Oldenburg. PD Dr Svend-Age Biehs from the "Condensed Matter Theory" working group at the Institute of Physics received the Peter C. Waterman Award for his work in the field of thermal radiation in the nanometre range at this year's "Electromagnetic Light Scattering" conference(ELS XV) in Leipzig. The Peter C. Waterman Award is presented by the "Journal of quantitative spectroscopy and radiative transfer"(JQSRT). It recognises outstanding work by young scientists in the field of the theory and application of electromagnetic scattering.

Svend-Age Biehs is researching radiative heat transfer in the nanometre range and the interaction of quantum systems with plasmonic structures and metamaterials in Prof. Martin Holthaus' working group. One focus is the theoretical description of the near-field thermal microscope developed in the working group of Prof Jürgen Parisi and apl. Prof Achim Kittel.

The prizewinner studied at the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg and received his doctorate there in 2007. After a two-year stay at the Institute d'Optique in Paris, he returned to Oldenburg and completed his habilitation there in 2014.