PANDA PhD Prize 2018
Dr. Mustafa Schmidt (Photos by: on the left - Udo Kurilla, GSI; on the right- Mustafa Schmidt, private) has received the Panda PhD Prize 2018 for his doctoral thesis "Particle Identification with the Endcap Disc DIRC for PANDA" at GSI, FAIR, and the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. The award was presented by the spokesman of the Panda Collaboration, Klaus Peters from GSI, at the most recent Panda Collaboration meeting at GSI in Darmstadt.Physicist Mustafa Schmidt, 33, who worked also for a couple of years in industry before his PhD, received the prize of €200 and a certificate for his dissertation titled Particle identification with the Endcap Disc DIRC for PANDA. His doctoral advisor was Prof. Dr. Michael Düren from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen.
Dr. Schmidt studied the Endcap Disc DIRC, a Cherenkov detector that forms one of the main components of the charged particle identification of the Panda detector, which is being built at the FAIR accelerator facility.Candidates for the PhD Prize are nominated by their doctoral advisors. In addition to being directly related to the Panda Experiment, the nominees’ doctoral degrees must have received a rating of “very good” or better. Up to three candidates are shortlisted for the award and can present their dissertations at the Panda Collaboration meeting. The winner is chosen by a committee that is appointed for this task by the Panda Collaboration.









