One week before the Nobel prize in Physics was announced, on the 29th of September 2016, The
Gothenburg Physics Centre honoured German professor Klaus Blaum with the
Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award 2016.
The connection might sound vague, but one of the previous
winners, Stefan W. Hell, was later awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in
2014.
– I walk in big footsteps, but I do not feel the pressure. I’m
really happy to receive the prize and it gives a lot of inspiration to
me and my group. This is an international recognition, says Klaus Blaum,
Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg.
In connection with the ceremony in the Physics Center in Gothenburg
he held a lecture about his research and he also had the time to visit
the Lise Meitner room at Chalmers.
–I think she deserved the Nobel prize for the nuclear fission. Her
research is what our work is based on.
Klaus Blaum was awarded the prize for “the development of
innovative techniques for high-precision measurements of stored
radioactive ions”. To make a very difficult topic understandable he is
investigating how atoms heavier than iron can be made.
– The exact physical process that produces heavier elements than
iron is still unknown. For example, we don’t know how gold got made,
says Klaus Blaum.
The Gothenburg Lize Meitner award was handed over by Pam Fredman, Vice Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg.
Text: Mia Halleröd Palmgren
Link to Curriculum Vitae of Klaus BlaumRead more about the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award