Klaus Blaum

Klaus Blaum (* 27. December 1971 in Sobernheim, now Bad Sobernheim, Germany) is a German physicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.

Life and Scientific Work

Klaus 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, Richland, WA, USA 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) and until 2004 Research Associate (CERN Fellow) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN, 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 at the University Mainz about High precision mass spectrometry with Penning traps and storage rings.

From 2004 to 2008 Klaus Blaum taught at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. His achievement was honored with the Teaching Award of Rheinland-Pfalz 2006.^[1] 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, Germany. In November 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). From 2012 to 2014 he is vice chairman of the advisory committee "Hadrons and Nuclei" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). During the membership period 2012-2015 Klaus Blaum is a member of the DFG (German Research Foundation) Review Board 308 "Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas".

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

Klaus Blaum received numerous prizes for his scientific work, among others the Gustav-Hertz-Prize 2004 of the German Physical Society (DPG) and the Mattauch-Herzog-Prize 2005 of the German Society for Mass Spectrometry^[2] (DGMS). On March 4 he received the GENCO Membership Award 2010 of the GSI Exotic Nuclei Community. Klaus Blaum has been selected to receive one of the prestigious ERC Advanced Grants 2011 for his projects on Precision Measurements of Fundamental Constants (MEFUCO). He is one of three winners of the Helmholtz Prize 2012 for precision measurements. The award ceremony took place on March 27 on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, Germany. On March 2013 Klaus Blaum was awarded the G. N. Flerov Prize 2013 ^[3] by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, for outstanding contributions to the development of high-precision Penning-trap mass spectrometry with nuclear physics applications. In April 2016 he was selected by the Gothenburg Physics Centre ^[4] to receive the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Prize 2016 ^[5] "for the development of innovative techniques for high-precision measurements of stored radioactive ions".

Publications (Selection)

• F. Wienholtz et al.: Masses of exotic calcium isotopes pin down nuclear forces, in: Nature 498, 346–349 (2013).
• E. Minaya Ramirez et al.: Direct Mapping of Nuclear Shell Effects in the Heaviest Elements, in: Science 337 (6099), 1207-1210 (2012).
• S. Sturm et al.: g Factor of Hydrogenlike ²⁸Si¹³⁺, in: Physical Review Letters 107, 023002 (2011).
• S. Ulmer et al.: Observation of Spin Flips with a Single Trapped Proton, in: Physical Review Letters 106, 253001 (2011).
• M. Block et al.: Direct mass measurements above uranium bridge the gap to the island of stability, in: Nature 463, 785-788 (2010).
• D. Neidherr et al.: Discovery of Rn-229 and the Structure of the Heaviest Rn and Ra Isotopes from Penning-Trap Mass Measurements, in: Physical Review Letters 102, 112501 (2009).
• S. George et al.: Separated Oscillatory Fields in High-Precision Penning Trap Mass Spectrometry, in: Physical Review Letters 98, 162501 (2007).

References

1. Winners of the Teaching Award of Rheinland-Pfalz 2006
2. Website of the German Society for Mass Spectrometry
3. G. N. Flerov Prize Winners 2013
4. Website of the Gothenburg Physics Centre
5. Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award 2016

External links

• Personal Homepage at Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg