Karsten Danzmann receives the 20th Ehrenring Garbsen
The Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics will be honored on 12 November at Garbsen City Hall
To the point
- The award: The Freundeskreis Garbsen e.V. is presenting Karsten Danzmann – as the “father of gravitational-wave research in Germany” – with the 20th Ehrenring Garbsen (ring of honor) for his significant contributions to the development of gravitational-wave detectors and to the first direct detection of gravitational waves.
- The awardee: Karsten Danzmann was for many years a director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) and the director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover.
- Ceremony with renowned speakers: The presentation of the Ehrenring Garbsen will take place on 12 November at Garbsen City Hall. Olaf Lies, minister president of Lower Saxony, and other distinguished speakers will participate in the ceremony in the council chamber.
Karsten Danzmann, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and former director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover, will receive this year’s Ehrenring Garbsen, as recently announced by the Freundeskreis Garbsen.
“Prof. Danzmann played a key role in the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015,” said Roland Scharf, chairman of the Freundeskreis Garbsen. “Together with his team, he made significant contributions to the development of the laser interferometers in the gravitational-wave detectors built around the world.”
In 2026, the Freundeskreis Garbsen will award the Ehrenring Garbsen for the 20th time. The award ceremony will take place on 12 November.
The awardee
“The Ehrenring Garbsen is a special distinction. I am very pleased to receive it,” says Karsten Danzmann. “In our noisy world, the contributions of science must find their way into public discourse, too. Awards like the Ehrenring draw attention to science and amplify its voice.”
Karsten Danzmann was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) from 2002 until his retirement at the end of March 2026. Since 1993, he has been a professor at Leibniz University Hannover, where he headed the Institute for Gravitational Physics.
The physicist is regarded as one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of experimental gravitational physics. Researchers in his department “Laser Interferometry and Gravitational-Wave Astronomy” develop and operate large gravitational-wave detectors on Earth and in space. They also play a key role in the development of the Einstein Telescope, the planned next-generation European detector.
A driving force behind spectacular research
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and at Leibniz University Hannover made key contributions to the first direct observation of gravitational waves on 14 September 2015, which were detected by the LIGO instruments. The discovery was announced on 11 February 2016, following extensive data analysis, at several simultaneous press conferences held worldwide. One of them took place at the institute in Hannover.
Award ceremony with renowned speakers
Leading figures from politics, business, science, and society are expected to attend the award ceremony on 12 November at Garbsen City Hall. All previous recipients of the Ehrenring are also invited.
Wolfgang Ebert will deliver the laudatory address for Karsten Danzmann. Ebert studied physics at Leibniz University Hannover and is currently the CEO of the Garbsen-based company Laseroptik GmbH. Following the Garbsen mayor’s welcome address to the guests, the ceremony will feature remarks by Lower Saxony’s minister president Olaf Lies, the vice president of Leibniz University Hannover, Joachim Escher, and Maria Alessandra Papa from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
After delivering his acceptance speech, the award recipient will sign the Golden Book of the city of Garbsen.
The Ehrenring Garbsen
Since 2004, the Freundeskreis Garbsen and the city of Garbsen have honored individuals from the fields of science, business, and society who have gained national and international recognition for their outstanding achievements with the Ehrenring Garbsen.
The Ehrering Garbsen is primarily awarded for outstanding entrepreneurial and scientific contributions. The ceremony takes place annually at Garbsen City Hall.