Dr. Benedikt Placke and Dr. Lukas Körber were awarded the Dresdner Promotionspreis Physik for their outstanding dissertations at the Physics Colloquium of the Faculty of Physics at TU Dresden on 3 December 2024. From a total of seven outstanding nominations, the two award winners stood out for their particularly excellent scientific achievements. The Dresdner Promotionspreis Physik is endowed with a total of 4,000 euros and was donated by the Wilhelm and Else Hereaus Foundation.

© Crispin Iven Mokry

Dr Benedikt Placke receives the prize for significant contributions to unconventional phases of matter in constrained spin systems. He is an outstanding theoretical physicist with impressive research results in the field of condensed matter. His dissertation entitled ‘Exotic Ground State and Dynamics in Constrained Systems’ was supervised by Prof Roderich Moessner at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. After completing his PhD at TU Dresden, Dr Placke accepted a postdoctoral position as a Leverhulme Peierls Fellow in a research group on condensed matter theory at the University of Oxford.

© Crispin Iven Mokry

Dr Lukas Körber made significant contributions to spin waves on curved surfaces as part of his doctoral thesis entitled ‘Spin waves in curved magnetic shells’ under the supervision of Prof. Jürgen Fassbender at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. He was awarded the Dresdner Promotionspreis Physik 2024 for his impressive research results. He is an outstanding theoretical physicist with an impressive track record in the research area of condensed matter physics. Dr Körber is continuing his research career at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, at the Institute of Molecules and Materials, where he is part of a team investigating quantum theories of ultrafast dynamics in magnetism.

The award ceremony took place as part of the Physics Colloquium at TU Dresden and was opened by Prof. Dr Gesche Pospiech, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, followed by laudatory speeches by Prof. Dr Roland Ketzmerick, Chairman of the Prize Committee. The two prizewinners then presented their research work in short scientific talks.

Dresdner Promotionspreis Physik 2024