Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award

Dr. Klaus Erkelenz was one of the creators of what is nowadays called the "Bonn potential", a one-boson exchange potential that is one of the main tools in few-body and nuclear structure calcuations. Klaus Erkelenz died much too early in 1973. To honor his achievements and to keep up the memory of this great phyisicist and person, the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz foundation was set up in 2013. The inauguration meeting took place at Bonn, November 15th, 2013. The program consisted of an introduction, two scientific talks and personnel recollections by Professor Peter David, a long time friend and colleague of Klaus Erkelenz. Ruprecht Machleidt (University of Idaho, USA) gave a talk on ''Klaus Erkelenz and the Bonn Potential'' and Ulf Meißner (Univ. Bonn/FZ Jülich) talked on ''Nuclear Theory: A Modern Perspective''.

The Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award is given for an outstanding thesis in theoretical nuclear or hadronic physics or a significant contribution from a young post-doc at the HISKP, University of Bonn, the IKP-3/IAS-4 at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Ruhr University Bochum or Technical University of Munich. In exceptional cases the prize can also be given to a senior researcher for his lifetime achievements. The prize is awarded annually and comes with an award sum of 5000 €. 

Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Awardees

2023 Len Brandes

Len Brandes (Physik Dept., TU München) was presented with the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award for his outstanding work on the structure of neutron stars, in particular the Bayesian inference of the speed of sound and the analysis of a phase transition from hadronic to quarkionic matter. The colloquium and award ceremony took place on November 14th, 2023. Len Brandes presented his work under the  title "Constraints on phase transitions in neutron star matter''. 

2022 Hoai Le

Dr. Hoai Le (IAS-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich) received recognition for her outstanding investigations of hypernuclei in the framework of the no-core shell model and using baryon-baryon interactions from chiral EFT.
The colloquium and award ceremony took place on November 22th, 2022. Dr. Le presented her work under the title "Single- and double-strangeness hypernuclei in the framework of the NCSM and chiral EFT''.

2021 Shihang Shen

Dr. Shihang Shen (IAS-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich) received recognition for his outstanding contributions to ab initio calculations of the structure and spectrum of 12C based on Nuclear Lattice Effective Field Theory. The colloquium and award ceremony took place on April 26th, 2022. Dr. Shen presented his work under the title "Structure and Geometry of 12C with Wigner SU(4) Interaction".

2020 Norbert Kaiser

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kaiser (Technical University Munich) was presented with the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award for his groundbreaking calculations of the forces between two nucleons and the three-nucleon forces in nuclei and nuclear matter. These developments span almost three decades and have been instrumental in establishing chiral EFT as the modern approach to nuclear physics. He received the award on November 23rd, 2021, and gave a talk on "Nuclear Interactions from Chiral Effective Field Theory".

2019 Patrick Reinert

Patrick Reinert (MSc, TPII, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) was presented with the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award for his outstanding work on "High precision nuclear forces from chiral effective field theory". He received the award on Dember 17th, 2019, and gave a talk on "High-quality nuclear forces from chiral EFT".

2018 Evan Berkowitz

Dr. Evan Berkowitz (IAS-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich) received recognition for his outstanding contributions to Lattice QCD with applications for nuclear physics on the subject of "Aspects of Nuclear Physics from Lattice QCD". On November 20th he was presented with the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award. In the Erkelenz Colloquium he gave a talk on "The Nucleon Axial Coupling form QCD".

2016 Andria Agadjanov

Andria Agadjanov (MSc, HISKP, Universität Bonn) was presented with the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award for his outstanding work on "Hadronic electroweak processes in a finite volume". He received the award on November 29th, 2016, and gave a talk on the topic.

2015 Martin Hoferichter and Jacobo Ruiz de Elvira

Dr. Martin Hoferichter (Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, USA) and Dr. Jacobo Ruiz de Elvira (HISKP, Universität Bonn) were awarded the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award 2015 for their outstanding work on "Roy-Steiner equation analysis of pion-nucleon scattering". They received the award on December 8th, 2015, and gave a talk about their work.

2014 Deborah Rönchen

Dr. Deborah Rönchen (HISKP, Bonn University) was awarded the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Award for her thesis "Baryon resonances in pion- and photon-induced reactions". She received the award on 20th November, 2014. She gave a talk on the topic "The spectrum of nucleon and Delta resonances in a dynamical coupled-channel model".

2013 Sebastian König

Dr. Sebastian König (Ohio State University, USA) was awarded the "Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Preis" for his thesis ''Effective quantum theories with short- and long-range forces''. Sebastian König received the price on December 19, 2013. He gave a talk on ''Bound states in a box''.