The Ernst Ising Dissertation Prize awards outstanding dissertations from the Physics Department at the University of Cologne. The prize is donated by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation.

The Ernst Ising Dissertation Award is endowed with € 4000. It is awarded once a year. Completed doctoral theses that have not been completed for more than 12 months have been assessed. All professors and lecturers with the right to award doctorates belonging to the Physics Department of the University of Cologne are entitled to make proposals. The deadline for nominating suitable candidates is October 31 of each year. Required documents are a letter of nomination by the supervisor, the candidate's dissertation, and, if applicable, publications. The complete price statute can be viewed in the BCGS office.

The selection committee used by the Physics Department currently consists of the Vice Speaker of the Department, BCGS Cologne Spokesperson and Prof. Andreas Zilges as representatives of the Physics Department the Coordinator of the CGSC, Prof. Boris Braun (member of a different Department) and Prof. Carsten Urbach (University of Bonn, external member).

We would like to thank the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation and the family of Ernst Ising. We are very happy to be able to name the prize after Ernst Ising.

Talks by the award winners
The award ceremony takes place within the framework of the Großes Physikalisches Kolloquium of the Physics Department. The date for the award ceremony for 2022 is April 30th, 2024.

Ernst Ising

The patron of the prize is Ernst Ising (1900-1998), who was born in Cologne and founded the central model of statistical physics and solid state physics in his dissertation. He lost his teaching position under the National Socialists and finally emigrated to the United States with his family.