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Welcome on the event website of Holst Symposium and Holst Memorial Lecture Award 2025.

The Holst Memorial Lecture and Symposium is organized by Philips Research, Signify Research, Thermo Fisher, ASML and Eindhoven University of Technology (ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø). The Holst Lecture 2025, the 46th since 1977, will be given by Prof dr Jörg Wrachtrup, a prominent German physicist at the University of Stuttgart and a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, known for his pioneering work in quantum sensing, particularly using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds to create ultrasensitive nanoscale detectors for magnetic fields, electric fields, and temperature.

The Holst Symposium is a live and interactive (networking) event and brings together specialists and students from varied disciplines from both the academic and the business world who are challenged to present their views on future developments of Quantum Sensing in their field. The selection of invited speakers is based on topics with the potential to inspire. The Holst symposium consists of (concise) lectures, presentations, panel discussion and demo’s and is concluded by the Holst Memorial Lecture and an Award Ceremony.

The nominated Holst Lecturer joins the ranks of eminent scientists and Nobel laureates like Philippe de Gennes, Hendrik Casimir, Ilya Prigogine, Arno Penzias, Nicholas Negroponte, Alan Heeger, J. Craig Venter and Shuji Nakamura.
The first Holst Memorial Lecture was given in 1977 to commemorate the 21st anniversary of ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø, Eindhoven University of Technology. With support from Philips Research, and (since 2018) Signify, ASML and Thermo Fisher (2025) the Holst Lecture became an annual tradition. Candidates for the Award are selected by a committee under the chairmanship of the Rector Magnificus of the ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø, Head of Research EU Royal Philips, the Head of Research Signify, the Head of ASML research and the VP of research and development Thermo Fisher.

The general theme chosen for the Holst Memorial Lecture reflects the important contribution of dr. Gilles Holst (1886-1968) to research and technology in the Netherlands:

The development of applied sciences, particularly mathematics and the natural sciences, for the benefit of industry on the one side and their implications for society on the other.

In his academic career Holst played an essential part in the discovery of superconductivity by Nobel Laureate H. Kamerlingh Onnes, whilst working at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. However, Gilles Holst will be first and foremost remembered as the founding director of the famous â€˜Nat Lab’, the Philips Physics Laboratory in Eindhoven, where he worked between 1914 and 1946. During his lifetime, Gilles Holst was chairman of two committees that were instrumental in the foundation of Eindhoven University of Technology in 1956.

The Eindhoven Region, often referred to as Eindhoven is Europe's leading innovative top technology region and home to Royal Philips, Signify, NXP semiconductors and ASML. Eindhoven University of Technology (ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø) has according to Times Higher Education World University Ranking the highest score for collaboration with industry in the field of academic and scientific research. One of ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø distinguished emeriti was Edsger W. Dijkstra, one of the most influential members of computing science's founding generation and Turing Award winner 1972.