07.04.2025

H.E.S.S. Prize Spring 2025 awarded to Heiko Salzmann

Twice a year, the H.E.S.S. collaboration recognizes exceptional contributions to the H.E.S.S. experiment, by awarding a prize to a young member of the collaboration.

The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IAAT) is a long-standing member of the H.E.S.S. collaboration and has contributed extensively to the construction, operation, maintenance and data analysis of the experiment. In spring 2025, the prize was granted to Heiko Salzmann. Heiko Salzmann has been a bachelor, master, and PhD student at IAAT until October 2024, when he successfully defended his dissertation and moved to the US to start a postdoc position at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While the main focus of Heiko’s PhD work has been on mirror alignment hardware for CTAO MSTs and LSTs, he has also been a member of the H.E.S.S. collaboration and has performed important hardware service and scientific tasks for the experiment in Namibia. Heiko’s contributions comprised, for example, the responsibility for the optical system of H.E.S.S.-CT5 during the installation of a replacement camera (FlashCam), and the continuous monitoring of the optical performance of all H.E.S.S. telescopes. Being a member of the FlashCam team, Heiko has also been responsible for the verification of the timing system of the new camera in CT5, and has made important contributions to the analysis of pulsar data acquired with H.E.S.S. 

We warmly congratulate Heiko for his achievements and for this important recognition through the H.E.S.S. Prize Spring 2025.