Measuring emissions precisely and on the go: Sven Rademacher will receive the first Hugo-Geiger prize for his infrared optical filter photometer.

In October 2008, environmental zones were introduced in many of Germany‘s cities. Vehicles with red discs have since been banned from city centers. Still, emission loads in cities and major population centers continue to be too high. The reason for this is the fact that pollutants don‘t just come from traffic, but also from heating systems, power stations, industrial plants and from the natural environment. To monitor compliance with the legal regulations, the authorities need solid measurement data - recorded precisely and flexibly. So far, this data has generally come from stationary measuring locations. But because they are not extensively distributed, the values do not fully reflect the actual air composition. Sven Rademacher developed the mobile, infrared optical filter photometer as part of this Master‘s thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measuring Technology IPM in Freiburg. Unlike commercially available systems, it detects several gases at the same time. What‘s more, the device‘s position can be fixed using GALILEO, the European satellite navigation system, which allows for the measurement data to be precisely localized. This in turn permits conclusions to be drawn on the sources of the pollution and specific countermeasures to be initiated, imposing local traffic restrictions for example. An online air pollutant chart is to make the measurements transparent for everyone.

Hugo-Geiger prize – promoting young researchers

The Bavarian state government founded this award in 1999 to mark the 50-year anniversary of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The patron is Hugo Geiger, who led the inaugural meeting on 26 March 1949. This award is given in recognition of outstanding and application-related theses for Bachelor, Master’s and Doctorate degrees - from all research fields of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. The criteria assessed are: scientific quality, economic relevance, uniqueness and interdisciplinarity of the approaches used. The work must be closely related to or have been developed in a Fraunhofer institute. The first prize winner receives 5,000 euro, the second 3,000 euro and the third 2,000 euro (article 6).