Physics

Dr. Carolin Schmitz-Antoniak, member of the group of Professor Heiko Wende, received the IXAS Dale Sayers Young Scientist Award at the 15th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure in Beijing and prize money of 500 US dollars for her research on the structure and magnetism of systems on the nanoscale. Since 2003, the International X-ray Absorption Society has been awarding this prize for outstanding contributions to the XAFS field.
Caroline de Beule, member of Professor ­Gerhard Wurm’s group, received the award of the Center of Applied Space Technology and ­Microgravity, Bremen (ZARM) and prize money of 1000 euros. She was awarded first prize for her diploma thesis “Gravitationsabhängigkeit licht­induzierter Stauberuptionen”.
Professor Andreas Ney, who took up the professorship for Solid State Physics at the  Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria) on 1 February 2012, received the Gottschalk-Diederich-Baedeker Prize worth 5000 euros for his outstanding habili­tation thesis.
Vural Kaymak from the research group of Professor Thomas Guhr was recognized by the Ministry of Research of North Rhine-Westphalia for his outstanding achievements. He was one of ten prize winners at the “Absolventenbegegnung 2011” alumni meeting in Düsseldorf to receive a certificate and an elaborately engraved glass plate from Minister Svenja Schulze.
Graduate physicist Hanna Bukowska was honoured by the University of Duisburg-Essen in cooperation with the Turkish Consulate General in Essen for her excellent degree results.
The Sparkasse Duisburg also distinguished two members of the Faculty of Physics for their outstanding achievements: physicist Dr. David Krix, member of the scientific group of Professor Hermann Nienhaus, explored uncharted waters in his experiments and theories for his doctoral thesis, in which he analyzed electronic excitation during the oxidation of the surfaces of alkali metal with molecular oxygen.
Kai Wagner of Professor Michael Farle’s group received a distinction for his outstanding work for his Bachelor’s degree.
Dr. Mario Kieburg, member of the scientific group of Professor Thomas Guhr, was honoured at the Dies Academicus for his doctoral thesis “Supersymmetry in Random Matrix Theory”. Hanna Bukowska of Professor Marika Schleberger’s research group received a prize for the best degree thesis. Parts of her scientific work on Raman spectroscopy on graphene have been published in the New Journal of Physics.
Associate professor Frank-Joachim Meyer zu Heringdorf was awarded the Gottschalk-Diederich-Baedeker Prize worth 5000 euros for his outstanding habilitation thesis entitled “Frontiers of In-Situ and Time-Resolved Surface Electron Microscopy”. During his work at the University of Duisburg-Essen, F.-J. Meyer zu Heringdorf used low-energy electron microscopy and the photoemission ­electron microscope to analyze different phenomena in surface science. The key to his success lay in researching the dynamics of surface plasmon polaritons in nanoscale silver structures.