Dr. Silke Grieser (Photos by: on the left - Udo Kurilla, GSI; on the right - Silke Grieser, private) has received the Panda PhD Prize 2019 for her doctoral thesis "Cluster-Jet Targets for the PANDA-, MAGIX-, and CryoFlash-Experiments at Hadron-, Lepton-, and Laser-Facilities" at GSI, FAIR, and the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.
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. Her doctoral advisor was Prof. Dr. Alfons Khoukaz from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.
The Panda Collaboration has awarded the PhD Prize once per year since 2013 in order to honor the best dissertation written in connection with the Panda Experiment. 
In her dissertation, Physicist Silke Grieser studied various aspects of Cluster Jets in order to produce an abundant number of exotic particles within 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.
The Panda Collaboration awards the PhD Prize to specifically honor students’ contributions to the Panda project.