Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice from the Physics Institute of the University of Münster (WWU) receives a "Consolidator Grant", issued by the European Research Council (ERC). The highly prestigious funding is endowed with a total of nearly two million Euro.

“To receive the desirable funding and succeed in the Europe-wide competition, researchers have to exhibit excellent research achievements. Such a funding therefore indicates research at the highest level, of which the researcher as well as the whole University can be proud” emphasized professor and member of the rectorate Prof. Dr. Johannes Wessels. “With Wolfram Pernice, who is doing research in Münster since 2015, the Department of Physics won an outstanding young scientist, who complements the research profile of nanophysics in an optimal manner.”

The research project Wolfram Pernice wants to carry out in the following five years with the help of the funding, is in the research area of quantum technology. The aim is to develop optical chips, which are designed for the operation with single light quanta (“light particles”). The purpose of the chips is the realisation of tap-proof communication technologies and the development of new components for the efficient simulation of complex systems. The chips are produced by using new methods of nano-structuring and are interconnected in optical networks through glass fibers. The chips are able to communicate via the glass fibers and, as an intelligent overall system, solve tasks which are hard to manage by today’s computers. A special focus is on the usage of scalable procedures. That means that not only single components, but complete optical systems can be realized on each chip.

The "Consolidator Grants" funds are addressed to young scientists between seven and twelve years after their promotion. It supports the building and perpetuation of an excellent and independent research-team. Further funding are the "ERC Starting Grants" and "ERC Advanced Grants". In total, there are about a dozen of scientist with a grant of the EU-Commission at the WWU.

About the person

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice, born 1978, studied Microsystem Technology at the University of Freiburg and Information Systems at the Indiana University in Bloomington, USA. He received his PhD in 2007 at the University of Oxford (England) and from then on worked as a Postdoc at the Yale University (USA) with a Feodor-Lynen-scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. From 2011 to 2015 he led an Emmy-Noether junior research team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He started at the WWU in 2015, where he holds a professorship for Responsive Nanosystems.