Sascha Heußen Wins the Best PhD Thesis Prize of the Quantum Future Award

The Quantum Future Award, recognizing outstanding master’s and doctoral theses in applied quantum technologies, was awarded for the seventh time. ML4Q alumnus Sascha Heußen (former PhD student in the group of Markus Müller at RWTH Aachen University) wins the Prize for Best PhD Thesis in 2024.

Since 2018, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has annually honored innovative scientific work in the field of application-oriented quantum technologies with the Quantum Future Award. Young researchers can submit their theses in two categories—master’s and doctoral—and showcase their ideas on a prominent stage.The ten finalists of the 2024 award gathered in Berlin at the BMBF to present their work in three-minute pitches to an interdisciplinary jury and the public. An audience vote also determined the best pitch.

In the doctoral category, the top prize was awarded to Sascha Heußen from RWTH Aachen University for his dissertation, “Applications of Fault-Tolerant Topological Quantum Error Correction in Near-Term Devices.”

The entire event was recorded and is available for free on the Quantum Technologies YouTube channel. Watch Sascha’ pitch at minute 35:50: