Scientists around CASUS Young Investigator Dr. Tobias Dornheim were awarded the HZDR Research Award 2024
Whether it’s novel materials or inertial fusion, research into warm dense matter promises many useful applications. However, investigating this state of matter is challenging, partly due to the high temperatures and pressures involved and the extremely short time for which it can currently be produced experimentally. An international team of researchers led by Dr. Tobias Dornheim from the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) presented a mathematical solution that significantly simplifies the experiments. For this breakthrough, Dornheim, Dr. Maximilian Böhme, Dr. Zhandos Moldabekov, and Dr. Jan Vorberger were honored with the HZDR Research Award on June 5, 2025.
The four scientists are receiving the research award, which is presented once a year at the HZDR for outstanding work, primarily for the enormous progress their computational approach has made in experiments with warm dense matter (WDM). This state of matter, which occurs naturally in massive celestial bodies such as stars and planets, can only be produced on Earth in special laboratories with the aid of powerful laser flashes for fractions of a second. Before the achievement, the evaluation of this very short time interval has been carried out using complicated simulations on high-performance computers. Thanks to the new method, which is based on the mathematical process of Laplace transformation, it can now be derived directly from the measurement. This reduces the effort required for the experiments many times over.
Additional information:
Dr. Tobias Dornheim
Young Investigator Group Leader
Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at HZDR
Media contact:
Dr. Martin Laqua
Officer Communications, Press and Public Relations Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at HZDR
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Large experimental facilities such as at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the US and the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg are already using the method. The high value of the research is also evident from the other awards the team has received: Tobias Dornheim won one of the coveted Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) and was honored by the Wrocław University of Science and Technology with its Stanisław Lem European Science Prize. CASUS Director Prof. Thomas Kühne acknowledged all of this in his laudatory speech. The success is also the result of close cooperation between the HZDR institutes CASUS (Dornheim, Böhme, Moldabekov) and Radiation Physics (Vorberger). After completing his doctorate in Görlitz, Böhme moved to LLNL as a Lawrence Fellow. Being in the US, he was unable to attend the award ceremony.
At the event, the HZDR Executive Board also presented awards in the categories of technology, transfer, and communication. The HZDR Technology Award went to the team of the Helmholtz Innovation Lab FlexiSens, which developed an electrically conductive polymer for medical prostheses. The people behind the four-year-old start-up TheiaX, which offers services in the field of environmentally friendly exploration of natural resources, received the HZDR Transfer Award. The HZDR Communication Award went to Dr. Max Sieger from the Institute of Fluid Dynamics for his special contributions to introducing school students to careers in science.
The award ceremony was once again accompanied by a graduation ceremony honoring all young scientists who completed their doctorates at HZDR last year. Among them were three honorees from CASUS: Dr. Maximilian Böhme (now LLNL), Dr. Lenz Fiedler and Dr. Rui Li. After their time at CASUS, all of them have taken up or have prospects for exciting career opportunities. We wish them all the best.
