Nano Innovation Award
The Nano Innovation Award is awarded by CeNS to honor doctoral researchers at Bavarian research institutions for excellent and innovative research in the nanosciences. Prize money: €4,000 // €3,000 // €2,000
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Who can participate?
Graduate students and recently graduated researchers from Bavarian universities and research institutions, working on on a nanoscientific topic are eligible. Their thesis examination must not have been earlier than June 15 of the application year-1. Graduate students who have not finished their thesis yet are also welcome to apply.
Submission guideline
The following documents (in English) have to be submitted by the applicant:
- Nomination letter by the supervisor (maximum two pages). The nomination letter can be sent directly by the supervisor or be submitted by the student together with the additional application documents.
- Maximum three pages: Summary of the research project and description of the innovative character of the work and explanation of a potential application of the research work (or parts of it) for industry
- a 1-minute video pitch describing the project (please submit a download link by June 10)
- Curriculum Vitae (including PhD certificate, if applicable)
- List of publications and patents (if applicable)
- Download link for PhD thesis (if applicable)
Applications should be sent as PDFs by e-mail to hennig@cens.de.
Application Deadline: June 10, 2025.
Selection Process
Selection committee 2025:
- Dr. Michael Alexander, Senior Advisor Industrials – Advanced Technology Center
- Prof. Dr. Jan Lipfert, University of Augsburg
- Prof. Dr. Andrea Rentmeister, LMU Munich
- Prof. Dr. Alexander Urban, LMU Munich
- Dr. Roman Zantl, ibidi GmbH
The selection of the awardees is a two-stage process. Shortlisted candidates will be informed and invited about 10 days before the award ceremony.
Main selection criteria
- Innovation quality
- Validation of the central idea (existing “proof of principle”)
- Application focus of the work and plausibility in terms of current state of technology
- Central idea is published, patent filed etc.
Award Ceremony
The award ceremony 2025 will take place at CeNS meets Industry on July 25. All shortlisted candidates will be invited, and the awardees will present their work in a 5 min oral presentation.
Previous winners
List of previous winners
1. Prize
Cornelia Holler │ AG Sandoghdar, MPI of the Science of Light: μKiss: delivery of nanoparticles and small molecules to the near-field of the single cell with micrometer spatial and millisecond temporal control
2. Prize
Andreas Gritsch│ AG Reiserer, TUM: Erbium dopants in nanophotonic silicon waveguides and cavities
3. Prize
Leonie Wittmann │ AG Schwaminger, TUM: Millifluidic Process Development for the Magnetophoretic Fractionation of Heterogeneous Yeast Cell Cultures by Age
1. Prize
Stephan Müssig (AG Mandel, FAU): Development of supraparticles suitable for magnetic identification tags
2. Prize
Pauline Kolbeck (AG Lipfert, LMU): DNA Origami Fiducial for 3D Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging
3. Prize
Tomás Santiago-Cruz (AG Chekhova, MPI of the Science of Light): Entangled photons generation from quantum optical metasurfaces
1. Prize
Tobias Boolakee, group of Prof. Peter Hommelhoff (FAU Erlangen)
2. Prize
Maximilian Ochs, group of Prof. Bert Hecht (University of Würzburg)
3. Prize
Tim Schröder, group of Prof. Philip Tinnefeld (LMU Munich)
The virtual award ceremony 2021, including the presentations of the finalists, can be watched here
1. Prize
Christian Sigl, group of Prof. Hendrik Dietz (TU Munich)
2. Prize
Jan Felber, group of Dr. Thorn-Seshold (LMU Munich)
3. Prize
Jun Zhang, group of Prof. Clausen-Schaumann (Hochschule München)
The award ceremony 2020, including the presentations of the finalists, can be watched here
1. Prize
Dr. Bernhard Bohn, group of Prof. Jochen Feldmann (LMU Munich)
2. Prize
Linh Nguyen, group of Prof. Tim Liedl (LMU Munich)
3. Prize
Enno Krauss, group of Prof. Bert Hecht (University of Würzburg)
Nano Innovation Award for master's thesis
Sabrina Thomä, group of Jun.-Prof. Mirijam Zobel (Universität Bayreuth)
Nano Innovation Award for PhD thesis
Thomas Hümmer, group of Prof. Theodor Hänsch (LMU Munich/MPI of Quantum Optics)
Nano Innovation Award for master's thesis: Konstantin Ditzel, group of Dr. Philipp Paulitschke/Chair Prof. Joachim Rädler (LMU)
Nano Innovation Award for PhD thesis: Dr. Klaus Wagenbauer, group of Prof. Hendrik Dietz (TU Munich)
Nano Innovation Award for master's thesis
Florian Schüder, group of Prof. Ralf Jungmann (MPI of Biochemistry/LMU)
Nano Innovation Award for PhD thesis
Stefan Datz, group of Prof. Thomas Bein (LMU)
Peter Röttgermann, group of Prof. Joachim Rädler (LMU)
Patrick Vogel, group of Prof. Peter Jacob (University of Würzburg)
CeNS Innovation Award for master's thesis
Aurora Manzi, group of Prof. Jochen Feldmann (LMU)
CeNS Innovation Award for PhD thesis
Christof Mast, group of Prof. Dieter Braun (LMU)