Roland Wiesendanger


Roland Wiesendanger is a German physicist.
A full professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany, since 1993, Wiesendanger established the Microstructure Advanced Research Center Hamburg, a National Center of Competence in Nanotechnology, and the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center Hamburg. He was also chairman of the Hamburg Collaborative Research Center “Magnetism from Single Atoms to Nanostructures”. He is worldwide recognized as an expert in nanoscience and he has been awarded three times in a row with the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant of the European Research Council as first scientist in Europe. In 2003 he received the Philip Morris Research Prize for his pioneering work on “Magnetic microscopy at the ultimate limit” and in 2014 he was awarded with the first Heinrich Rohrer Grand Medal. In the Laudatio for the International Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics, his pioneering work on Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Magnetic Exchange Force Microscopy, which allow for investigations of the magnetism of individual atoms on surfaces as well as the spin structure of solid surfaces with atomic resolution, was highlighted.

Life

Wiesendanger grew up in Lörrach, Germany, where he also went to high-school. In 1981 he started his studies in physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Since 1984 he has been working in the field of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. In 1986 he got his Diploma degree in Physics with highest distinction and one year later, in 1987, he received his Ph.D. degree with “summa cum laude” for his work on “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy on Non-Crystalline Solids”. Until his Habilitation degree in 1990, he has set up a unique Surface Science Instrument which allowed for the simultaneous investigation of the structure, electronic and magnetic properties of surfaces at the atomic scale.
In 1992 he received an offer for a full professor position for Experimental Physics at the University of Hamburg, connected with the Foundation of the Microstructure Advanced Research Center Hamburg. Since that time, he has been working on various research topics and projects in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Since 2000 he is a member of the National Academy Leopoldina, since 2005 member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg, and since 2008 member of the German Academy of Technical Sciences. In 2012 he became Honorary Professor of the Harbin Institute of Technology and in 2015 he received an Honorary Doctor degree from the Technical University of Poznan.
Wiesendanger has been organizer of numerous international conferences like the International Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Conference in Hamburg or the 1st Otto Stern Symposium in Hamburg. On the other hand, he has been invited speaker at more than 500 international conferences, workshops and colloquia worldwide. He is author or co-author of more than 600 scientific publications as well as several books.

Selected awards and honors