image: Prof. Anton Wallner, Head Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Isotope Research.
Credit: Oliver Killig/HZDR
The European Research Council (ERC) has today announced the winners of its latest Advanced Grant competition. The funding, worth €838 million, will go to 319 leading researchers across Europe. The Advanced Grants give senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. Among the awardees in the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain is Prof. Anton Wallner from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), whose project SUPREME has been awarded €3 million to reconstruct the history of nearby cosmic explosions over the past 500 million years and shed light on how nature creates its heaviest elements.
The Solar System is not isolated from its cosmic environment. Over hundreds of millions of years, nearby stellar explosions and other energetic astrophysical events have left subtle traces on Earth and the Moon. With the newly funded SUPREME (Supernova and r-process radionuclides engraved on million-years old archives from Earth and Moon) project, Prof. Anton Wallner and his team at HZDR aim to uncover these traces and use them to reconstruct the history of nearby cosmic events over the past 500 million years.
The project addresses two fundamental questions in modern astrophysics: How are the heaviest elements in the universe created, and what impact nearby supernovae had on Earth’s environment and biological evolution? To answer these questions, the researchers will search for extremely rare radioactive atoms that originated in interstellar space and were deposited on Earth and the Moon following cosmic explosions.
Tracking cosmic history one atom at a time
At the heart of the project is a unique analytical capability developed by Wallner and his team. The researchers will use HAMSTER, a new state-of-the-art accelerator mass spectrometry system, combined with an innovative laser-based technology that dramatically reduces measurement background. This world-leading setup enables the detection of individual atoms at unprecedented sensitivity levels, opening new possibilities not only for astrophysics but also for a wide range of scientific applications.
The team will analyze unique lunar samples provided by NASA, alongside deep-sea sediments, ice cores, and other geological archives from Earth. These natural archives preserve records of interstellar material that arrived over millions of years, allowing scientists to identify and date nearby supernovae and other rare cosmic events. Building on the first-ever detection of material from a rapid neutron-capture (r-process) event in interstellar matter, the project will push the limits of measurement sensitivity even further.
“This award is a remarkable recognition of Anton Wallner’s internationally leading research. SUPREME addresses fundamental questions about the origin of the elements and the history of our cosmic environment while building on measurement capabilities that are unique worldwide. We are proud that this pioneering work is being carried out at HZDR,” says Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt, Scientific Director of HZDR.
By detecting a broader range of rare radionuclides and heavy elements, SUPREME aims to reveal where and how the universe forges its heaviest elements and to establish a detailed timeline of nearby cosmic explosions. The results are expected to provide unprecedented insights into the history of our cosmic neighborhood and its possible influence on the evolution of Earth.
A record of 3,329 proposals was submitted to this competition, up 31% from 2,534 last year. 9.6% of proposals were selected for funding. In this latest round of ERC funding, three researchers based in Saxony succeeded with their groundbreaking projects. Saxony’s Minister of Science, Sebastian Gemkow, described the achievement as a tremendous success and warmly congratulated the award recipients: “Securing one of the European Union’s most competitive research grants is an outstanding accomplishment. This distinction is not only a major milestone in the recipients’ scientific careers, but also a significant gain for Saxony as a leading research and innovation hub.”
The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe program.
Additional information:
Prof. Anton Wallner
Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260 3274 | Email: anton.wallner@hzdr.de
Media contact:
Simon Schmitt | Head and Press Officer
Communications and Media Relations at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260 3400 | Mobile: +49 175 874 2865 | Email: s.schmitt@hzdr.de
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) performs – as an independent German research center – research in the fields of energy, health, and matter. We focus on answering the following questions:
• How can energy and resources be utilized in an efficient, safe, and sustainable way?
• How can malignant tumors be more precisely visualized, characterized, and more effectively treated?
• How do matter and materials behave under the influence of strong fields and in smallest dimensions?
To help answer these research questions, HZDR operates large-scale facilities, which are also used by visiting researchers: the Ion Beam Center, the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources. HZDR is a member of the Helmholtz Association and has seven sites (Dresden, Freiberg, Görlitz, Grenoble, Leipzig, Rostock, Schenefeld near Hamburg) with almost 1,500 members of staff, of whom about 700 are scientists, including 200 Ph.D. candidates.