Deutsches Museum in Munich hosts ZEISS Research Award 2023 ceremony

On Monday evening, ZEISS presented two research awards to a total of four scientists in ceremonial style. Prof. Dr. Immanuel Bloch was the recipient of the ZEISS Research Award, while Dr. Simon Baier, Dr. Arindam Ghosh and Dr. Dasha Nelidova all received the Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers. Through presenting such awards, the company can commend outstanding research in optics and photonics.

“The ZEISS Research Award promotes collaboration between science and industry and advances research in the optical industry. "That is why we are delighted to be able to commend the work and successes of great researchers. The award is all about outstanding science that enables technological progress and can thus positively influence our future," said ZEISS CEO and President, Dr. Karl Lamprecht.

The ceremony took place at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on the occasion of the planetarium's centenary - it was the first of its kind and ZEISS played a major role in its development. Guests from business, science and politics accepted the invitation to attend the awards the evening before the start of the Laser World of Photonics trade fair.

In his speech, Lamprecht immediately highlighted the connection between the location and the event. "The Deutsches Museum collates significant achievements of the past as exhibitions in the present and present them in such a way that we can see what research and development has done for us," he pointed out. One of these paths took mankind to space. Lamprecht talked about the moon landing, a miracle of technology because it was especially relevant as 2023 is the planetarium's centenary. Everybody uses these miracles today: "Every smartphone today has 120 million times the computing power of the Apollo guidance computer,” said Lamprecht. The reason for this are achievements in research and development "Only if you understand nature can you use this knowledge to improve our quality of life.” The four winners achieved just that.

The quantum physicist with a doctorate, Prof. Dr. Immanuel Bloch, is considered to be a pioneer of quantum research. Experts are already treating the scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching near Munich and professor of experimental physics at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich as the next German Nobel laureate.
The ZEISS Research Award would seem to be a pioneering step in this direction - after all, four of the previous award winners went on to win a Nobel Prize. “I am really pleased to receive this award because it draws attention to our work and celebrates our achievements. I am on stage alone, but I owe this success to my entire team," said Bloch. He has established a new field of research: the study of artificial quantum matter using ultracold atoms in artificial crystals of light or optical lattices through highly complex optical experiments at the interface of quantum optics, quantum information processing, and solid-state physics. His work has made it possible to precisely measure and control the interplay between atoms or small molecules using ultracold quantum gases to better understand how quantum materials such as superconductors work. As such, he has paved the way for the new interdisciplinary field of quantum simulation through his research.

The three winners of the Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers have therefore already made a name for themselves in their fields of research at this young age. Baier is working on quantum mechanics at the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck. Ghosh is conducting research in biotechnology and biophysics at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg. Nelidova works on ophthalmology at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology at the University of Basel where she has developed a method for restoring vision after blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration - the most common cause of blindness in industrialized countries. The Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers is presented by the Ernst Abbe Fund of the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.

ZEISS has been recognizing special achievements in the fields of optics and photonics since 1990. The award was first launched as the Carl Zeiss Research Award. It was succeeded by the ZEISS Research Award in 2016. The following criteria are key to the ZEISS Research Award: the candidates have made outstanding achievements in optics or photonics; they should still be actively conducting research and their work offers major potential for gaining further knowledge and enabling practical applications. If these criteria are met, they are proposed to a jury of international science experts. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mlynek from Humboldt University Berlin was present at the award ceremony in Munich and was head judge.

Karl Lamprecht described the event at the Deutsches Museum as a complete success. “It was a great evening of science with outstanding researchers at the heart of it. They have received the recognition they deserve," said the CEO and President of ZEISS. A look at the figures shows that this is a serious issue for the company: in the first half of this fiscal year, ZEISS invested almost every seventh euro of revenue in research and development. Business and science go hand in hand.