Klaus Blaum (born 27 December 1971 in Sobernheim, now

Bad Sobernheim Bad Sobernheim () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', and is also its seat. It is a state-recognized spa town, and is well known for two fossil discovery sit ...

, Germany) is a German physicist and director at the

Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik ("MPI for Nuclear Physics" or MPIK for short) is a research institute in Heidelberg, Germany. The institute is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society), an independent, ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Germany.

Life and scientific work

Blaum studied physics at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. After his physics diploma in 1997 and several research visits at the

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington ...

, Richland, Washington, US, he graduated in 2000 as Doctor rerum naturalium in physics. From 2000 to 2002 he was postdoctoral research associate of GSI Darmstadt (working group of

H. Jürgen Kluge H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. H may also refer to: Musical symbols * H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů * H, B (musical note) * H, B major People * H. (noble) (died after 127 ...

) and until 2004 Research Associate (CERN Fellow) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

, Geneva, Switzerland and Project Leader for "Mass spectrometry of exotic nuclides with ISOLTRAP" at ISOLDE. In October 2004 Klaus Blaum became Project Leader of the "Helmholtz Research Group for Young Investigators" on "Experiments with Stored and Cooled Ions" at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. In 2006 he habilitated in

experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...

at the University Mainz about ''High precision mass spectrometry with Penning traps and storage rings''. From 2004 to 2008 Blaum taught at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. His achievement was honored with the Teaching Award of Rheinland-Pfalz 2006. In October 2007 he was appointed as director and scientific member at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Since April 2008 he is honorary professor (W3) at the

Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality ...

, Germany. In November 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

(APS). After his first term (2012–2014), he was again vice chairman of the advisory committee "Hadrons and Nuclei" of the

Federal Ministry of Education and Research The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (; abbreviated BMFTR) is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry provides funding for research projects and institutions (aim ...

(BMBF) from 2018 to March 2020. During the membership period 2012–2019 Klaus Blaum was a member of the DFG (German Research Foundation) Review Board 308 "Optics,

Quantum Optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum chemistry that studies the behavior of photons (individual quanta of light). It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons and their interaction ...

and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas". From June 2016 to December 2019 he was deputy chairman of the FAIR/GSI Joint Scientific Council, chairman of the Scientific Committee of GSI and member of the supervisory board of GSI. From July 2020 to June 2023, Klaus Blaum was vice president of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

and responsible for the Institutes of the Chemistry, Physics and Technology Section.

Main research areas

His scientific work focuses on precision experiments with stored and cooled ions as well as the investigation of fundamental processes of molecular ions. Another main research field is the development of novel storage, cooling and detection techniques for future experiments.

Distinctions and awards

* 1998: Wolfgang-Paul-Prize for Student Research of the German Mass Spectrometry Society (DGMS) * 2004: Gustav-Hertz-Prize of the

German Physical Society The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...

(DPG) * 2005: Mattauch-Herzog-Prize of the German Society for Mass Spectrometry (DGMS) * 2007: Teaching Award of Rheinland-Pfalz * 2008:

(APS) Fellowship * 2010: GENCO Membership Award of the GSI Exotic Nuclei Community * 2011: ERC Advanced Grant for Precision Measurements of Fundamental Constants (MEFUCO) * 2012: Helmholtz Prize of the

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is the national metrology institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, with scientific and technical service tasks. It is a higher federal authority and a public-law institution directly under fed ...

(PTB) for precision measurements (together with Anke Wagner and Sven Sturm) * 2013: Flerov Prize (together with H.-J. Kluge and Y. Novikov) * 2016: Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award of the Gothenburg Physics Centre * 2019: Foreign member of the Physics Class of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

* 2019: ERC Advanced Grant for the test of fundamental interactions (FunI) * 2020:

Lise Meitner Prize The Lise Meitner Prize for nuclear physics, established in 2000, is awarded every two years by the European Physical Society for outstanding work in the fields of experimental, theoretical or applied nuclear science. It is named after Lise Meitne ...

of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach, supporting physicists to engage in the design and implementation of European s ...

(EPS). (together with Björn Jonson and Piet Van Duppen) * 2021:

Otto Hahn Prize The Otto Hahn Prize is awarded biennially jointly by the Society of German Chemists (), the German Physical Society () and the city of Frankfurt am Main for outstanding achievement in the field of chemistry, physics or applied engineering science. ...

of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the

German Chemical Society The German Chemical Society () is a learned society and professional association founded in 1949 to represent the interests of German chemists in local, national and international contexts. GDCh "brings together people working in chemistry and th ...

(GDCh) and the German Physical Society (DPG) * 2022: Full member of the

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: ''Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften''), established in 1909 in Heidelberg, Germany, is an assembly of scholars and scientists in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The acade ...

(HAdW) * 2022: Honorary Member of th
Physikalischer Verein
(Frankfurt am Main) * 2023: Boltzmann Lecture 2023 at the University of Vienna * 2024: Member of the Physics Section of the

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

* 2025:

Stern–Gerlach Medal The Stern–Gerlach Medal is the most prestigious prize for experimental physicists awarded by the German Physical Society. It is named after the scientists of the Stern–Gerlach experiment, Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach. It was originally called ...

of the

(DPG)Prizewinners of the Stern Gerlach Medal
/ref>

Publications (selection)

* * * * * * *

References

External links

''Klaus Blaum , Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaum, Klaus 1971 births Living people German experimental physicists German nuclear physicists Academic staff of Heidelberg University People associated with CERN Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Max Planck Institute directors Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society