Personnel Matters & Awards – Online Annual Report 2017
Nominations / Appointments / Functions
- Stefanie Speidel was appointed Professor of Translational Oncology Surgery at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Dresden on April 1. The computer scientist is engaged in research on intelligent assistance systems for minimally invasive cancer surgery. The NCT Dresden is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden, and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
- In May, Humboldt Research Award winner Prof. Michael Downer joined HZDR from the University of Austin, Texas. During a research visit lasting several months, the laser and plasma physics expert worked on methods for improving the visualization of processes in the laser acceleration of particles. The focus is on the development of a new type of particle accelerator that could be significantly smaller than the existing facilities while achieving the same level of performance.
- In June, Peter Michel was awarded a W3 professorship at the University of Rostock, where he now holds the chair of Accelerator Technology at the Institute of General Electrical Engineering. The physicist has been head of the Department ‘ELBE Radiation Source’ at the HZDR Institute of Radiation Physics since 2000. His research activities are devoted equally to the technological further development of the high-performance linear accelerator and to new applications in materials research and life sciences..
- Dr. Constantin Mamat, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, qualified as a professor at the Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, with a thesis on 'Bioorthogonal methods for the mild radiolabeling of biologically active molecules with fluorine-18 and other radionuclides using the example of traceless Staudinger Ligation'.
- Dr. Raimon Tolosana Delgado, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), qualified as a professor at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg in the field of geosciences, geotechnical engineering and mining. His work bears the title 'Geostatical estimation of ore properties from exploration to adaptive processing'. It is the first time a HIF scientist has qualified as a professor at the TU Freiberg.
- In December, Prof. Markus Reuter, Director at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). With the award of the title of 'Doctor of Engineering (DEng), h.c.', the University honors Reuter's outstanding scientific and technological contribution to the production and recycling of metals and his special commitment to the practical implementation of academic research.
- The Federal Commission on Radiation Protection (SSK) appointed Prof. Thorsten Stumpf, Director of the Institute of Resource Ecology, to the Radioecology Committee. The SSK advises the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in all matters relating to protection against the dangers of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.
Awards
- HZDR Awards 2017 (award presentation ceremony on January 18, 2018)
- The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Kristina Kvashnina (Institute of Resource Ecology) an ERC Starting Grant. The physicist will receive €1.5 million for her research over the next five years. Kristina Kvashnina intends to use the funds to decode the basic chemical structure of elements in the lanthanide and actinide group at the ROBL (Rossendorf Beamline) at the ESRF European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. These elements include, for example, uranium and plutonium, but also some rare earths.
- The Georg Forster Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enabled Dr. Masoud Sadeghzadeh (Nuclear Science & Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran) to carry out a two-year research visit under Prof. Peter Brust at the Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Department of Neuroradiopharmaceuticals at the HZDR research site Leipzig. Since August 2017, the chemist has been conducting research here on the development of special radiotracers for the biochemical characterization of brain tumors by means of positron emission tomography.
- In early September, Dr. Fernando Garcia (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain) came to HZDR for two years as a Humboldt Research Fellow. He is researching specific questions of fluid mechanics at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics. Together with his host Dr. Frank Stefani, he is studying instabilities in the spherical Couette flow under the influence of an axial magnetic field.
- The young scientist Kritee Pant was awarded one of the four coveted 'Young Scientist Awards' of the US WILEY publishing house at the International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (ISRS) in May for her research on nanoparticles. Her research is concerned with upgrading such particles for cancer diagnostics. Several working groups at the Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, the Free University Berlin, and the Monash University of Melbourne (Australia) participated in her work.
- The German Physical Society (DPG) awarded Dr. Helmut Schultheiss (Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research) the 2017 Walter Schottky Prize. He received the distinction for his fundamental work on understanding spin-wave propagation in nanostructures and its application in new functional components for the transport and logical processing of information. The prize is endowed with €10,000.
- In September 2017, Dr. Björn Drobot (Institute of Resource Ecology) was awarded the PhD Award of the Specialist Group on Nuclear Chemistry of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker for his dissertation 'Development and evaluation of mathematical methods for the analysis of spectroscopic data on uranyl(VI) hydrolysis'.
- In November 2017, the DPG announced the award of the Georg Simon Ohm-Prize to Toni Hache (Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research). The jury paid tribute to his outstanding thesis in the Master's degree program on nanotechnology at the Westsächsische University – University of Applied Sciences Zwickau. The work bore the title 'Preparation and characterization of spin-Hall-effect-based nano-microwave oscillators'. The prize, which is endowed with €1,500, was presented to Toni Hache at the DPG Annual Meeting in Erlangen, Germany, in March 2018.
- Physics lab technician Stefanie Sonntag completed her professional and skilled workers examination with 98 out of a possible 100 points, making her the best trainee in her profession in the entire Federal Republic of Germany. She was honored for this outstanding performance by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in December. Thus, for the second year in a row, the best apprentice in the Federal Republic in this profession comes from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.