Lautenschläger Research Prize Awarded Posthumously to Physicist Karlheinz Meier

Experimental physicist Karlheinz Meier, founder of neuromorphic computing at Heidelberg University, is being honoured posthumously with the 2018 Lautenschläger Research Prize. The 250,000-euro prize will go to his research group at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics. For the first time this year, award sponsor and Honorary Senator at Ruperto Carola Dr h.c. Manfred Lautenschläger is also awarding a prize to a junior researcher. The prize endowed with 25,000 euros will go to the material chemist Dr Claudia Backes, who is working on the production and further development of new ultrathin substances at the Institute for Physical Chemistry. The award ceremony for the most highly endowed research prize from a private sponsor in Germany will be held on 7 December 2018. Manfred Lautenschläger praised this year's award winner as an "internationally exceptional researcher"; Karlheinz Meier passed away just days after the award was announced. "His enthusiasm for experimental physics, his curiosity for the fundamental questions of physics, and his courage to forge new technological pathways were the driving forces behind his extraordinary life in science," states the award sponsor.