Nikhef press release: Erik Heijne receives European Physics Prize
On 10 July 2017, the European Physical Society (EPS) will award the 2017 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize for an outstanding contribution to high energy physics to Erik Heijne, Robert Klanner and Gerhard Lutz. The award ceremony will take place during the 2017 EPS conference for high energy physics (EPS-HEP2017) in Venice, Italy.
Erik Heijne, Robert Klanner and Gerhard Lutz will receive this prestigious prize 'for their pioneering contributions to the development of silicon microstrip detectors that revolutionised high-precision tracking and vertexing in high energy physics experiments'. Tracking and vertexing is the reconstruction of particle tracks and vertices (interaction points) of tracks in the detector.
Until 1971, Erik Heijne studied in Amsterdam, where his first ideas for silicon detectors with strips arose while in contact with the Instituut voor Kernfysisch Onderzoek (IKO), the predecessor of Nikhef. In the 1980's, he continued developing these at CERN once improved silicon technology became available.
Nowadays silicon microstrip detectors can be found at the core of almost every high energy physics detector. They play important role in studying the standard model in detail. Erik Heijne: "All of life, including we humans, is based on carbon compounds. This prize for this research makes us aware that science and technology increasingly depend upon silicon."
The first system for a silicon microstrip detector with complete signal processing was made by Erik Heijne with a team at CERN in early 1980. The applicability of silicon microstrip detectors for high energy physics was demonstrated by Erik Heijne in collaboration with François Piuz and Bernard Hyams (1925 - 2015) in two test experiments at CERN.
Josef Kemmer (1938 - 2007) made a ground-breaking contribution to silicon detector technology by applying lithographic techniques developed by industry. In 1982, Robert Klanner and Gerhard Lutz, at the time both associated with the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, in collaboration with Josef Kemmer, built a silicon telescope with six detectors that allowed the D meson decay to be studied in detail. This was the piece of evidence that convinced the high energy physics and particle physics community of the far-reaching potential of the silicon microstrip detector.
Since these first measurements, silicon microstrip detectors have undergone an enormous development to become an essential part of all high energy physics experiments.
About Nikhef
The Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef) carries out research in the area of particle and astroparticle physics. Nikhef is a collaboration between the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and five universities: Radboud University, University of Groningen, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University and VU Amsterdam.
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Science Communication Department Nikhef
Vanessa Mexner
+31 20 592 5075 or +31 20 592 2075.