CEO Michael Förtsch in the circle of 175 inspiring physicists of the DPG 

The “Deut­sche Phy­si­ka­li­sche Gesell­schaft” (Ger­man Phy­si­cal Socie­ty) has laun­ched a spe­cial cam­pai­gn for its 175th anni­ver­s­a­ry year. It pres­ents 175 selec­ted phy­si­cists who today or at their time have or have had an inspi­ring effect on other peop­le or even the who­le socie­ty through their field of acti­vi­ty, their com­mit­ment or their thoughts. Q.ANT CEO Micha­el Förtsch was inclu­ded in this spe­cial circle. 

Micha­el Förtsch, DPG mem­ber sin­ce 2008, ear­ned his doc­to­ra­te at the Max Planck Insti­tu­te for the Sci­ence of Light in Erlan­gen. After working at TRUMPF GmbH, he foun­ded Q.ANT, as start-up of the TRUMPF Group, in 2018 and has been lea­ding it as CEO sin­ce then. More about his care­er, as well as his pas­si­ons out­side of phy­sics, can be found at DPG Phy­sic.

Phy­sics is in ever­ything and ever­y­whe­re, in the histo­ry of the uni­ver­se, in modern com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on technology and medi­cal technology, but also in laser technology and quantum technology. With Q.ANT, Micha­el Förtsch is set­ting new stan­dards in the development of quantum com­pu­ting and quantum sensor technology. With con­cre­te industrial app­li­ca­ti­ons, Q.ANT and Micha­el Förtsch inspi­re pro­duct deve­lo­pers and new busi­ness deve­lo­pers in a wide ran­ge of industries. 

175 years of “Deut­sche Phy­si­ka­li­sche Gesell­schaft” — the DPG loo­ked back on this long and proud histo­ry in 2020. What began in 1845 with six young sci­en­tists from Gus­tav Magnus’ col­lo­qui­um as the “Phy­si­ka­li­sche Gesell­schaft zu Ber­lin” beca­me the “Deut­sche Phy­si­ka­li­sche Gesell­schaft”, which now has around 60,000 mem­bers. In its anni­ver­s­a­ry year 2020, the DPG has set its­elf the goal of brin­ging the fasci­na­ti­on for phy­sics clo­ser to the public and the phy­sics com­mu­ni­ty, but also to dis­cuss the oppor­tu­nities and risks of rese­arch and app­li­ca­ti­on. This can also be shown in the mir­ror of 175 years of DPG, which is not only part of the fasci­na­ting histo­ry of phy­sics, but always also of social and poli­ti­cal developments.