Viviane Schmidt studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and completed her PhD thesis last year at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) in the department of Klaus Blaum on the Study of the unimolecular decay of highly-excited anionic carbon dimers at the Cryogenic Storage Ring CSR. Here, she successfully implemented a new measurement technique to identify the types of ions stored in the ring. Furthermore, her work includes the investigation of the decay channels of the C2– dimer, both on the basis of measured data and theoretical considerations of the decay processes, which includes a newly discovered mechanism of rotation-assisted electron detachment. Viviane Schmidt, who was also granted a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation, is now conducting research on the physics and chemistry of molecules and their dynamics under strictly controlled conditions at the Institute for Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck.
Among the finalists for the SAMOP Dissertation Award was Dr Alexander Magunia, who also completed his doctorate in 2024 in the department of Thomas Pfeifer at MPIK. Magunia's dissertation focused on Time-and-Energy–Resolved Electron Dynamics in Atoms and Molecules with Intense Short-Wavelength Light. Here, he recorded experimental ‘films’ of the decay of oxygen molecules on extremely short time scales. He also used theoretical methods based on machine learning to investigate the quantum properties of electrons in atoms.
The scientific associations of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Society) that are combined in the AMOP section annually award a dissertation prize in recognition of outstanding scientific work and its excellent presentation in a lecture. A jury identifies up to four finalists among the nominees, who are invited to give a lecture on their work at a dissertation prize symposium at the spring conference. After the symposium, the jury selects the winner, who is announced at the conference.
Another highlight of this year's spring conference of the AMOP section was certainly the presentation of the Stern-Gerlach Medal to Prof. Klaus Blaum in recognition of his pioneering development of Penning ion traps into spectroscopic precision measuring instruments and their applications to test the standard model of particle physics.
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