Hans Peter Steinruck PhD

Prof. Hans-Peter Steinruck is investigating the physics and chemistry of surfaces and interfaces for more than 30 years. He obtained his PhD in physics at TU Graz 1985, was postdoc at Stanford University 1985/86, received his Habilitation at TU Munchen in 1992, was a guest scientist at Rutgers University/USA in 1993, and became Professor of Physics at Wurzburg University in 1993. Since 1998, he holds a chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Prof. Steinruck is a member of the European Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Academia Europaea, a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of APS and AAAS, and received the AVS Medard W. Welch Award in 2017. He holds an honorary doctorate degree at the University of Szeged / Hungary and was a Guest Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei / China.

His main research interests are New materials with novel electronic, geometric, and chemical properties, Elementary steps of surface reactions, and Development and construction of scientific apparatus. These studies aim at a fundamental physical and chemical understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved, at an atomic level. Specific research highlights are: "Surface Science with porphyrins", "Surface Science with Ionic Liquids", "Chemical modification of supported graphene", "In-situ studies of surface reactions", "Liquid metal catalysts", "Liquid organic hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs), and "Ultrathin metal, alloy and oxide films". A large variety of state-of-the-art experimental techniques is applied, partly utilizing synchrotron radiation and near ambient pressure XPS.