PH.D. Thesis Prize 2005

PH.D. Thesis Prize 2005
Award for Outstanding Young Scientists

This year, two young scientists are glad to receive the prize of the Association of the Friends and Sponsors of DESY: particle physicist Iwona Grabowska-Bold and molecular biologist Oliver Schilling.
Yesterday, Professor Albrecht Wagner presented the award to both laureates during the open session of the DESY Extended Scientific Council. With this, the Association of the Friends and Sponsors of DESY annually recognizes the best Ph.D. theses of the past year.

from left: Dr. Iwona Grabowska-Bold, Prof. Albrecht Wagner

The awarded work of Iwona Grabowska-Bold deals with the measurement of the virtual Compton scattering, i.e. the scattering of a virtual photon off the proton with large momentum transfer values. The thesis elaborated in the ZEUS Collaboration makes possible a new examination of quantum chromodynamics.

In 1995, the young Polish physicist began to study at the Krakow University, graduated as a Master of Science and earned her doctorate in 2004 with the Ph. D. thesis “Measurement of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering Using the ZEUS Detector at HERA”. She has already received several prizes and awards and had the opportunity to present the results of her scientific work at many international conferences.

from left: Dr. Oliver Schilling, Prof. Albrecht Wagner

Oliver Schilling’s awarded thesis investigated the metal binding properties of different proteins with a metallo-ß-lactamase fold. These medical relevant proteins play a role in the resistance against antibiotics, the origin of prostate cancer and the detoxification of the cell. Schilling examined their metal specificity by X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

Oliver Schillings career started in 1994 studying biology at the University of Braunschweig. Two years later he continued to study at the University of Münster and during that time spent one year at the University of Tours in France. For his doctoral thesis with the title „Functional and Metal Binding Properties of Cytoplasmic Metallo-ß-lactamase Domain Proteins“ he joined the EMBL Hamburg Outstation on the DESY campus. The young scientist earned several awards for his work, presented his results at many conferences and publish them in important journals. Currently he is working at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.