Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinner 2025
Experimental Physics, University of Heidelberg
A computer that works in a way similar to a brain: this is the idea that physicist Wolfram Pernice is focused on. More specifically, he is working on neuromorphic photonic computing, which involves neural networks that use light instead of electrons. Pernice has done pioneering work in this field. His studies combine optical methods of physical data processing with parallel calculations that are crucial to the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). Pernice’s interdisciplinary research crosses traditional boundaries and has an impact on various disciplines – from natural sciences to computer science and engineering, as well as chemistry and the life sciences. His research findings point the way to innovative and sustainable methods for reducing the energy consumption of AI computer hardware while still enabling fast calculations. He is also known worldwide as a pioneer in the field of integrated quantum photonics, in particular superconducting single-photon detectors.
Wolfram Pernice studied microsystems engineering at the University of Freiburg and computer science at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Oxford, UK, in 2007. A year later, he moved to Yale University, USA, sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and in 2011, he became head of an Emmy Noether junior research group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In 2015, he accepted a professorship at the University of Münster. Since 2021, Pernice has been a professor at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics at the University of Heidelberg, while continuing as an adjunct professor at the University of Münster. In 2013, he was elected to the Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He received an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2016, and in 2019, he was a successful participant in the Volkswagen Foundation’s programme Momentum.
GEPRIS
In our information system GEPRI you will find an overview of current and completed projects of Professor Dr. Wolfram Pernice.