Student Award

Student Award 2024

During the SAOT Innovation Day 2024, six Student Awards valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work:

Alexandra Popp for “Extreme thermodynamics in nanolitre volumes through stimulated Brillouin–Mandelstam scattering“, Nature Physics
Chathura Kankanamge for “Diffusion coefficients in binary electrolyte mixtures by dynamic light scattering and molecular dynamics simulations“, Electrochimica Acta
Dongqin Ni for “Threshold behavior and tunability of a diffusive random laser“, Optics Express
Huiying Hu for “Engineering Stable Perovskite Film for High Color Purity Display Application“, ACS Energy Letters
Sebastian-Paul Kopp for “Enabling triboelectric charging as a powder charging method for electrophotographic powder application in laser-based powder bed fusion of polymers by triboelectric charge control“, Additive Manufacturing
Wenchang Wu for “Characterization of nanofluids in evaporating droplets by dynamic light scattering“, Measurement

Student Award 2023

As a part of the Rethinking Photonics event on March 30, five Student Awards valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work:

Phillip Lino Rall in the topic Computational Optics – “Simulation and compensation of thermal lensing in optical systems”, Optics Express
Alexander Wittmann in the topic Optical Material Processing – “Generation of Polyamide 12 Coatings on Stainless Steel Substrates by Directed Energy Deposition with a Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser (DED-LB/P)”, Polymers
Jingjing Tian in the topic Optical Materials and Systems – “Quantifying the Energy Losses in CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells with an Open-Circuit Voltage of up to 1.45 V”, ACS Energy Letters
Julius Jander in the topic Optical Metrology – “Determination of hydrogen loading in the carrier system diphenylmethane/dicyclohexylmethane by depolarized Raman spectroscopy”, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Moritz Späth in the topic Optics in Medicine – “The influence of the optical properties on the determination of capillary diameters”, Scientific Reports

Student Award 2022

As a part of the Young Researcher Award ceremony on July 8th, four Student Awards valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work:

Lisa Ackermann in the topic Optical Material Processing – „Uniform and efficient beam shaping for high-energy lasers”, Optics Express
Dr. Yakun He in the topic Optical Materials and Systems – „Unraveling the Charge‐Carrier Dynamics from the Femtosecond to the Microsecond Time Scale in Double‐Cable Polymer‐Based Single‐Component Organic Solar Cells”, Advanced Energy Materials
Dr. Marc-Oliver Pleinert in the topic Optical Metrology – „Testing Higher-Order Quantum Interference with Many-Particle States“, Physical Review Letters
Moritz Späth in the topic Optics in Medicine – „Determination of the diameter of simulated human capillaries using shifted position-diffuse reflectance imaging“, Journal of Biophotonics

Student Award 2021

In 2021, the SAOT Awards were again presented at a ZOOM video conference. The award ceremony opened by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Schmidt featured a guest lecture by Craig B. Arnold (Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Director, Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials) on the topic of “Melt-track merging and instabilities in multi-laser powder bed fusion”. Five SAOT Student Awards, valued at € 1000, were conferred by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT, to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. The prizes were awarded for a publication with the highest impact in the respective research area. All award winners were given the opportunity to shortly present their work to the audience.

Chao Liu in the topic Optical Materials and Systems – „A Cross-Linked Interconnecting Layer Enabling Reliable and Reproducible Solution-Processing of Organic Tandem Solar Cells”, Adv. Energy Mater.
Eric Eschner in the topic Optical Material Processing – „Correlation of spatter behavior and process zone formation in powder bed fusion of metals”, CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology
Philip Lino Rall in the topic Computational Optics – „Polarization ray tracing in thermally loaded solid-state laser crystals “, Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Maximilian Piszko in the topic Optical Metrology – „Dynamic Light Scattering for Studying Mutual Diffusion Coefficients in Electrolyte Systems Comprised Entirely of Ions“, J. Electrochem. Soc.
Lucas Kreiß in the topic Optics in Medicine – „Label-Free In Vivo Histopathology of Experimental Colitis via 3-Channel Multiphoton Endomicroscopy“, Gastroenterology

Student Award 2020

Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the SAOT Student Awards 2020 were presented online. The award ceremony opened by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Schmidt featured a guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Peter Hommelhoff, Chair of Laser Physics at FAU, on the topic of “The accelerator on a photonic chip: reaching extended interaction control”. Six SAOT Student Awards, valued at € 1000, were conferred by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT, to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. The prizes were awarded for a publication with the highest impact in the respective research area. All award winners were given the opportunity to shortly present their work to the audience.

Yakun He in the topic Optical Materials and Systems – „Evidencing Excellent Thermal- and Photostability for Single-Component Organic Solar Cells with Inherently Built-In Microstructure”, Advanced Energy Materials (April 2019)
Tobias Staudt in the topic Optical Material Processing – „Temperature determination in laser welding based upon a hyperspectral imaging technique”, CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology (May 2019)
Ramon Springer in the topic Computational Optics – „3D simulation and beam quality improvement of a pulsed Cr,Tm,Ho:YAG laser“, Optics Express (July, 2019)
Matthias Knoll in the topic Optical Metrology – „Simultaneous study of molecular and micelle diffusion in a technical microemulsion system by dynamic light scattering“, Journal of Colloide and Interface Science (February 2019)
Ashwathama Dilipkumar & Lucas Kreiß in the topic Optics in Medicine – „Label-Free Multiphoton Endomicroscopy for Minimally Invasive In Vivo Imaging“, Advanced Science (February 2019)
Alexander Otterpohl in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technology – “Squeezed vacuum states from a whispering gallery mode resonator”, Optica (October 2019)

Student Award 2019

The ceremony for the SAOT Student Award 2019 took place within the framework of the SAOT Summer Fair on July 22, 2019. Five awards valued at € 1000 were presented by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT, to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work:

Ramon Springer in the topic Computational Optics – „Numerical simulation of short laser pulse amplification“, Journal of the Optical Society of America B 36, 717 (2019)
Benjamin Lengenfelder in the topic Optics in Medicine – „Remote photoacoustic sensing using speckle-analysis“, Scientific Reports 9, 1057 (2019)
Michael Karg in the topic Optical Material Processing – „Expanding particle size distribution and morphology of aluminium-silicon powders for Laser Beam Melting by dry coating with silica nanoparticles“, Journal of Materials Processing Technology 264, 155 (2019)
Dominik Schneidereit in the topic Optical Metrology – „Optical prediction of single muscle fiber force production using a combined biomechatronics and second harmonic generation imaging approach“, Light: Science & Applications 7, 79 (2018)
Osbel Almora in the topic Optical Materials and Systems – „Discerning Recombination Mechanisms and Ideality Factors through Impedance Analysis of High-Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells“, Nano Energy 48, 63 (2018)

Student Award 2018

As a part of Young Researcher Award ceremony, six ‘Student Awards’ valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. One prize was awarded in each six research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical material and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics:

Raimund Schneider in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
Quantum imaging with incoherently scattered light from a free-electron laser , Nature Physics 14, 126-129 (2018)
Chen Chen in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
Laser beam melting 3D printing of Ti6Al4V based porous structured dental implants: fabrication, biocompatibility analysis, and photoelastic study, Scientific Reports, 03/2017
Anton Classen in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
Incoherent Diffractive Imaging via Intensity Correlations of Hard X Rays, by A. Classen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 053401 (2017)
Shreetu Shresta in the topic Optical Material and Systems for her publication
High-performance direct conversion X-ray detectors based on sintered hybrid lead triiodide perovskite wafers, Nature Photonics 06/2017
Felix Tenner in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
Analytical model of the laser welding of zinc-coated steel sheets by the aid of Videography, Journal of Laser Applications 29, 022411 (2017)
Lalitha Pakala in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for her publication
Joint Tracking of Polarization State and Phase Noise Using Adaptive Cascaded Kalman Filtering. IEEE Photonic Technology Letters, 08/2017

Student Award 2017

Following the acknowledgment of Dr. Horstmeyer within the YRA ceremony, the Student Award 2017 was presented by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT.

Six „SAOT Student Awards“ were presented to the SAOT doctoral candidates with publications in high-ranking international periodicals listed in the Science Citation Index in the ISI Web of Science.

One prize valued at € 1,000 was awarded in each of the six research areas:

Alfredo Rueda in the topic Optics in Communication for his publication
„Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: an electro-optical realization“
Andreas Maser in the topic Optical Materials and Systems for his publication
„Few-photon coherent nonlinear optics with a single molecule“
Tobias Laumer in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
„Optical analysis of polymer powder materials for Selective Laser Sintering“
Jens Wetzl in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
„Consistency-based Respiratory Motion Estimation in Rotational Angiography“
Anton Classen in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
„Superresolving Imaging of Arbitrary One-Dimensional Arrays of Thermal Light Sources Using Multiphoton Interference“
Midhat Ahmed and Chen Chen in the Optics in Medicine for their publication
„Fabrication of a turbid optofluidic phantom device with tunableµα and µ’s to simulate cutaneous vascular perfusion“

Student Award 2016

Following the acknowledgment of Professor Zirba within the YRA ceremony, the Student Award 2016 was presented by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT.

One prize valued at € 1,000 was awarded in each of the six research areas:

Martin Wimmer in the topic Optics in Communication for his publication
„Observation of optical solitons in pt-symmetric lattices“
Yi Hou in the topic Optical Materials and Systems for his publication
„Inverted, environmentally stable perovskite solar cell with a novel low-cost and water-free pedot hole-extraction layer“

Felix Tenner in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
„Analysis of the correlation between plasma plume and keyhole behaviour in laser metal welding for the modeling of the keyhole geometry“
Fanuel Mehari in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
„Investigation of the differentiation of ex vivo nerve and fat tissues using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): prospects for tissue-specific laser surgery“

Michael Storch in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
„The effect of ethanol blending on mixture formation, combustion and soot emission studied in an optical disi engine“
Thomas Köhler in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
„Multi-sensor super-resolution for hybrid range imaging with application to 3-D endoscopy and open surgery“

Student Award 2015

Following the acknowledgment of Professor Jesacher within the YRA ceremony, the Student Award 2015 was presented by Professor Will, Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT.

Six „SAOT Student Awards“ were presented to the SAOT doctoral candidates with publications in high-ranked international periodicals listed in the Science Citation Index in the ISI Web of Science.

One prize valued at € 1.000 was awarded in each six research areas:

Marcus Baum in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
“Generation of phase-only holograms by laser ablation of nanoparticulate ITO layers”
Christian Sauerbeck in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
“Shedding light on the growth of gold nanoshells”
Bettina Heim in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technology for her publication
“Atmospheric continuous-variable quantum communication”
Simone Gaffling in the topic of Computational Optics for her publication
“A Gauss-Seidel iteration scheme for reference-free 3-D histological image reconstruction”
Hong Zhang in the topic Optical Materials and Systems for his publication
“Improved high-efficiency perovskite planar heterojunction solar cells via incorporation of a polyelectrolyte interlayer”
Fanuel Mehari in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
“Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for bone and cartilage differentiation – ex vivo study as a prospect for a laser surgery feedback mechanism”

Student Award 2014

Following the acknowledgment of Professor Berrocal within the YRA ceremony, the Student Award 2014 was presented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. Alfred Leipertz, former Coordinator and today’s Co-Coordinator and Director of SAOT.

One prize valued at € 1.000 was awarded in each six research areas:

Rajesh Kanawade in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
“Pilot study of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for tissue differentiation by monitoring the plume created during laser surgery – An approach on a feedback Laser control mechanism” in Spectrochimica Acta Part B-Atomic Spectroscopy
Yan Xia in the Topic Computational Optics for his publication
“Towards Clinical Application of a Laplace Operator-based ROI Algorithm in C-arm CT” in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
Thomas Koller in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
“Thermophysical Properties of the Ionic Liquids” in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Arian Kriesch in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
“Functional Plasmonic Nanocircuits with Low Insertion and Propagation Losses” in NanoLetters
Marcus Baum in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
“Determination of the effective refractive index of nanoparticulate ITO layers” in Optics Express
Michael Förtsch in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for his publication
“A versatile source of single photons for quantum information processing” in Nature Communications

Student Award 2013

Together with the Young Researcher Award, in the ceremony six „SAOT Student Awards“ were presented to the SAOT doctoral candidates with publications in high-ranked international periodicals listed in the Science Citation Index in the ISI Web of Science. One prize valued at 1,000 Euro was awarded in each of the six SAOT research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical materials and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics. The prizes were presented by the SAOT Co-Coordinator and Director Professor Schmidt.

Kerstin Müller in the topic Optics in Medicine for her publication
“Evaluation of Interpolation Methods for Surface-based Motion Compensated Tomographic Reconstruction for CardiacAngiographic C-arm Data”, Medical Physics
Martin Kraus in the Topic Computational Optics for his publication
“Motion correction in optical coherence tomography volumes on a per A-scan basis using orthogonal scan patterns”, “Biomedical Optics Express, Volume 3, May 2012
Karla Reinhold-Lopez in the topic Optical Metrology for her publication
“Flow field characterization in a vertically oriented cold wall CCVD reactor by particle image velocimetry”, Chemical Engineering Journal
Steffen Oppel in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
“Functional Plasmonic Nanocircuits with Low Insertion and Propagation Losses”, Physical Review Letter 109, December 2012
Peter Bechtold in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
“Analytic and experimental investigations on influence of harmonic generation on acousto-optical modulation”, “Optics Express, Volume 20, Number 17, August 2012
Chien-Yu Lin in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for her publication
“Nonlinear mitigation using carrier phase estimation and digital backward propagation in coherent QAM transmission”, Optics Express, Volume 20, Issue 26, December 2012

Student Award 2012

As a part of the 2012 Young Researcher Award ceremony, six ‘Student Awards’ valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. One prize was awarded in each six research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical material and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics:

Andreas Fieselmann in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
“Interventional 4-D C-Arm CT Perfusion Imaging Using Interleaved Scanning and Partial Reconstruction Interpolation”, IEEE Transactions of Medical Imaging 31, (2012)
Christoph Forman in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
“Self-encoded marker for optical prospective head motion correction”, MRI Medical Image Analysis 15, 708-719 (2011)
Simone Eichmann in the topic Optical Metrology for her publication
“Acetone (CH3)2CO is a common tracer for laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) to investigate mixture formation processes and temperature fields in combustion”, Optics Express 19, 11052-11058 (2011)
Armin Rumpel in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
“Tuning the Molecular Order of C60 Functionalized Phosphonic Acid Monolayers”, Langmuir 27, 15016–15023 (2011)
Karl-Heinz Leitz in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
“Numerical simulation of process dynamics during laser beam drilling with short pulses”, Applied Physics A, Volume 106, pp. 885-891 (2012)
Tobias Röthlingshöfer in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for his publication
“Multilevel Phase-Preserving Amplitude Regeneration Using a Single Nonlinear Amplifying Loop Mirror”, IEEE Photonic Technology Letters, Volume 23, pp. 1007-1009 (2011)

Student Award 2011

As a part of the 2011 Young Researcher Award ceremony, six ‘Student Awards’ valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. One prize was awarded in each six research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical material and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics:

Markus Mayer in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
“Retinal nerve fibre layer segmentation on FD-OCT scans of normal subjects and glaucoma patients”, Biomedical Optics Express Volume 1, pp. 1358-1383 (2010)
Fabian Eisa in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
“Comparison of anatomic coordinate systems with rigid multi-resolution 3D registration for the reproducible positioning of analysis volumes of interest in QCT”, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Volume 55, pp. 1429-1439 (2010)
Kristina Noack in the topic Optical Metrology for her publication
“The role of the C2 in interionic interactions of imidazolium based ionic liquids: A vibrational and NMR spectroscopic study”, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Volume 12, pp. 14153-14161 (2010)
Benedikt Schürer in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
“Probing colloidal Interfaces by angle resolved second harmonic light scattering”, Physical Review B, Volume 82, pp. 241404-1-4 (2010)
Feng Shao in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
“Mask-topography-induced phase effects and wave aberrations in optical and extreme ultraviolet lithography”, J. of Vacuum Science and Technology, Volume 28, pp. C6J1-C6J7 (2010)
Muhammad Rameez Asif in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for his publication
“Optimized digital backward propagation for phase modulated signals in mixed-optical fibre transmission link”, Optics Express, Volume 18, pp. 22796-22807 (2011)

Student Award 2010

As a part of the 2010 Young Researcher Award ceremony, six ‘Student Awards’ valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. One prize was awarded in each six research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical material and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics:

Matthias Wohlmuth in the topic Computational Optics for his publication
Dynamic Multimode Analysis of Q-switched Solid State Laser Cavities, Optics Express Volume 17, Issue 20, pp. 17303-17316 (2009)
Rüdiger Bock in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
Glaucoma Risk Index: Automated Glaucoma Detection from Color Fundus Images, Medical Image Analysis, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp. 471-481 (2010)
Sascha Engel in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
Gas Mixing Analysis by Simultaneous Raman Imaging and Particle Image Velocimetry, Optics Letters, Volume 34, Issue 20, pp. 3122-3124 (2009)
Eugen Tatartschuk in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
Plasmonic Excitation in Metallic Nanoparticles: Resonances, Dispersion Characteristics and Near-Field Patterns, Optics Express,Volume 17, Issue 10, pp.8447-8460 (2009)
Azhar Zam in the topic Optical Material Processing for his publication
Limitations of Cancer Margin Delineation by Means of Autofluorescence Imaging under Conditions of Laser Surgery, J. of Innovative Optical Health Sciences, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 45-51 (2010)
Christian Stephan in the topic Optics in Communication and Information Technologies for his publication
Phase-Preserving Amplitude Regeneration in DPSK Transmission Systems using a Nonlinear Amplifying Loop Mirror, IEEE J. of Quantum Electronics, Volume 45, Issue 11, pp. 1336-1343 (2009)

Student Award 2009

As a part of the 2009 Young Researcher Award ceremony, four ‘Student Awards’ valued at € 1000 were presented to SAOT doctoral candidates for their innovative published work. One prize was awarded in each six research areas: optical metrology, optical material processing, optics in medicine, optical material and systems, optics in communication and information technologies and computational optics:

Britta Heubeck in the topic Computational Optics for her publication
New Finite Elements for Large-Scale Simulation of Optical Waves, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. Volume 31, Issue 2, pp. 1063-1081 (2008)
Florian Jäger in the topic Optics in Medicine for his publication
Nonrigid Registration of Joint Histograms for Intensity Standardization in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, IEEE Transaction on Medical Imaging, Vol. 28, No. 1, (2008)
Dr. Johannes Kiefer in the topic Optical Metrology for his publication
Infrared Spectroscopy of a Wilkinson Catalyst in a Room-Temperature Ionic Liquid, ChemPhysChem, 9, 2207 – 2213 (2008)
Eugen Tatartschuk in the topic Optical Material and Systems for his publication
Analytical formulation for the resonant frequency of split rings, J. Appl. Phys. 105, 014903 (2009)

Student Award 2008

The SAOT Student Award 2008 was conferred for the best publication of a SAOT PhD student in the field of optics. It was conferred to Sebastian Pfadler in recognition of his excellent contributions in the field of laser diagnostics for turbulent combustion, in particular for his publication

“Flame Front Detection and Characterization Using Conditioned Particle Image Velocimetry (CPIV)”, Optics Express, Vol. 15, No. 23, 2007, pp. 15444-15456

The prize was handed over during the 3th SAOT academy at the island of Herrenchiemsee in July 2008.