Master’s thesis at Light & Schools awarded the Ernst Grimsehl-Prize

3 June 2020

Photo: UHH, RRZ/MCC, Mentz

Caroline Compart has been honored with the Ernst Grimsehl-Preis. The prize was awarded by the "Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Physik an der Universität Hamburg (VFFP)" for the best master's degree in physics teacher training in the winter semester 2019/2020. Compart received the prize in part for her master’s thesis “Use of optical tweezers in the school laboratory”.

In her master’s thesis at Light & Schools, the physics school laboratory of Universität Hamburg and the Cluster of Excellence "CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter", Compart extended the optical tweezers project considerably. In this project, pupils learn how to catch transparent particles with the help of a laser beam. It presents the opportunity to carry out and experience a procedure first hand that was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics. The pupils can catch and move a variety of particles and determine the maximum holding force of the tweezers.

Additionally, the experiment is used in the advanced practical training of teachers. 

"We are very pleased about this success and congratulate Caroline Compart very warmly", say the director of the school laboratory, Prof. Klaus Sengstock, and the coordinators, Bastian Besner and Dr. Jonas Siegl.