Dec 05, 2025

Promotionspreis Physik 2025 for Dr. Nilotpal Chakraborty and Dr. Maximilian Obst

Zwei Urkunden des Dresdner Promotionspreises Physik.

Dr. Nilotpal Chakraborty and Dr. Maximilian Obst were awarded the Promotionspreis Physik for their outstanding dissertations at the Physics Colloquium of the Faculty of Physics at TU Dresden on 2 December 2025. Out of numerous excellent nominations, the two prizewinners stood out for their particularly distinguished achievements. The Promotionspreis Physik is endowed with a total of 4,000 euros and was donated by the Wilhelm and Else Hereaus Foundation.

Preisübergabe. Die beiden Personen lächeln in die Kamera.

Dr. Nilotpal Chakraborty, now a postdoc at the University of Cambridge, is an outstanding theoretical physicist with an impressive track record in the field of condensed matter physics. He receives the prize for significant contributions to dynamical and static phenomena through gauge fields in two dimensions. His doctoral thesis entitled "Disturbing flatland: Two-dimensional gauge fields and the complexity frontier" was supervised by Prof. Roderich Moessner at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat.

Drei Personen stehen im Vordergrund mit einer Urkunde und Blumen. Im Hintergrund ist eine Person an der Leinwand per Video zugeschalten.

Dr. Maximilian Obst, currently a postdoc at Vanderbilt University (USA), is an outstanding experimental physicist in the field of condensed matter. He receives the award for his important contributions to Phonon polaritons propagating in thin layers of van-der-Waals materials. He completed his doctoral thesis entitled "Tailoring Phonon Polaritons in 2D van-der-Waals Materials" under Prof. Lukas Eng at the Institute of Applied Physics and as part of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat.

The award ceremony took place at 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, with Dr. Maximilian Obst joining the event via video.

The faculty congratulates both prize winners and thanks the prize committee consisting of Prof. Hassinger (IFMP), Prof. Schützhold (HZDR), Prof. Sommer (IPF), Dr. Sommer (IKTP), Ms. Lapp (representative of the Equal Opportunities Officer) and Prof. Ketzmerick (ITP) for their dedicated work.