Two MPGC researchers honored by German Physical Society – DPG

Andrea Cavalleri, MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, will be awarded the Stern-Gerlach-Medal of the German Physical Society, in recognition of his “pioneering work in light-based control of quantum materials, with which he made groundbreaking contributions to controlling emergent phenomena in solid-state physics”.

The Stern-Gerlach Medal is the most prestigious award conferred by the DPG for outstanding achievements in the field of experimental physics. The Stern-Gerlach Medal was established as a prize by the DPG in 1986 and was converted into a medal in 1992. Andrea Cavalleri is the third Max Planck Director in a row being awarded this prestigious prize, with the laureates 2024 Immanuel Bloch and 2025 Klaus Blaum.

Roderich Moessner, MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI PKS) in Dresden is to be awarded the 2026 Max Born Prize for his outstanding contributions to theoretical solid state, statistical, and many-body physics. His groundbreaking work on spin liquids, charge stripes in quantum Hall systems, and frustrated magnetism provides fundamental insights into new physical phenomena and is shaping topological solid-state physics worldwide.

Established in 1973 in memory of Nobel laureate Max Born, the Max Born Prize honors outstanding and cutting-edge scientific contributions to physics. Born, a German mathematician and physicist persecuted by the Nazi regime, took British citizenship in exile and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 for his contributions to quantum mechanics. The Max Born Prize is jointly awarded by the British Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society and the award alternates annually between German and British researchers.

Roderich Moessner is the fifth Principal Investigator of MPGC to receive the Max Born Prize.