Award ceremony
Innovationspreis
Zukunftspreis
The award ceremony of the Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis and Zukunftspreis is a celebration of science and innovation, a meeting place for the laser world, pioneers, enthusiasts and interested parties. Celebrate the finalists and award winners with us!
The next award ceremony will take place on June 20, 2025, the Friday before LASER World of Photonics.
When, Where, How
Start and procedure
Date: Friday, June 20, 2025
Reception: from 4:00 p.m.
Ceremony: 6 pm
Standing reception: 8 pm
End: 11 pm
Address and directions
The award ceremony takes place at the headquarters of the TRUMPF Group in 71254 Ditzingen, Germany.
Navigation target: Schuckertstr., 71254 Ditzingen.
Directions on TRUMPF Group website.
Dress code
Business Attire
Contact
You want to know, how to receive an invitation or have a question about the event?
Review 2023
Around 400 guests from science, business and society, many from abroad, celebrated the five finalists and three winners of the Innovation Award as well as the winner of the Future Prize. Professor Bernhard Schölkopf from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems gave the keynote speech on the topic of artificial intelligence. The ceremony was followed by a reception, a long evening of networking.
Program
6 pm - Introduction
Dr.-Ing. E. h. Peter Leibinger
Chairman of Shareholders Berthold Leibinger Stiftung
Talk
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf
Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Interactive Video Show
Lichtfaktor
Award Presentation
Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis
Light Painting Show
Lichtfaktor
Award Presentation
Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis
8 pm - Reception
11 pm - End
Alpha – Tunable Frequency Converter from Visible to Mid-Infrared
Dr. Tobias Steinle, Prof. Dr. Harald Giessen
SI Stuttgart Instruments GmbH & Universität Stuttgart
The high-precision tunable ultrafast laser platform ‘Alpha’ is a product line of SI Stuttgart Instruments and the result of intensive research and commercial development. The fiber-feedback optical parametric oscillator features a unique passive optical stabilization and pulse shaping scheme and serves in bioimaging, nano-spectro-scopy, and visible to deep mid-infrared ultrafast science around the world.
Laser-Driven Microdrones
Prof. Dr. Bert Hecht, Dr. Xiaofei Wu
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg & Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology
Much smaller than human red blood cells, the laser-driven microdrones contain several optical nanomotors addressed individually by circular polarization components of unfocused light fields and will enable independent steering of all six degrees of freedom in 3D. Potential applications range from life sciences to nanotechnology, such as transport and release of cargos, nanomanipulation, local probing and sensing, as well as experiments in fundamental quantum physics.
QLAS – the Photonic 3D Printer
Dr. Sofia Pazzagli, Dr. Sinan Gündogdu,
Grigory Kornilov, Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Ferdinand-Braun-Institut
Imprinting photonics elements inside glass and transparent materials is an emerging technology that is key to applications such as smart glasses, head- up displays, miniaturized sensors, and many more. ‘QLAS’ is a new 3D printer technology for these elements using cost and energy efficient laser diodes to produce localized refractive index changes in a glass like transparent material.
OSEC - tunable quantum cascade laser in external cavity (3rd prize)
Dr. J. F. Kischkat, Dr. O. Supplie, Dr. R. Schlesinger,
N. Hahne, Prof. Dr. H. von Lilienfeld-Toal,
M. Silvestrov, A. Liero, R. Antal
Quantune Technologies GmbH
For Mid-infrared spectroscopy ‘OSEC‘, optically stable external-cavity QCL, by Quantune Technologies GmbH, combines the best of two worlds: Precise wavelength tunability and stable operation with miniature quantum-cascade lasers made from large-batch semiconductor components. ‘OSEC‘ brings laser-based high-res MIR spectroscopy to in-line industry, consumer and health-tec applications.
Remote sensing and diagnosis of cardiopulmonary diseases (2nd prize)
Prof. Dr. Zeev Zalevsky, Prof. Dr. Javier Garcia
Bar-Ilan University & Universitat de València & Donisi Health
The remote sensing methodology extracts nano-vibrations occurring in the tissue and is capable of continuously sensing various vital bio-signs, molecular concentration of chemicals in blood stream and hemodynamic activity. A commercial product developed by Donisi Health was tested in large clinical trials while focusing on diagnosis of cardio-pulmonary diseases as arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure.
Direct Laser Welding of Al-Si Coated Press-Hardened Steels
Prof. Dr. Shanglu Yang, Wu Tao, Dr. Wei Xu,
Dr. Jiazhi Zhang, Xuzhi Zhang
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
An innovative laser-filler wire welding process for welding aluminum-silicon coated press hardened steels has been developed and approved by Chinese car manufacturers. Press-hardening steels provide ultra-high strength and the capability of being formed into complex shapes, which enables the automotive industry to achieve excellent vehicle weight saving. The new process has huge potential to significantly reduce the manufacturing costs and its complexity.
Optical Frequency and Timing Distribution System
Prof. Dr. Franz X. Kärtner, Kemal Şafak,
Anan Dai, Daniel Petters
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY & Universität Hamburg & Cycle GmbH
An optical pulsed timing distribution system enabling femtosecond to attosecond precision timing, initially developed for timing of km-scale X-ray Free-Electron Lasers, has ultimately been commercialized by Cycle. Cycle’s technology brings atomic level temporal resolution from labs to scientific research infrastructures and space industry such as high energy laser systems and radar antenna facilities.
Ultra-high-precision beam sources not only for basic research (1st prize)
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Grote, Dr. Henning Vahlbruch,
Prof. Dr. Benno Willke
Cardiff University & Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics & Leibniz University Hannover
The detections of gravitational waves have revolutionized astronomy and our understanding of the universe. Three innovations in laser physics were essential for this breakthrough: extreme stabilization of high-power lasers, generation and coherent control of squeezed vacuum fields, and novel control techniques for squeezed light application. They may also innovate other applications like quantum communications and light-based quantum computing.
Future Prize winner Anne L'Huillier
Anne L'Huillier is a pioneer in both high harmonic generation and attosecond physics. High harmonic generation is a non-linear phenomenon when irradiating material with very high power laser pulses. This process generates attosecond light pulses. Attosecond physics deals with light-matter interaction phenomena using attosecond light pulses to obtain dynamic processes with unprecedented time resolution. An attosecond is one billionth of a billionth of a second.
Latent Field #35
The card motifs have been individually generated with the help of artificial intelligence. At the award ceremony, they become part of an interactive work of art.
About artificial intelligence
To generate the images, Paul Bethge used a publicly available artificial intelligence called "Stable Diffusion". By means of interpolations in the so-called "Latent Field" the artist creates a contextual and structural proximity between the images. The result is the fictitious conflation of the duality of photons - the property of existing both as particles or as waves.
Partner for the card design
Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe is a cultural institution that is unique in the world. With its art collection, publications, archives, and artistic, scholarly and scientific research on the electronic arts, the ZKM stands for a program of interdisciplinary projects and international collaborations. In its exhibitions, symposia, concerts, and workshops, the ZKM communicates the theoretical discourses of philosophy, science, technology, politics, and economics from a contemporary artistic perspective.
