13 12 Director‘s Report Structure Structure Director‘s Report STRUCTURE The Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP) is the host of major research and educational activities in optics and photonics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. As a cornerstone of the University‘s scientific profile, this interfaculty center forms the core of the University‘s profile line LIGHT and incorporates major scientific contributions from Jena‘s nonuniversity optical research institutes. Based on more than a century of optics and photonics tradition in Jena, ACP was founded in 2010 by the optical scientists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena to further shape the University‘s scientific profile. ACP‘s founding was a milestone in the University‘s long term institutional strategy to establish the priority research area Optics, Photonics and Photonic Technologies already in 2005. Besides its academic mission, ACP reflects the strategy of the University by forming a close partnership with Jena‘s prosperous optics and photonics industry. This fact was also recognized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) when it established the Center for Innovation Competence ZIK »ultra optics« that same year, remaining a central pillar of ACP until today. ACP’s legal status as an interfaculty center of the University is sealed by an official statute. The Center is directed by an elected board of four to five scientific directors, one of them being its executive director. A CROSS-FERTILIZING CENTER FOR OPTICAL SCIENCES In joint research projects, ACP scientists cover both fundamental and applied topics. One of ACP’s main goals is to produce synergetic effects between University institutes, the associated non-university research institutes and its industrial partners to enable a scientific and economical added-value. The Center’s funding is mainly attracted in competitive thirdparty funding programs. While encompassing a broad variety of research fields, the ACP concentrates on expertise development in its three strategic domains: ULTRA OPTICS, STRONG FIELD PHYSICS, and BIOPHOTONICS. Besides ACP‘s research efforts, the education of young research scientists, represented by the integrated Abbe School of Photonics (ASP), exhibits its fourth profile cornerstone. ACP membership is open to all members of the Friedrich Schiller University working in the field of optics and photonics and also to externals who are active in ACP’s research fields. ACP membership applications are regularly considered and approved by the board of directors. In January 2024, ACP is comprised of 57 high-profile members who, due to the Center’s interfaculty character, are affiliated with different departments of the University: • 32 members from the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, • 15 members from the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, • 4 members from the Faculty of Biological Sciences, • 3 members from the Faculty of Medicine. There are three further ACP members which are not directly affiliated with either of the University’s departments. Moreover, further cross-affiliations of ACP’s members with Jena’s associated research institutions promote sustainable institutional bonds between the ACP and these institutions. This particularly holds true for the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, the Helmholtz Institute Jena and the Deutsches Optisches Museum (D.O.M.). ACP is run by a lean but effective management structure. The board of directors is elected by the members every three years. The ACP advisory board, currently formed by seven high-profile personalities from academia, industry and politics, supports the directors in questions of strategic importance. Administratively, the Center is run by a chief executive officer and a specialized team particularly dedicated to the coordination of the Master‘s degree, doctoral and guest programs s well as other centralized initiatives concerning e.g. digitalization, research infrastructures, science communication and internationalization. AN ATTRACTIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR PHOTONICS EXPERTNESS IN ACADEMIA Hand in hand with the University, ACP offers applicants showing excellent academic achievements the maximum opportunities for an academic career in optics and photonics in Jena. In order to provide this scientific and structural development with a broad foundation, ACP members have managed to actively steer strategic appointments, thereby serving to strengthen the Center’s core identity and the University’s profile line LIGHT. Since 2012, a considerable number of strategic professorship appointments have been achieved: Blahnik (Optical System Design), DietzekIvanšić (Molecular Photonics), Deckert (Nanospectroscopy), Eggeling (High-Resolution Microscopy), Fritzsche (Relativistic Quantum Dynamics), Gärttner (Quantum Information Theory), Gräfe (Theoretical Chemistry), Limpert (Novel SolidState Laser Concepts), Mappes (Science Communication), H. Schmidt (Quantum Systems), M. Schmidt (Fiber Sensors), Staude (Photonic Nanomaterials), Peschel (Solid State Optics), Röhlsberger (X-ray Physics), Stöhlker (Atomic Physics in Extreme Coloumb & Laser Fields), Turchanin (Applied Physical Chemistry), and Wondraczek (Glass Chemistry). The bust of Ernst Abbe, the first to formulate the diffraction limit for a microscope and the famous eponym of the ACP, is hosted inside a historical monument in Jena. Organization chart of the Abbe Center of Photonics.
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