Awards for HHU Antimatter Researchers
Two young researchers working with the Chair of Quantum Technologies and Fundamental Symmetries at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) were recently honoured for their work on antimatter research. Together with their group leader, Professor Stefan Ulmer, they are researching spectroscopy methods for antimatter particles with the highest accuracy worldwide.
At the BASE (Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment) experiment at CERN, researchers capture antiprotons in specially developed traps in order to study them spectroscopically with the highest possible precision. Their goal: to compare the fundamental properties of protons and antiprotons on the basis of measurements on individual particles to search for tiny differences between the two. This allows physicists to test the limits of the Standard Model of particle physics.
Marcel Leonhardt, a doctoral student in Professor Ulmer's Düsseldorf research group, was recently awarded a "Wolfgang Paul Study Prize" by the German Society for Mass Spectrometry (DGMS) for his master's thesis, which he presented in 2025. Leonhardt's work is about the transport of protons as part of the BASE-STEP project, led by Dr. Christian Smorra.
With the study prize, the DGMS annually honours master's and doctoral theses that stand out because of their special quality and originality in the field of mass spectrometry. The prize commemorates the German physicist and Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Paul, who laid the foundations for ion traps and ion-optical devices.
Dr. Barbara Latacz, currently a visiting scientist in Prof. Ulmer's HHU research group, was presented with the "Boeing Quantum Creators Award". This prize honours young researchers who are advancing the field of quantum information science and technology in new directions. It also aims to increase diversity in this area.
Dr Latacz is honoured with the prize for the successful demonstration of coherent antiproton spin transitions. This experimental technique opens up new perspectives for high-precision testing of fundamental symmetries.
BASE spokesperson Professor Ulmer said: "These awards honour two outstanding young scientists who have already achieved important scientific successes during their careers. Within the BASE collaboration, we want to combine both technological advances in the future."
The long-term goal is to use a trap to bring antiprotons from CERN to special high-precision laboratories developed at HHU. "In Düsseldorf, we are preparing the experimental prerequisites for testing fundamental symmetries of nature even more sensitively through high-precision comparisons of matter and antimatter," says Ulmer.
Article reproduced from HHU press release.