Award Leibniz Prize for Heidelberg Physicist Klaus Blaum
11 December 2025
Award for experimental studies on fundamental constants of physics – the scientist is honorary professor at Ruperto Carola
Heidelberg physicist Prof. Dr Klaus Blaum is to be awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation. It pays tribute to his studies on physical constants and symmetries of nature, which are based on precision measurements using ions in electromagnetic traps. Their purpose is to experimentally gauge the limits of the standard model of particle physics. 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 award – the most important research advancement prize in Germany – comes with prize money worth 2.5 million euros.
Prof. Blaum heads the “Stored and Cooled Ions” Division at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics. With his studies, the scientist wants to gain a more precise understanding of the fundamental constants of physics and the forces and symmetries of nature. In order to test the standard model of particle physics by experiments the scientist traps individual ions in a superposition of electric and magnetic fields and measures their properties. With his precision experiments he has achieved “groundbreaking results” on the differences between matter and anti-matter, according to the German Research Foundation. It underlines, for example, his success in making the as yet most precise comparison of the charge-to-mass ratio of protons and antiprotons. In atomic physics, too, Prof. Blaum has made a significant scientific contribution with his investigations of the magnetic moment of an electron in a hydrogen-like tin ion, the foundation states. “He also carried out the world’s most precise measurement of the maximum energy released in the radioactive decay of holmium 163 – a significant result for global attempts to determine the absolute mass of neutrinos,” says the DFG statement of reasons.
Klaus Blaum studied physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he also earned his doctorate. As a postdoctoral research associate he transferred to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva (Switzerland). In 2004 he became leader of a Helmholtz Investigator Group for young researchers at the University of Mainz. After his habilitation in 2006 the scientist was, one year later, appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. Since 2008 he has taught as an honorary professor at Heidelberg University. Prof. Blaum received two valuable awards from the European Research Council (ERC), two ERC Advanced Grants, and has also been awarded the Stern Gerlach Medal from the German Physical Society and the Lise Meitner Prize from the European Physical Society. Prof. Blaum is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and belongs to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as a foreign member.
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize – the most important research advancement prize in Germany – has been awarded annually by the Germany Research Foundation since 1986. Up to ten prizes can be awarded every year with prize money of 2.5 million euros each. The awards for 2026 go to three female and seven male researchers, including Klaus Blaum, who was nominated by Heidelberg University. An award also goes to Prof. Dr Julia Mahamid, who does research as a structural biologist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Previous prize-winners include physicist Prof. Dr Wolfram Pernice (2025) as well as classical philologist Prof. Dr Jonas Grethlein and neuropharmacologist Prof. Dr Rohini Kuner (both 2024). The purpose of the Leibniz Program, established in 1985, is to honor outstanding scientists, to expand their research opportunities and make it easier for them to employ particularly qualified early-career researchers. The award ceremony will take place on 18 March 2026 in Berlin.