About myself…

I am a professor in the Department of Physics at Central Michigan University. My principal field of research is the study of electret polymers, i.e. plastics that contain oriented dipoles or excess space charge. These materials have applications as pressure and temperature sensors, actuators, and energy harversters.

Education

• Habilitation: 15 Sept. 2005, Department of Physics, University of Potsdam, Germany
• July 1992 - Dec. 1995: PhD student in the laboratory astrophysics group at the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik.
  Title of Ph.D. thesis: Highly excited triplet states of the CO molecule
  Research advisor: Prof. Carl Rudolf Vidal
• Physics Diploma: July 1992, Technische Universität München, Germany

Employment

• Since August 2019: Professor, Department of Physics, Central Michigan University
• Since Aug. 2014 - Jul. 2019: Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Central Michigan University
• Aug. 2008 - Jul. 2014: Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Central Michigan University
• Oct. 2007 - Jul. 2008: temporary appointment to vacant Chair in Chemical Physics, University of Potsdam, Germany
• Dec. 1997 - Sept. 2007: senior scientist in the Applied Condensed Matter Physics group (Prof. Reimund Gerhard), University of Potsdam, Germany
• Jan. 1996 - Dec. 1997: Post-doc in the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. Research with Prof. C. Bradley Moore

Scholarships, Awards

• 2011: Outstanding Service Award, College of Science and Technology, Central Michigan University
• 2009: Elected to IEEE Senior Member status
• 2006: Best Paper Award of the German IEEE Intrumentation and Measurements chapter for a publication on the non-destructive tomography of polarization and space-charge distributions
• 2004: ITG Award 2004 for a review article on piezoelectric resonances in polymer electrets
• 2000: Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (Runner-Up) for a Milky Way Panorama Image
• 1996-1997: DFG (German Research Foundation) Fellowship
• 1987-1992: Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation)