Charpak–Ritz Prize 2018 to Roland Horisberger
The Charpak–Ritz Prize 2018, which is jointly awarded by the Swiss Physical Society and the French Physical Society, has been awarded to Roland Horisberger, Professor at the Department of Physics (D-PHYS).
Roland Horisberger receives the award "for his numerous contributions to the development of precision silicon vertex detectors for particle physics experiments as well as for the application of these technologies in X-ray photon sciences".
Horisberger has been a Professor in the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics since 2009. He is also a group leader at the Laboratory of Particle Physics at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
The ground-breaking works of Roland Horisberger have been crucial for the excellent physics performances of numerous particle accelerators (most notably at CERN) and discoveries made in these experiments. He successfully transferred novel technologies to the field of x-ray-photon sciences and in doing so enabled a large number of new scientific studies. With his group at PSI he has laid the foundations for the creation, in 2007, of a spin-off company that now is the market leader in single-photon-counting pixel detectors at synchrotrons worldwide.
Further information on the website of the Department of Physics
The Charpak–Ritz Prize
The French Physical Society and the Swiss Physical Society have created in 2016 the Charpak–Ritz Prize to highlight the tight relationship between the two Societies and to keep the memory alive of Georges Charpak (1924–2010) and Walther Ritz (1878–1909), who both have profoundly contributed to physics in their respective times. The prize distinguishes exceptional contributions in physics or in its development, to honour a physicist (or a small team of physicists) who has produced significant contributions, either in France (for awards in odd years) or in Switzerland (for awards in even years).