Frank Grupp receives award for instrument development 2025

The Astronomical Society is awarding Dr. Frank Grupp the 2025 Instrument Development Prize for his outstanding leadership in the design and construction of the NISP instrument. Grupp is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich. As project manager, he was responsible for the NISP optics instrument for ESA's Euclid space telescope. With the largest optical lens systems ever manufactured for a space mission, Grupp and his team set new standards.

For over a decade, Frank Grupp, a scientist at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (LMU) and MPE, has been working on the development of optical systems for ambitious space projects. His most significant work is the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), one of the two main instruments of ESA's Euclid space telescope. The mission's goal is to map the so-called “dark universe” with unprecedented precision.

Under his leadership, the largest scientific lens system ever used in a space mission was manufactured – with optical quality that set new standards in resolution and contrast. The MPE team reached a technical milestone in 2018 when the highly complex optical systems – including the CaLA and CoLA units – were integrated with a precision of better than 9 micrometers (millionths of a meter) and 7 arc seconds (equivalent to about two thousandths of a degree). This was enabled by specially developed interferometric alignment techniques and high-precision coordinate measurements.

The instrument's capabilities were impressively demonstrated in November 2023 when Euclid released its first scientific images: razor-sharp, deep images of the universe that demonstrate NISP's potential and confirm that the instrument is ready to create the largest three-dimensional map of the cosmos to date.

Over the next six years, Euclid will observe billions of galaxies at distances of up to 10 billion light-years. The mission aims to answer fundamental questions about dark matter and dark energy – the mysterious components that make up 95% of the universe. The NISP instrument provides high-precision data in the near-infrared range, complementing the visible instrument VIS. Together, they enable a comprehensive analysis of the structure, evolution, and dynamics of the universe.

For his pivotal role in the design and implementation of this technologically demanding project, the Astronomical Society is awarding Frank Grupp its prize for instrument development. The award recognizes outstanding technical contributions that have significantly advanced astrophysics. The award ceremony will take place during the AG's annual conference in September.

Instrument Development Award

The Astronomical Society (AG) is the scientific association for astronomy and astrophysics in German-speaking countries. It organizes conferences, promotes young scientists, awards prizes for outstanding achievements, and is involved in education and public relations. The Instrument Development Award, established in 2017, is awarded for the design, development, construction, and/or significant enhancement of an astronomical instrument that has led to significant advances in astrophysical research. The award is presented every two years, alternating with the Astrophysical Software Award.
Although the award has only been presented since 2017, Frank Grupp is already the third MPE recipient. In 2017, the honor went to Albrecht Poglitsch, who was honored for the development of the PACS instrument for the Herschel Space Telescope. And in 2023, Frank Eisenhauer, director of the Infrared Group, received the award for his groundbreaking work on the GRAVITY instrument.