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Awarding of the 2026 Stern-Gerlach MedalThe German Physical Society Honors University of Hamburg Physicist
17 November 2025, by Ed.
Photo: MPSD
Prof. Dr. Andrea Cavalleri does research at the University of Hamburg, the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, and the University of Oxford.
The German Physical Society has awarded Prof. Dr. Andrea Cavalleri the Stern-Gerlach Medal for outstanding work in experimental physics. Cavalleri is the leading researcher in the Cluster of Excellence CUI: Advanced Images of Matter at the University of Hamburg.
Prof. Cavalleri is one of the world’s leading pioneers in ultrafast solid-state physics. His path-breaking experiments have shown how targeted terahertz and femtosecond lasers can generate new quantum states, for example, light-induced change of conductivity into condensed matter. His work has revolutionized our understanding of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and opened up new perspectives on quantum matter. Cavalleri heads one of the 3 research fields in the CUI cluster of excellence. His work has garnered multiple awards, including the Max Born Prize in 2015 and the 2024 Europhysics Prize.
The German Physical Society is a nonprofit association that fosters knowledge exchange within and outside the scientific community. It is the world’s oldest national physical society and boasts the largest membership. The Stern-Gerlach Medal is the highest honor awarded by the German Physical Society for outstanding achievements in experimental physics. It has been awarded annually since 1989 and is named after the physicists Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, both pioneers of quantum physics.
