Nobel Prize week begins - a wonderful reason to celebrate!
Ferenc Krausz, founder of attosecond physics and Director at MPQ, will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm on 10 December 2023.
Today, 6 December marks the start of Nobel Week in Stockholm, when the Swedish royal family and the institutions responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize gather to honour this year's laureates. Among them is Ferenc Krausz, who will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023 together with Anne L’Huillier and Pierre Agostini. This will be the sixth consecutive Nobel Prize awarded by the Max Planck Society since 2020, and the 28th Nobel Prize awarded by the Max Planck Society since its founding as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG). This is already the second Nobel Prize in Physics for the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. In 2005, Theodor Hänsch was honoured with this most important prize of science in Stockholm.
December 10 is an unofficial public holiday in Sweden, marking the anniversary of the death of the prize's founder, industrialist Alfred Nobel. Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes in Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics have been awarded on this day in Stockholm. It is the climax of a festive week of concerts, receptions and lectures by the year's laureates.
During a festive ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall, the King of Sweden presents the laureates with the artistically designed and calligraphically engraved medal. The ceremony is followed by a lavish banquet at the City Hall. Many Swedish families take part in the festivities by setting up festive tables at home. In some cases, they even serve the menu from the previous year's Nobel celebrations, as the order of the dishes remains a secret until the last minute.
Krausz twice on livestream
Ferenc Krausz of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Physics will share the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Agostini of Ohio State University (USA) and Anne L'Huillier of Lund University (Sweden). The Nobel Committee recognises all three for their pioneering work in establishing attosecond physics. An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. Using laser pulses that last only a few attoseconds, they can trace the movements of individual electrons, providing fundamental insights into the behaviour of electrons in atoms, molecules and solids. This research also has the potential to contribute to the development of faster electronic devices.
Ferenc Krausz is currently working on medical applications, developing new types of blood scans that could revolutionise the early diagnosis of diseases. He will present this topic during his Nobel Laureate lecture to the Swedish public on 8 December. Krausz will also be a guest in a panel discussion at the residence of the German ambassador to Sweden. Like the award ceremony on December 10, this event can also be followed online.
Krausz is the 31st Nobel Laureate to be affiliated with the Max Planck Society, according to the Nobel Foundation. This makes the Max Planck Society the world's second-largest recipient of Nobel Prizes in the natural sciences among research institutions, behind only the University of California and ahead of Harvard University. Notably, Max Planck researchers have won the prize three years in a row since 2020, with double honours in two categories in 2020 and 2021. To celebrate Nobel Week, Bayerischer Rundfunk is broadcasting a series of six interviews with Max Planck Laureates.
Digital story provides insights into 31 Nobel Laureates
The Max Planck Society presents a new digital story entitled "Pioneers of Science: The Nobel Laureates of the Max Planck Society". This interactive experience offers comprehensive information about the "Nobel System" and Nobel Week. The story spans a significant period of time, going back to 1915 - Richard Willstätter was the first researcher to be awarded the prize by the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, which became the Max Planck Society in 1948.
Eight themed stories illustrate how Nobel Prize-winning research has changed people's everyday lives and revolutionised our understanding of the world. These stories highlight the profound impact of scientific research, using powerful examples from the history of the Max Planck Society, such as the discovery of nuclear fission and Einstein's theory of relativity.
(article adopted from the Newsroom of the Max Planck Society)
