Theodor Hänsch Doctoral Thesis Award 2025 for Dr. Alexander Impertro

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Traditionally, the Theodor Hänsch Doctoral Thesis Award was also presented during the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Physics. This year, the award, endowed with 4,000 euros, was presented to Dr. Alexander Impertro for his dissertation „Quantum Gas Microscopy of Interacting Quantum Matter with Artificial Gauge Fields.“

In his laudatory speech, Impertro’s doctoral supervisor, Professor Immanuel Bloch, who mentored the thesis together with Professor Monika Aidelsburger, particularly emphasized the quality of Impertro‘s research and his approach to problem-solving. Impertro, Bloch noted, not only possesses the „magic touch“ needed to solve specific scientific questions. „Through his work, he also creates tools that are reusable - tools that research groups around the world adopt, develop further, and apply in new contexts,“ Bloch said. „One could hardly wish for more from scientific research.“ The dissertation thesis, which Impertro completed with the distinction summa cum laude (grade 0.7), was exemplary in its structure, attention to detail, presentation, and integration into the scientific literature.

Congratulating Impertro, who is now working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Innsbruck in the research group of Hannes Bernien, Bloch also expressed his hope that his former doctoral student’s departure from LMU would only be temporary: „LMU is losing you, hopefully only for a while - of that I am certain.“

In his subsequent presentation, Alexander Impertro introduced the findings of his doctoral thesis and explained his research to the audience in the Grand Aula in a highly engaging and accessible way.

The Theodor Hänsch Doctoral Thesis Award is endowed annually to the Faculty of Physics by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation. Named after Professor Theodor W. Hänsch (Nobel Prize in Physics 2005), it honors outstanding doctoral dissertations in the field of physics.