Trapped light particles, weight-losing kilograms and molecular motors touring through human bodies – these were the research topics built upon in 2018's public lecture series “Nobelpreisträger zu Gast an der TU Dresden” (Nobel laureates visiting TU Dresden). Organized by the TU Dresden School of Science, this successful event brought Nobel laureates to Dresden for the third year in row - and along with them, up to a thousand guests per lecture in the TU Dresden's Audimax.  On 11^th and 18^th April as well as 27^th June 2018, three of the Stockholm laureates shared with us their award-winning and current research projects. Along with them came the spirit of the Nobel Prize!

We would like to thank our sponsors: Novaled, KBA-Sheetfed Solutions AG & Co. KG, Hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski and the Gesellschaft von Freunden und Förderern der TU Dresden e.V.

Klaus von Klitzing

1985 Nobel Prize in Physics
Wednesday, 11th April 2018, 7 p.m.: Ein neues Kilogramm im nächsten Jahr und was das mit meinem Nobelpreis zu tun hat ("A New Kilogram Next Year and How My Nobel Prize is Concerned with This") (lecture held in German)

Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Laureate in Physics, on „A New Kilogram Next Year and How My Nobel Prize is Concerned with This”

© Klaus Mellenthin

Klaus von Klitzing (*28.06.1943, Schroda, Reichsgau Wartheland, Poland)
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart

Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel laureate in Physics, opened the lecture series on 11^th April, discussing a kilogram near Paris: Ein neues Kilogramm im nächsten Jahr und was das mit meinem Nobelpreis zu tun hat („A New Kilogram Next Year and How My Nobel Prize is Concerned with This”). The director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, won the prize for the discovery of the quantum Hall effect in 1985: classical physics is built upon continuous natural processes, as are observed also in voltage drops and rises; yet, at low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, a Hall voltage appears in current-carrying semiconductors that changes stepwise – along the so-called “von Klitzing constant”. But: How does this refer to the prototype kilogram, whose slow decay cannot be stopped even by complex mechanic protection devices in its storage near Paris? Are von Klitzing’s ideas capable of solving the problem of the weight-losing kilogram? Certainly, they enlightened the audience with brilliant scientific findings on the microcosm: “The Nobel Prize to me is an obligation to the commitment of promoting enthusiasm for science,” says the father of the von Klitzing constant.

Interview with Klaus von Klitzing

Ben Feringa

2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Wednesday, 18th April 2018, 7 p.m.: The Art of Building Small (lecture held in English)

Ben Feringa, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, on "The Art of Building Small"

© RU, photo: Jeroen van Kooten

Bernard Lucas "Ben" Feringa (*18.05.1951, Barger-Compascuum, Netherlands)
University of Groningen, Netherlands

Furtheron in microcosm, chemist Ben Feringa explained The Art of Building Small on 18^th April. He found out how motors can be produced out of molecules, constructing the first light-driven micro-car from some few molecules in 1999 together with a team at the University of Groningen, Netherlands: Molecular chains, functioning as “wheels”, carry the “car body” from further chemical compounds. These molecular motors can be employed in the human body to build up muscular elements or micro machines, as well as to transport medicine. The Dutch researcher won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2016 together with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Fraser Stoddart “for the design and synthesis of molecular machines”.

Interview with Ben Feringa

Serge Haroche

2012 Nobel Prize in Physics
Wednesday, 27th June 2018, 7 p.m.: Juggling with atoms and photons in a cavity: from fundamental tests to quantum metrology (lecture held in English)

© C.Lebedinsky, CNRS

Serge Haroche (*11.09.1944, Casablanca, Morocco)Collège de France, Paris, FranceSerge Haroche will talk about the interplay of light and matter on 27^th June. The physicist trapped and boxed not Schrödinger's cat, but a small light particle – a photon – for investigating the quantum mechanical effects of the collision of light and matter: He trapped a photon – which usually disappears when it comes upon matter – in a mirrored box for one tenth of a second: Enough time for the light particle to collide and reflect about one billion times at the mirror surface – and for the experimental physicists to guide single atoms across the box and analyze their interplay with the photon. The complicated undertaking of capturing a photon, as well as the subsequent examination of the crossing atoms needed a brilliant strategy, which was incorporated in a refined experiment at the École normale supérieure in Paris; for his findings illuminating overall quantum mechanical problems, enabling new insights into our world’s microstructure, Haroche was awarded jointly with David Wineland the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012.

Nobel Laureate in Physics Serge Haroche abuot the interplay of light and matter in his lecture „Juggling with atoms and photons in cavity: from fundamental tests to quantum metrology“