Dr. Thorsten Uphues receives Otto Hahn Medal

Since 1978 this award is annually given to up to 40 young scientists by the Max Planck Society. It is supposed to encourage highly talented people to pursue a professional career at universities and institutes in the field of fundamental research. Dr. Uphues receives this award for his contributions to the “development of time-resolved x-ray physics”.

Thorsten Uphues was born on May 6, 1976, in Verl (Nordrhein-Westfalen). He began his education in physics at the University of Bielefeld in 1998 and received his diploma in 2003. He continued with his PhD thesis on the topic “Assembly and Application of an Instrument for Attosecond-Time-Resolved Ionization Chronoscopy” at the Department of Molecular and Surface Physics (Prof. U. Heinzmann).

In 2007 Dr. Uphues worked as a “postdoctoral researcher” in the Junior Research Group Attosecond-Imaging of Dr. Matthias Kling which is part of the Attosecond and High-Field Physics Division of Prof. Ferenc Krausz (Director at MPQ). He especially improved the technique of attosecond metrology which makes it possible to observe processes that take place inside atoms in time spans of a few attoseconds (1 as=10-18 sec, a billonth of a billionth of a second), e.g. the emission of Auger electrons, in real-time.

His experiments are an important step towards the application of this method on the investigation of surfaces of solid states and on specific problems in physical chemistry. The work was carried out in close cooperation with Prof. U. Heinzmann and Prof. M. Drescher (Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Hamburg). The Otto Hahn Medal will be given to Dr. Thorsten Uphues on the occasion of the main assembly of the Max Planck Society in Dresden on June 25, 2008. Olivia Meyer-Streng

Contacts:
Prof. Dr. Ferenc Krausz
Managing Director
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1
85748 Garching
Professor, Chair of Experimental Physics
Ludwig Maximilians University Munich
Phone: +49(0)89 32905 612, Fax: +49(0)89 32905 649
e-mail: ferenc.krausz@mpq.mpg.de
Dr. Thorsten Uphues
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1
85748 Garching
e-mail: thorsten.uphues@mpq.mpg.de