Henry Chapman is awarded the Bjørn H. Wiik Prize

 

On 15 November, Henry Chapman received the Bjørn H. Wiik Prize 2010. The 43-year-old physicist and Professor at the Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY is awarded the prize for his groundbreaking experiments in the field of structural analysis of complex molecules at free-electron lasers.

“Henry Chapman’s research successes are extremely diverse”, explains DESY research director Professor Edgar Weckert. “Especially essential for free-electron lasers are his studies on imaging of single biological objects as viruses and small crystals. With his experiments, Henry Chapman for the first time proved that FELs are able to take diffraction images of these objects before they are destroyed by the brilliant light.”

Henry N. Chapman was born in the UK and studied physics and graduated in Melbourne, Australia. After carrying out research in the United States for 16 years, until he came to Hamburg in 2007. Since that time he is professor at the University of Hamburg and head of the CFEL Coherent Imaging Group. Henry Chapman is a well-known expert in the field of three-dimensional imaging and phase retrieval. His development of investigation methods in this field is equally important for both, materials science and biology.