Universe PhD Award 2018 for Bernhard Flierl and Titouan Lazeyras

Bernhard Flierl (LMU) and Titouan Lazeyras (MPA) are awarded the Universe PhD Award 2018 of the Cluster of Excellence Universe for their outstanding dissertations. The award ceremony will take place during the Science Week 2018 of the Universe Cluster (3. - 6.12.2018).

In the category "Experiment", the Cluster of Excellence Universe honors Dr. Bernhard Flierl for his excellent dissertation "Particle Tracking with Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors" with the Universe PhD Award 2018.

Further development of gas-filled detectors
Bernhard Flierl has contributed in his dissertation to the development of large area, position-sensitive detectors for ionizing radiation. These are detectors with applications in particle physics, nuclear physics and medicine. He developed gas-filled detectors with an overall thickness of less than one centimeter, and areal extensions of up to two square meters. Prototypes have been applied at CERN, in the context of the Large-Hadron-Collider-Experiment ATLAS, at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center and at the Research-Reactor in Garching for the detection of muons, carbon-ions and neutrons respectively. "The Universe PhD Award to Bernhard Flierl honours not only his personal achievements, but also his praiseworthy contributions to experimental techniques in physics," the selection committee explains its decision.

Investigation of structure formation in the Universe
Dr. Titouan Lazeyras received the Universe PhD Award 2018 in the category "Theory" for his outstanding dissertation "Investigations into dark matter halo bias".

In his work Titouan Lazeyras used cosmological numerical simulations to investigate the formation of structures in the Universe. He concentrated on the clustering properties of the so-called dark matter halos (gravitationally bound structures of dark matter), which represent high-density regions and are preferred locations for galaxy formation. In particular, he has measured the so-called halo bias, a key component connecting the distribution of dark matter in the universe with that of visible tracers such as galaxies. "The results of Titouan Lazeyras' dissertation are already recognised as original contributions in this field," emphasises the selection committee.