Prizes And Awards
Knut Urban Is Awarded the Wolf Prize
This year, the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics jointly honours Dr Maximilian Haider from the CEOS GmbH in Heidelberg, Harald Rose from the Technical University Darmstadt and Knut Urban from the Research Centre Jülich. The scientists receive the award endowed with 100,000 US dollar in recognition of their work on the further development of electron microscopy. On 29 May, the Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Minister for Education Gideon Sa'ar will present them with the prize in a ceremony held before the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem.
Working together since the beginning of the 1990s, the three physicists collaborated to advance the resolution of electron microscopy to atomic dimensions. Together, they built a prototype which has become the model for a new generation of commercial devices. Today, all major electron optics companies of the world produce microscopes on the basis of the new electron optics supplied by CEOS or, respectively, their licenced partners.
With its decision, the jury recognises the revolutionary effect the discovery of the three scientists has on modern material sciences. The Wolf Prize is awarded since 1978 to world-wide eminent scientists and artists. It is considered one of the most important international awards in the run-up to the Nobel Prize. The last Wolf Prize in Physics awarded to a German scientist went to the Jülich-based researcher and Nobel Prize Laureate Peter Grünberg in 2007.
