APS honors particle physicistsPanofsky Prize for Eckhard Elsen and Robert Klanner

16 October 2024

Photo: UHH/FIAS

Robert Klanner and Eckhard Elsen.

Next spring, particle physicists Eckhard Elsen and Robert Klanner will be awarded the W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics by the American Physical Society (APS) for their pioneering work at DESY's largest particle accelerator HERA. Both scientists were professors at the University of Hamburg and did research at DESY.

The Panofsky Prize is awarded annually for outstanding achievements in particle physics and will be presented at the Spring Meeting of the American Physical Society, which will take place in Anaheim, California (USA) in 2025.

Elsen and Klanner receive the award for their central contributions to science at DESY's largest particle accelerator HERA, which was in operation from 1992 to 2007. HERA was used primarily to study the structure of the proton in detail. The knowledge gained at HERA is not only of central importance for the general understanding of the proton and its components, but is also incorporated into the daily work of researchers from all over the world who are involved in the Large Hadron Collider LHC at the CERN research center in Geneva.

Austrian-born Robert Klanner has been involved in the construction, operation and analysis of the ZEUS experiment at the HERA accelerator since 1984. In 1996, he was appointed to the University of Hamburg and was Professor of Experimental Physics with a focus on high-energy physics until his retirement. As an expert in sicilium detectors, he set up the detector laboratory at the University of Hamburg's Department of Physics. From 1999 to 2005, he was research director at DESY.

Eckhard Elsen is an alumnus of the University of Hamburg and was Professor (§ 17 HmbHG) of Experimental Physics at the University of Hamburg from 2005 to 2021. After around 25 years as a leading scientist at DESY, he took up the post of Research Director at CERN in 2016. During his time at DESY, he was, among other things, spokesperson for the H1 experiment, one of the four experiments at the HERA accelerator. He is currently Scientific Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS).

DESY Research Director and University Professor Beate Heinemann congratulates the two prize winners: “The Panofsky Prize is one of the most important prizes in particle physics and this year, it goes to two people who have made a decisive contribution to the success of HERA through their leading roles in the H1 and ZEUS experiments.”