We are delighted to announce that our colleague Pierre Koleják has received the runner-up prize in the Best Dissertation Thesis category of the 2025 Werner von Siemens Award in the Czech Republic. In its 28th year, the competition received 662 submissions overall, including 285 doctoral theses, underlining the scale and selectivity of one of the country’s most significant independent initiatives in the technical and natural sciences.
Pierre was recognized for his dissertation, “Terahertz Time-Domain Ellipsometry Based on Spintronic Phenomena,” completed at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. His work developed a complete time-resolved spectroscopic terahertz ellipsometry method for the non-destructive characterization of power semiconductors, with the development of spintronic terahertz emitters forming an important part of the experimental approach. The method was further tested with industrial partners on power semiconductor structures and special optical crystals.
The dissertation was carried out under the supervision of Kamil Postava and Mathias Vanwolleghem within Pierre’s Czech-French doctoral trajectory, including a cotutelle between VSB – Technical University of Ostrava and the University of Lille.
This distinction is a strong recognition of Pierre’s doctoral research and of the broader scientific value of combining advanced terahertz photonics, semiconductor characterization, and international academic collaboration. We warmly congratulate Pierre on this outstanding achievement.