Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize Fundamental Contributions to Precision Physics
19 March 2026
Klaus Blaum receives Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize – the researcher is an honorary professor at Ruperto Carola
An eminent Heidelberg physicist, Prof. Dr Klaus Blaum has received the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, which – worth 2.5 million euros – is Germany’s most important research advancement award. It recognizes his studies on physical constants and symmetries of nature, which are based on precision measurements using ions in electromagnetic traps. According to the DFG, these studies open up “defining insights into the quantum physical foundations of our world”. Klaus Blaum conducts his research as director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and is an honorary professor at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of Heidelberg University. The total of ten DFG awards were presented on 18 March in Berlin.
“Weighing up on scales whether a bee has landed on the Eiffel Tower or an ant is climbing up one of its iron supports not only calls for an extremely exact measuring instrument. Another precondition is a downright unquenchable passion for precision and the vision of measurability, such as characterize the scientific work of Klaus Blaum,” Prof. Dr Katja Becker noted in her tribute. With his studies, the researcher wants to exactly determine the fundamental constants of physics and to gain a more precise understanding of the forces and symmetries of nature. To do so, the physicist traps individual ions in a superposition of electric and magnetic fields and measures their properties. His results confirm the Standard Model of particle physics and, at the same time, supply “valuable indications of possible limits to new physics,” Prof. Becker added. The innovative instruments he developed for this purpose are “technical masterpieces that enable the greatest heights in the art of experimentation,” underlined the president of the German Research Foundation. At the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Prof. Blaum heads the “Stored and Cooled Ions” Division and has taught at Ruperto Carola as an honorary professor since 2008.
Each year the German Research Foundation awards the Leibniz Prize to up to ten researchers. At an award ceremony, the DFG president presented the prizes for 2026 to three female and seven male awardees, including Klaus Blaum, who was nominated for the prize by Heidelberg University. Another awardee was Julia Mahamid, Ph.D., who does her research as a structural biologist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. The prizes awarded in the context of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Program were presented for the 41st time.