Two Hugo Geiger Awards for former IAP PhD students

The first prize goes to Dr Christopher Spiess for his thesis on precise synchronisation in quantum communication networks, and the third prize to Dr Anne-Sophie Munser for a novel method of highly sensitive scattered light measurement, which enables significantly faster identification of bacteria and antibiotic resistance.

Both award-winning projects were completed in 2024 through collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and were supervised by the director of both institutes (IAP and Fraunhofer IOF), Prof. Dr Andreas Tünnermann.

Dr Christopher Spiess, group leader for quantum cryptographic systems at Fraunhofer IOF, developed a protocol that enables clocks in quantum communication networks to be synchronised with high precision using individual photons. His approach utilises the light particles (photons) already used in these networks for information transmission as ‘clock signals’, thereby eliminating the need for additional synchronisation channels, separate lasers or expensive atomic clocks, whilst simultaneously improving accuracy and stability compared to previous methods.

In her PhD research, Dr Anne-Sophie Munser from the ‘Functional Surfaces and Coatings’ department at Fraunhofer IOF adapted a technique from optical metrology for use in cell biology. Using the so-called angle-resolved backscattering method, individual cells can be detected in fractions of a second, meaning that, for example, bacteria and their potential resistances can be analysed and identified within just a few hours – an important step towards faster diagnosis of infections, as it eliminates the need for time-consuming cell cultures and allows conclusions to be drawn about cell properties based on characteristic light backscattering.

The criteria for the Hugo Geiger Prize are scientific quality, economic relevance, novelty and the interdisciplinary nature of the approaches.