Prizes And Awards
Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2010 Awarded:
The Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2010 went to the research team at the company Osram Opto Semiconductors and the research team from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, from the University of Würzburg and from the Humboldt University Berlin. Dr Stephan Lutgen, Dr Adrian Avramescu and Dr Désirée Queren from Osram Opto Semiconductors jointly received the Beckurts Award 2010 for the development of highly efficient, green laser diodes. For the first time ever, these allow to build extremely compact laser systems promising revolutionary applications in mobile phones, cameras or notebooks. This also on an international level outstanding design has great market potential; its market maturity is expected soon. Prof. Ernst Bamberg from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, Prof. Georg Nagel from the University of Würzburg and Prof. Peter Hegemann from the Humboldt University Berlin are honoured for their discovery of light-controlled ion channels and their application in neurobiology. Due to their work, single nerve cells can be switched on and off using optical signals. Their discovery offers an enormous clinical potential for numerous biomedical fields of application, for instance, in the treatment and cure of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's or epilepsy. The Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation annually decorates outstanding scientific-technical achievements constituting a realised or expected significant impulse for industrial innovation. The awards each are endowed with 30,000 Euro.
In addition, the Helmholtz Association and the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation award the Teacher Awards 2010. This year, twelve teachers were honoured for special merits in natural scientific teaching. The Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation was established by the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres in 1987 with the intention of honouring the researcher and manager Karl Heinz Beckurts, who died the victim of a terrorist attack, and of keeping his memory alive. Research institutions and enterprises jointly contributed towards funding a foundation aimed in particular at promoting the partnership between science and the economy.
