Awards

***Ruth-Massenberg-Award 2019 to
Dr. Lukas Merten***
The Ruth-Massenberg-Award 2019 goes to Dr. Lukas Merten for his PhD thesis "Anisotropic Transport of Galactic Cosmic Rays based on Stochastic Differential Equations". In his work, he developed a software for the propagation of cosmic rays that as one of the first approaches is capable of describing cosmic-ray diffusion arbitrary three dimentional background fields. He applied this code to different astrophysical environments, in particular concerning the transport of cosmic rays from the Milky Way halo, where these are produced at a Galactic Wind, back to Earth, where we can observe these particles. Award ceremony (RUB News)

***Master Thesis Award 2019 to Patrick Reichherzer***
The award for the best master thesis in 2019 at the faculty for physics and astronomy goes to Patrick Reichherzer from the Chair Theoretical Physics IV, Plasma-Astroparticle Physics (RUB). In his thesis with the title "Calculation of the Diffusion Tensor for the Galactic Magnetic Field and its Implementation in CRPropa", he investigated the cosmic-ray diffusion process. It has long been known that the diffusion process in a finite volume is energy dependent. Patrick Reichherzer could quantify this energy dependence, which turns out to deviate significantly from simplified predictions that are typically used in astrophysical environments.

***Bachelor Thesis Award 2019 to Jonas Finke***
The award for the best bachelor thesis in 2019 at the faculty for physics and astronomy goes to Jonas Finke from the Chair Theoretical Physics IV, Plasma-Astroparticle Physics (RUB). In his thesis with the title "Theoretical Study of Cosmic-Ray-Induced Ionization Profiles in the Galactic Center", he developed a model based on an analytical solution for the differential equation that describes the transport of cosmic-rays in the Galactic Center region. In his model, he uses current measurements to derive the proton flux and fits his results to these measurements. From there, he predicts the ionization rate that cosmic rays induce in the Galactic Center as a function of galactocentric radius. Jonas Finke is now persuing his master in the area of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK.