Press release: Leibniz Prize for Göttingen physicist

Nr. 261/2017 - 14.12.2017

Professor Claus Ropers receives the prestigious German Research Award

(pug) Professor Claus Ropers, Physicist at Göttingen University, receives the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG). With this prize, the DFG acknowledges his leading role in the field of time-resolved electron microscopy, with particular accolades for his most recent successes in manipulating the quantum state of free electrons and controlling the photoemission of sharp metal tips using terahertz and optical fields. The jury also recognised his research on the generation of extreme ultraviolet radiation in plasmonic nanostructures. They highly applauded his ability to experimentally realise complex theoretical concepts, thus initiating a variety of innovative research approaches, as in the area of ultrafast electron microscopy. The Leibniz Prize is endowed with € 2.5 million and ranks among of the most distinguished research awards in Germany. The award ceremony will take place on 19 March 2018 in Berlin.

"We congratulate Claus Ropers on this great success and are extremely pleased about the award," says University President Professor Ulrike Beisiegel. "The Leibniz Prize is a confirmation of the consistently outstanding work he has done at the Göttingen Faculty of Physics in recent years. His research is also a great asset for the Göttingen Campus.”

Claus Ropers studied physics at Göttingen and Berkeley and received his doctorate in 2007 after working at the Max Born Institute in Berlin at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He returned to Göttingen University in 2008, initially as a junior professor and head of the working group "Nano-Optics and Ultrafast Dynamics", and then, as of 2011, as Professor of Experimental Solid State Physics. For his work, he has been awarded the Walter Schottky Prize of the German Physical Society and the Klung Wilhelmy Science award, among others. In 2015, he received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council.

His research focuses on nonlinear phenomena in optical nanostructures and the application of ultrashort electron pulses for time-resolved electron microscopy and diffraction. He works collaboratively with his Göttingen Campus peers on many research projects and is involved in two campus-wide collaborative research centres, among others.

Contact:
Professor Claus Ropers
University of Göttingen
Faculty of Physics – 4th Physical Institute
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen
Phone +49 (0)551 39-4549
Email: claus.ropers@uni-goettingen.de
Website: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/91116.html