Dresden Physics 2022 Doctoral Award for two female scientists

On Jan. 31, 2023, the Physics Faculty awarded the Dresden Doctoral Prize in Physics to two young female scientists. Dr. Erjuan Guo and Dr. Marta Urbańska were honored for their outstanding dissertations. The chairman of the prize committee, Prof. Roland Ketzmerick, gave the laudatory speech for the prize winners. Afterwards, both physicists presented their research work in short scientific talks.  The awards were presented during the Physics Colloquium.

Dr. Erjuan Guo received the award for her impactful contributions to optimized vertical organic transistors which allow for fast and energy efficient circuits. The physicist has an impressive track record in the research area of electronic devices based on organic semiconductors and published several papers in prestigious journals, including Nature Electronics, Nature Communication and Nature Materials. Her dissertation entitled: "Vertical Organic Transistors: Fundamentals, Novel Concepts, and Applications" was supervised by Prof. Karl Leo at the Institute of Applied Physics. After completing her PhD, Dr. Guo was first a PostDoc at the University of Cambridge and then moved to China's Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

Dr. Marta Urbańska completed her dissertation entitled: "Single-cell mechanical phenotyping across timescales and cell state transitions" at BIOTEC. The supervising scientist was Prof. Jochen Guck, who has since moved to the MPI for the Physics of Light in Erlangen as director. Dr. Urbańska is an outstanding experimental biophysicist with an impressive track record in the research area of mechanical properties of cells. She received the award for pushing technological frontiers in mechanical phenotyping of single cells and delivering unprecedented insights into the changes of mechanical phenotype during cell state transitions. Her research has been published in several high-impact journals, including the journal Nature Methods. Since April 2022, Dr. Urbańska has been conducting research as a PostDoc at the University of Cambridge.

Dresdner Promotionspreis Physik 2022

The Dresden Doctoral Prize in Physics is awarded annually and honors the outstanding doctoral theses in physics at the TU Dresden. The prize is endowed with a total of 4,000 Euros and was donated by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation. In 2022, 77 doctoral theses were completed in the Faculty of Physics. The prize committee considered a total of seven nominations. Of these, the work of the two prize winners was so outstanding that the prize was split.