Ultrasound-driven particles earn physicist prestigious award

Physicist Raphael Wittkowski, a professor at RWTH Aachen University, has been awarded the prestigious Alfried Krupp Award for young university professors. The award, endowed with 1.1 million euros, recognizes Wittkowski's pioneering research in the emerging field of active soft matter.

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The goal is to find new perspectives for applications in medicine and technology.

Wittkowski, 38, who has held the professorship for the Theory of Active Soft Matter since 2025, focuses on micro-systems that possess their own propulsion mechanisms. His work utilizes ultrasound to control these systems, opening new avenues for applications in medicine and technology. The Krupp Foundation highlighted that active soft matter lies at the intersection of physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, and medicine.

A key area of Wittkowski's research involves the development of artificial muscles powered and precisely controlled by ultrasound. This technology allows for remote manipulation through sound intensity, enabling applications such as sensitive soft grippers, programmable tissue patches to support heart muscle movement, or systems for targeted drug delivery. The ability of ultrasound to penetrate tissues and operate in biological environments makes it a promising tool.

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These systems could be used in the future as sensitive soft grippers, programmable deformable tissue patches to support heart muscle movement, or for targeted drug delivery.

The foundation emphasized the potential of Wittkowski's research to minimize side effects in medical treatments, such as damage to healthy tissue or unnecessarily high drug dosages, contrasting it with conventional chemotherapy. Ursula Gather, chairwoman of the Krupp Foundation, noted that Wittkowski's work brings previously theoretical, even science-fiction-like, concepts into scientific reality, aiming to establish innovative applications in medicine and technology. The funds will be disbursed over five years to support Wittkowski's research conditions, with the official award ceremony planned for the autumn.

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Thanks to his research, utopian approaches that were previously only depicted in science fiction have found their way into science, with the aim of establishing new innovative applications in medicine and technology.