After several months of preparation our Institute was ready to line up at another big sports competition - the Düsseldorf Marathon 2019. Together with over 20000 other runners and the best weather conditions Markus Müller (1:35:59) and Benedikt Frohn (1:42:39) went for the 21.1km half Marathon distance while Michael Schmitz successfully finished the full 42.2km Marathon in 2:59:33. Gratulations!

In the early sunday morning the at freezing temperatures and snow fall, our colleagues Michael Schmitz and Samuel Möller took part in the Powerman Alsdorf Duathlon together with over 700 other athletes. Competing in the relay race they had to alternately run, bike and run 10KM/60KM/10KM. With splits of 36:42, 1:34:02 and 37:27 and a total time of 2:50:20 they distanced by far all other relay competitors and took the first place. Gratulations!

The phyphox team has been awarded the "Archimedes award" 2019 by the "Verband zur Förderung des MINT-Unterrichts" (MNU, loosely translated: association to forward STEM education). The award entails 4,000€ sponsored by the Westermann group. It is awarded yearly, alternating in the fields of mathematics and physics, to decorate innovative concepts and teaching methods as well as particularly commited teachers.

The app allows students to use the sensors of their smartphones to conduct physics experiments in physics education. It has been developed at the 2nd Institute of Physics at the RWTH Aachen University under the direction of Prof. Christoph Stampfer and Dr. Sebastian Staacks statt and it is being continuously refined in cooperation with the 1st Institute of Physics under Prof. Heidrun Heinke and a team of PhD students.

The award does not only mention the app itself, but the MNU emphasizes the value of the accompanying material like the demonstration videos. With more than 600,000 installations worldwide phyphox has been establish in many schools since its first release in September 2016.

Hendrik Bluhm, Thomas Brückel, Markus Morgenstern, Gero Plessen, Christoph Stampfer (2019). Electrons in Solids: Mesoscopics, Photonics, Quantum Computing, Correlations, Topology (pp. I–IV). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110438321

As a continuation of classical condensed matter physics texts, this graduate textbook on “Electrons in Solids” introduces advanced topics of correlated electron systems, mesoscopic transport, low-dimensional electron systems, unconventional superconductivity and topological insulators. These aspects are complemented by theoretical aspects of quantum information theory as well as solid state implementations. The book covers modern many body theory and effects arising from correlated electron systems and closes a gap between basic condensed matter textbooks and the forefront of research.

The Söllerhaus-Workshop 2019 from the 15th to the 21st of March of the 2nd Institute of Physics A, B and C focusing on "2D Materials and Quantum Technologies" was great fun with many interesting talks and discussions and lots of good snow.

Benedikt Frohn won the 1st poster prize at the "Graphene Study 2018" in Obergurgl (Austria) with his poster on "Gate-defined electron-hole double dots in bilayer graphene". Congratulations!

The 3rd poster prize went to Rebekka Garreis from the Ensslin group (ETH Zurich) with a very nice poster on charge detection in bilayer graphene quantum dots. Allowing one to conclude that soft-confinement in bilayer graphene is indeed highly promising.