Roland Wiesendanger (born

5 October Events Pre-1600 * 610 – Heraclius arrives at Constantinople, kills Byzantine Emperor Phocas, and becomes emperor. * 816 – King Louis the Pious is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope. * 869 – The Fourth Co ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

) is a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, specializing in nanoscience. Since 1993 he has been a full professor at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

, Germany. He has been awarded three times in a row with the

ERC Advanced Grant The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

of the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

as first scientist in Europe.

Early life and education

According to the CV published on his department website, Wiesendanger was born in

. He grew up in

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including the ...

, Germany, where he attended high-school, the Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium from 1972 to 1981. He started studying physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

, Switzerland in 1981. Since 1984 he had been working in the field of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. In 1986, he graduated in Physics with highest distinction and in 1987, he received his Ph.D. with “summa cum laude” in

experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and ...

for his work on “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy on Non-Crystalline Solids”.

Career

Until his Habilitation degree in 1990, he set up a unique Surface Science Instrument (“NANOLAB-I”) which allowed for the simultaneous investigation of the structure, electronic and magnetic properties of surfaces at the atomic scale. In 1992 Wiesendanger received an offer for a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

position for Experimental Physics at the

, connected with the Foundation of the Microstructure Advanced Research Center Hamburg. He established a National Center of Competence in Nanotechnology.

Work

Wiesendanger is author or co-author of more than 600 scientific publications as well as several books. In February 2021, he released a working paper and preprint, non-peer-reviewed publication suggesting that

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

had escaped from a lab in Wuhan, a story which was picked up by many German news services including TV. Wiesendanger himself does not see his "study" as a formal scientific publication, but it "is intended to serve as information for a broad public in Germany".

Memberships and service

Since 2000 Wiesendanger 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 Science and Engineering Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering (german: Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften) on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of Germany, German technical sciences ...

(acatech). In 2012 he became Honorary Professor of the

Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin Institute of Technology (; abbreviation: HIT or ) is a public research university and a member of China's elite C9 League and a member of the University Alliance of the Silk Road. HIT is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Doubl ...

(China) and in 2015 he received an Honorary Doctor degree from the Poznań University of Technology (Poland). He has organized numerous international conferences like the International Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM’97) Conference in Hamburg (1997) or the 1st Otto Stern Symposium in Hamburg (2013). He has been a speaker at more than 500 international conferences, workshops and colloquia worldwide.

Selected awards and honors

* 1992: Gaede-Prize of the German Vacuum Society * 1992: Max Auwärter Prize * 1999: Karl Heinz Beckurts-Prize * 2000: Member of the National Academy Leopoldina * 2003:

Philip Morris Research Prize Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

* 2005: Member of the

Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg The Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg (German: Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg) is a German scientific society located in Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Centr ...

* 2008: Member of the

(acatech) * 2008: 1st

* 2010: Nanotechnology Recognition Award of the

American Vacuum Society AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and ProcessingAIP: A Federation of the Physical Sciences

* 2012: Fellow of the American Vacuum Society * 2012:

Honorary Professor Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

of the

, China * 2013: Foreign Member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

* 2013: 2nd ERC Advanced Grant * 2014: Heinrich Rohrer Grand Medal * 2015: Honorary Doctor of the Poznań University of Technology, Poland * 2015: Hamburg Science Prize * 2015: International Fellow of the Surface Science Society of Japan * 2016:

Julius Springer Prize The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the c ...

for Applied Physics * 2018: 3rd ERC Advanced Grant * 2019: Honorary Medal „De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritis“ of the Czech Academy of Sciences''Honorary Medal an Roland Wiesendanger verliehen.''
Press release of the University of Hamburg. retrieved on 26 August 2019.

References

External links

* Literature from and about Roland Wiesendanger * Website of the research group of Roland Wiesendanger (http://www.nanoscience.de) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiesendanger, Roland People from Lörrach Living people 1961 births University of Basel alumni 20th-century German physicists 21st-century German physicists Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences