Gregor Eugen Morfill (born 23 July 1945 in

Oberhausen, Germany Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

) is a German physicist who works in basic astrophysical research and deals with complex plasmas and

plasma medicine Plasma medicine is an emerging field that combines plasma physics, life sciences and clinical medicine. It is being studied in disinfection, healing, and cancer. Most of the research is in vitro and in animal models. It uses ionized gas (physic ...

Early life and career

Gregor Morfill moved to England in 1961. There, he completed his school education and began studying physics at Imperial College London in 1964. In 1967, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science. In 1968, he received a diploma from Imperial College London and in 1971 he received a PhD with his work Satellite studies of energetic particles above the atmosphere. He then went to the

Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics is a Max Planck Institute, located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. In 1991 the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics split up into the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Ph ...

Garching Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990. Location The ...

. In 1977, he did his post-doctorate at Heidelberg University. In 1975, he received a professorship at the

Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik ("MPI for Nuclear Physics" or MPIK for short) is a research institute in Heidelberg, Germany. The institute is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society), an independent, n ...

in Heidelberg. In 1983, he headed the Theoretical Astronomy Program at the University of Arizona. In 1984, he became director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. Since 2011, he has been on the scientific advisory board of Bauman University in Moscow. In the same year, he was co-founder of the company ''terraplasma'' in Garching near Munich, which develops devices and processes that use cold plasmas for wound healing, among other things.

Scientific contributions

Morfill is the author and co-author of over 500 scientific publications and a popular science book on

chaos theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and were once thought to have co ...

. In addition to his astrophysical work, Gregor Morfill makes important contributions to the subject of " dusty complex plasmas" (with application to

space plasmas Astrophysical plasma is plasma outside of the Solar System. It is studied as part of astrophysics and is commonly observed in space. The accepted view of scientists is that much of the baryonic matter in the universe exists in this state. When ...

and the explanation of the structure of

Saturn rings The rings of Saturn are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters, that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirel ...

), to the discovery of plasma crystals as a solid state of aggregation of dusty plasmas (discovered in 1994) and to microscopic analysis of the melting process in plasma crystals. He also participates in space plasma experiments with the International Space Station (ISS), such as the experiment PKE-Nefedov (2001–2005) in cooperation with the Russian space agency and the Institute for High Energy Densities (IHED, JIHT) in Moscow. Morfill also researches applications of plasma in medicine such as in the treatment of chronic wounds.

Honors and awards

* 1998: Bavarian Prime Minister's recognition award * 1998: of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft * 1999: Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences * 2003: Honorary doctorate from the Technische Universität Berlin * 2007: of the Russian space agency Roscosmos * 2010: Fellow of the Institute of Physics * 2011: James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

for "''pioneering, and seminal contributions to, the field of

dusty plasma A dusty plasma is a plasma containing micrometer (10−6) to nanometer (10−9) sized particles suspended in it. Dust particles are charged and the plasma and particles behave as a plasma. Dust particles may form larger particles resulting in "gra ...

s, including work leading to the discovery of plasma crystals, to an explanation for the complicated structure of Saturn's rings, and to microgravity dusty plasma experiments conducted first on parabolic-trajectory flights and then on the International Space Station.''" * Patten Prize * Gagarin Medal * URGO Foundation for Advances in Dermatology Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morfill, Gregor Eugen 1945 births Living people 20th-century German physicists Plasma physicists Alumni of Imperial College London People from Oberhausen 21st-century German physicists