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Max Planck Medal for Reinhard Werner

Max Planck Medal for Reinhard Werner

German Physical Society honours physicist from Leibniz Universität Hannover

The Max Planck Medal 2025, one of the highest honours of the German Physical Society (DPG), will be awarded to QuantumFrontiers member Prof. Dr Reinhard Werner from Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH). With this award, the DPG honours his fundamental theoretical contributions in the field of quantum information, in particular quantum entanglement and non-locality.

With his early work on the theoretical foundations of quantum entanglement, Werner made a decisive contribution to the rapid development of his field and is a pioneer of modern quantum information theory, reads the DPG's statement. Quantum information theory combines quantum mechanics with information theory and computer science - and thus forms the basis for the development of quantum technologies.

Werner was a professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at LUH from 2009 until his retirement in September 2023. ‘I like problems that are conceptually interesting and allow an answer in the form of a non-trivial theorem. As a mathematical physicist, I also try to answer questions at the appropriate level of generality,’ says Werner, describing his research activities.

The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e. V. (DPG), whose tradition dates back to 1845, is the oldest national and, with around 55,000 members, the largest physics society in the world. The Max Planck Medal is the DPG's highest honour for outstanding achievements in the field of theoretical physics. The award will be presented in March 2025 during the 88th Annual Meeting of the DPG in Bonn.