As the first female scientist, Prof. Dr. Birgit Kanngießer from TU Berlin has been awarded with the Outstanding Achievement Award 2022 of the European X-ray Spectrometry Association (EXSA). Prof. Kanngießer receives the prize for the development of new methods in X-ray technology: The jury acknowledges her pioneering work in the field of quantitative confocal µ-XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analysis and the transfer of synchrotron radiation-based instrumentation into the laboratory.
In their statement the EXSA award jury wrote: "Prof. Birgit Kanngießer has devoted a great deal of her career to methods and instrumentation which bring the sophisticated techniques of synchrotron radiation to measurements that can be carried out by conventional x-ray sources in the laboratory. Her expertise has extended to every area of x-ray applications: x-ray focusing, x-ray imaging, spatial XRF with confocal sources and detection, specialized spectrometers, and optimal use of CCD x-ray detectors."
Prof. Dr. Birgit Kanngießer, who was appointed to the endowed professorship "Analytical X-ray Physics" at TU Berlin in 2009, is engaged in application-oriented research in the field of analytical X-ray physics. Her research group Analytical X-ray Physics aims at the development of novel instrumentation as well as analytical methodology in the large field of X-ray science. Their projects range from fundamental research concerning e.g. the investigation of dynamic processes in biomolecules to the adaptation of methodology to optimally analyze samples from biomedicine, catalysis or cultural heritage to the very practical designing and construction of novel laboratory instrumentation.
The European X-ray Spectrometry Association (EXSA) was founded in 2004 to promote innovation and cooperation of X-ray spectroscopists and analysts within Europe. The EXSA Outstanding Achievement Award is awarded every two years to excellent researchers in the field of X-ray spectroscopy methods and/or their application. With Birgit Kanngießer, in 2022, the prize was awarded to a female winner for the first time.