The Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis is an award for given to those who have created applied laser technology and innovations on the application or generation of laser light. It is open to participants worldwide. It is biennially awarded by the German non-profit foundation Berthold Leibinger Stiftung. Three prizes are awarded worth 100,000 euros. The prize winners are selected from eight finalists that present their work person in a jury session. The jury is composed of international experts from different fields.[1]
First Prize: Karin Schütze and Raimund Schütze, P.A.L.M. Microlaser Technologies GmbH, a Company of the Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH, "Laser micro beam and laser catapult for single cell capture"
Second Prize: Ralph Delmdahl, Rainer Pätzel, Kai Schmidt, Coherent, Alexander Usoskin, Bruker HTS GmbH, "UV Excimer Laser Technology: Key to Massproduction of Ceramic High Temperature Superconducting Tapes"
Second Prize: Garrett Cole and Markus Aspelmeyer, Crystalline Mirror Solutions, University of Vienna, Austria and USA, "Substrate-Transferred Crystalline Coatings – a New Paradigm in Laser-Based Precision Measurement and Instrumentation"
Third Prize: Laser Guide Star Alliance (Wilhelm Kaenders et al., Toptica Photonics, Wallace Clements et al., MPB Communications, Domenico Bonaccini Cala et al., European Southern Observatory), Germany and Canada, "Lasers as Guide Stars for the VLT and other Large and Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT)"
2018
First Prize: Thomas Schopphoven, Andres Gasser, Gerhard Maria Backes, RWTH Aachen, Germany, "Extreme High-speed Laser Material Deposition – EHLA"
Second Prize: Christian Koos (1,2), Alois Hauk (2), Philipp-Immanuel Dietrich (1,2), Nicole Lindenmann (1), Andreas Hofmann (3), Tobias Hoose (1), Muhammad Rodlin Billah (1), Matthias Blaicher (1), Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT) and Institute of Photonics und Quantum Electronics (IPQ), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany (1) Vanguard Photonics GmbH, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany (2) Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany (3),"3D Laser Lithography for Photonic Integration – DELPHI"
Third Prize: Jürgen Popp and Ute Neugebauer, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology e.V., Jena, Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Biophotonics Diagnostics GmbH, Jena, Center for Sepsis Control & Care, Jena University Hospital, Germany, "Faster Assessment of Resistances - RamanBioAssay"