PhD in 2001 with distinction from TU Munich, group leader at ETH Zürich Habilitation. Since 2007 at ICFO, he has pioneered mid-IR photonics, attosecond soft X-rays and laser-induced electron diffraction which led to breakthroughs in imaging chemical dynamics and carrier motion in condensed phase. He is Associate Editor of APL Photonics, Fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Fellow of the Optical Society, Fellow of the American Physical Society, recipient of the Thousand Talents Program Award China, the OSA Allen Prize, and Bessel Prize of the Humboldt Foundation, ERC Advanced Grant and ERC Proof of Concept Grant holder. He is actively involved in the scientific community, e.g. co-author of the whitebook for European Extreme Light Infrastructure, chair of the Networking Board, Management Board Member of Laserlab-Europe, Panel Member of the ERC and Volkswagen Foundation, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of FORTH in Crete.

Research interests

Our research in attosecond science accesses the natural time scale of electronic motion, thus providing a unique tool to study the dynamic behaviour of the quantum world within atoms molecules and solids. Presently, we are witnessing an amazing convergence of attosecond physics, ultrafast x-ray science and xray free-electron laser research to address fundamental problems across physics, chemistry and material science with revolutionary new tools and methodologies. The power of these investigations with attosecond soft x-ray pulses and quantum microscopy with single electrons is the ability to investigate fundamental problems such as molecular isomerization, energy harvesting, or e.g. superconductivity.