Abbe Foundation, Carl Zeiss Sponsor Photonics Professorship

Lens maker Carl Zeiss AG of Oberkochen and Jena, Germany, and the Ernst Abbe Foundation of Jena announced last week they are co-sponsoring a junior professorship in advanced computational photonics at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. Together, Carl Zeiss and the foundation, which promotes science in the Jena area, will provide a total of €500,000 (about $685,700) to fund the position for five years. The professorship will be located within the Institute of Solid Body Theory and Optics at Schiller University and integrated into the photonics area of the School of Physics and Astronomy. "This generous support will allow the Friedrich Schiller University to expand its teaching and research capabilities in the science and application of optics. And in the year before the university's 450th anniversary, this foundation professorship is a further example of a functioning public-private partnership in Jena," said Klaus Dicke, Schiller rector.