Andreas Tittl was honoured for his scientific research on the development of novel hydrogen sensors. Hydrogen can serve as chemical energy storage device and is said to be able to possibly replace oil as fuel. In addition there is no carbon dioxide during combustion. On the other hand, however, hydrogen forms even in very low air concentration a highly explosive mixture. Thus developers of hydrogen powered cars or of fuel cells are extremely demanded with respect to safety awareness. In his thesis Tittl succeeds to develop highly sensitive optical sensors which are based on Palladium nano wires. These sensors were realized to detect trace gases. The challenge was to develop nano wires with perfect absorption behaviour, whose modifications can be reliably and sensitively detected in the presence of hydrogen. On June 13th the award winner presented his results to the international scientific audience in a talk at the Nanofair.

The award was presented by the Mayor of Economic Affairs, Dresden Dirk Hilbert and by Prof. Dr. Andreas Leson, chairman of the Nanofair and Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer IWS Dresden.

The department nanotechnology of the German Association of Engineers (VDI) honours excellent junior scientist for their results every two years. Thus the VDI gives emphasis to the outstanding significance of nanotechnological research for economy and society.