is now used at many synchrotron sources and has opened the door to fascinating studies of hierarchical structures in life and materials science. The laudation was given by Professor Gabriel Aeppli, Head of the Photon Science Division at PSI. The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation is endowed with 3000 € and is sponsored by SPECS GmbH and BESTEC GmbH.
- Special prize by Jugend Forscht awarded to former school internShaoxuan Wang has won a special prize in the Jugend Forscht competition for her project ‘Smart Capsules – intelligent microcapsules for glucose-dependent insulin release’. She designed the project as a “special achievement” for her A-levels. To carry out the experimental work, Shaoxuan was able to spend a further two weeks in the laboratory at the HZB Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, where she had completed a school internship two years earlier.
- BESSY II: New sample environment allows glimpse into thermocatalytic processesA novel measurement cell allows, for the first time, soft and hard X-ray investigations under high pressures of up to 20 bar and temperatures of up to 400°C. This provides new insights into thermocatalytic processes, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for producing synthetic fuels. The development of the measurement cell is considered a significant achievement within the Care-O-Sene project.
- Magnetic imaging: Micro-flowers increase the local magnetic fieldMaterials with magnetic nanostructures have many potential applications such as in spintronics. To explore such materials, nanoscale magnetic-sensitive imaging techniques are very useful, but up to now only weak magnetic fields could be applied during the imaging process. Now an international collaboration led by Dr. Sergio Valencia, HZB, has developed an approach that overcomes this limitation. The team designed tiny magnetic flux concentrators (MFCs), into which the sample is placed. The geometry of the MFCs resembles a flower with a number of petals which focus the applied magnetic field into its center. This greatly expands the magnetic field range available during imaging, and so the range of magnetic systems that can be investigated. The micro-flowers, enhancing magnetic fields locally, can find application in different nanometric magnetic microscopy techniques.