Lummer-Pringsheim Building opened at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt

02/25/2025

(from left to right): Dr Thorsten Kornblum (Mayor of Braunschweig), Falko Mohrs (Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture), PTB President Dr Cornelia Denz, Olaf Lies (Lower Saxony Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation) and Dr Olaf Janssen (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action).

‘With this building, we are sending a strong signal for the future of quantum technology in Germany. The infrastructure is unique and an excellent basis for turning research and good ideas into pioneering products,’ said a delighted Prof Dr Cornelia Denz, President of PTB, yesterday at the opening of the Lummer-Pringsheim Building on the PTB site in Braunschweig. And Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony's Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation, added: ‘We are convinced that new jobs are created from high technology and we want this to take place at PTB in Lower Saxony.’ The conditions for this are ideal: the new building houses PTB's Quantum Technology Competence Centre (QTZ) with highly specialised laboratories and measuring stations for researchers, industry and start-ups and is a flagship for PTB's global importance in this new field of technology.

Guests from science, politics and industry were invited to the official opening of the Lummer-Pringsheim building. In addition to Olaf Lies, Dr Ole Janssen from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Falko Mohrs (Lower Saxony's Minister for Science and Culture) and Braunschweig's Mayor Dr Thorsten Kornblum were also present.

A building for the future of quantum technology

The newly constructed Lummer-Pringsheim Building is home to PTB's Quantum Technology Competence Centre (QTZ). Here, open offices and measuring stations on 1200 square metres offer the opportunity to test and further develop quantum technologies in a practical setting. ‘Here, partners from industry – especially start-ups and academic partners – can work together with our researchers on the next technological breakthrough and develop metrology for the emerging quantum technology,’ explains Dr Nicolas Spethmann, Head of the QTZ. One example of the excellent technical equipment is an ion trap user platform. Ion traps are not only central components of quantum computers, they are also used for new optical atomic clocks, for example, with which we can measure time – and therefore also location – ever more precisely. The building is named after two scientists from the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, who made a significant contribution to the discovery of quantum physics at the end of the 19th century with their measurements of blackbody radiation: Otto Lummer and Ernst Pringsheim.

Germany as a leader in quantum technology

PTB, which is part of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), is intensively involved in the development of a strong quantum technology ecosystem in Germany. With projects such as the umbrella project Quantum Communication Germany and its intensive collaboration in Quantum Valley Lower Saxony (QVLS), PTB is providing decisive impetus to bring quantum technologies into application more quickly. Just last year, a start-up centre for quantum technologies was opened in the Rollei factories in Braunschweig under the banner of QVLS, partnering with Leibniz Universität Hannover and TU Braunschweig.

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