Cooperation Across Continents

ACP principal scientist Prof. Volker Deckert receives the Chinese Changjiang Scholarship Prize – the highest academic award bestowed by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China to leading scientists in higher education. Regarded as a pioneer in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), Prof. Dr. Deckert is head of a research department at the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies (Leibniz-IPHT) and Professor of Physical Chemistry (Nano spectroscopy) at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

Each year, only a few international researchers are selected to be honored with the reputable Changjiang Scholar Award. Generally, these prestigious scholarships go to top Chinese scientists. For Volker Deckert, the scholarship includes a Yangtze River guest chair at the School of Physics and Information Technology of the Shaanxi Normal University in Xian, China with appropriate equipment to implement joint projects there. For the funding period of three years, Deckert will spend about two months a year in Xian to research and teach in the field of nano-optics. Together with his co-winner Prof. Dr. Zhang Zhenglong, Professor at Shaanxi Normal University, he will supervise students and give lectures online and on site. The first trip is planned for 2022.

Joining Forces for Joint Experiments in Nano-Spectroscopy

"I feel very honored and see the award as a confirmation and reward for the work on TERS with my teams at Leibniz-IPHT and the University of Jena," says Volker Deckert. "I am very pleased to take the cooperation with Zhang Zhenglong at Shaanxi University to a new level. He used to be in my group at Leibniz-IPHT as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and we have been working together very successfully since that time." The scholarship will make it possible to join forces and to strengthen the scientific exchange of experience. Plans are, for example, to conduct optical experiments at low temperatures, which are not yet possible in Jena, adds the expert for nano-spectroscopy. This will make it possible to gain a better understanding of fundamental processes on the nanometer scale.

Among other things, Volker Deckert’s research work deals with the development and application of marker-free spectroscopic methods for the analysis of chemically and biologically relevant systems in the nanometer range. His methods are mainly used in instrumentation and the life sciences.

The award ceremony for the Changjiang Scholar Award took place at the end of October as part of a digital event with high-ranking representatives of Shaanxi Normal University, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and Leibniz IPHT.