Gunda Kipp receives award for best thesis

Prestigious Otto Stern Prize awarded by University of Hamburg

Gunda Kipp joined the research group, led by James McIver, in 2019 as a Masters student. She is now working on her PhD and investigates emergent phases in van der Waals heterostructures, using on-chip THz spectroscopy. Gunda says the prize means a great deal to her: "I feel honored that my thesis has been awarded the Otto Stern prize. It encourages me and brings a fresh wind to my project!"

The group is part of the Max Planck New York Center for Non-equilibrium Quantum Phenomena, a collaborative research initiative between the MPSD, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Columbia University and the Flatiron Institute in New York.

The Otto Stern Prize includes a trophy, a Stern biography and an award of €500. Physicist Otto Stern received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1943 for “his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton”.

In the early stages of his career, Stern worked with Albert Einstein in Prague and Zurich. From 1923 until 1933, he was Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. Stern then moved to the United States and worked at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh until he became professor emeritus in 1945.