MCQST 2023 - Reaching new quantum hights

The fifth edition of our annual conference, MCQST 2023, brought together 170 people from all over the world to Sonthofen – the southernmost town in Germany, nestled in the foothills of the Alps. For three days, 30 invited speakers gave a series of talks on all areas of QST, divided into sessions based on MCQST’s seven Research Units. In the spirit of accessibility, the entire conference was streamed live for an online audience, and the talks are now available on our YouTube channel.
This year, for the first time, the IMPRS-QST took place in the days leading up to the conference. This merger was very well received, and we were thrilled to host the PhD students at the conference. It resulted in a week full of excellent talks and scientific exchanges.

On the final day, we held an award ceremony for the winners of our 2022 PhD Award, Matthias C. Caro and Johannes Feldmeier. This award annually honors two outstanding PhD theses from the MCQST community, recognizing excellence in research at an early career stage and encouraging awardees to pursue further careers in science. Matthias and Johannes each received a cash prize generously donated by kiutra and attocube.
This year, we awarded the 2022 Master's Award for the first time, celebrating excellent theses in quantum science and technology. The awardees, Wun Kwan Yam and David Gröters, received prizes donated by Zurich Instruments.

In the evenings, dozens of scientists presented 121 posters in the main conference hall. A jury of peers selected the top three posters, and each winner received a cash prize from Menlo Systems. The awardees are:

• Vjosa Blakaj | Transcendental properties of entropy-constrained sets: Part II
• Jorge Moreno | Toward XUV frequency comb spectroscopy of the 1S-2Stransition in He+
• Josef Willsher | Spin-Peierls instability of the U(1) Dirac spin liquid
  

Thank you to everyone who made #MCQST2023 a resounding success!