Group Head

From 1975 to 1980 he studied physics at ETH Zurich. He received his doctorate there in 1983 with Prof. Dr. H.C. Siegman. From 1983 to 1986 he was an Oppenheimer Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK, Prof. Dr. R. F. Willis) and from 1986 to 1990 he was a postdoc at the KFA Jülich (FRG, Prof. Dr. M. Campagna). From 1990 to 1992 he was a C3 professor at the RWTH Aachen (Prof. Güntherodt, chair) until he was appointed associate professor at the ETH Zurich in 1992. In 1995 he was promoted to full professor there.

In his dissertation he dealt with spin-polarized electrons. He developed and used these and similar experimental methods in the further stages of his research work in order to investigate the magnetism of low-dimensional systems and their phase transitions with highest spatial and temporal resolution. In recognition of his work in this area, he was elected a fellow of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences in 2018.