Karsten Danzmann

Prof. Dr. Karsten Danzmann is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) and Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics of the Leibniz Universität Hannover. He studied physics in Clausthal-Zellernfeld and made the Diploma as well as his PhD at the Univeristy of Hannover. After his PhD he had research stays at Stanford University and at the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) in Braunschweig. In the early 1990ies he became project leader for the gravitational wave interferometer GEO600 which was completed in 2005. At the GEO600 interferometer crucial technologies for the larger LIGO and VIRGO gravitational wave detectors have been developed what led to the detection of gravitational waves. K. Danzmann also proposed a space mission called LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) for the measurement of gravitational waves and is leader of this project on the European side. K. Danzmann has been awarded many very prestigious prices, among others the Max-Planck research price, the Körber European Science Prize, the Otto Hahn Prize, and the Stern-Gerlach Medal of the German Physical Society, and he is also member of a number of scientific academies. He is also speaker of various graduate schools indicating his great interest in the education of young people.