Prof. Dr. Matthias Ballauff

Professor for "Soft Matter and Functional Materials" at the Humboldt University Berlin and head of the correspondent Institute at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin

Professor Dr. Matthias Ballauff, born in Cologne in 1952, finished his PhD thesis „Thermodynamically induced shear degradation of dissolved Polystyrol“ in 1981 at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University Mainz in the working group of Prof. Dr. B. A. Wolf. From 1981 to 1983 he was a Postdoc with Professor P. J. Flory at Stanford University (USA) where he did research in the field of liquid crystalline polymers and defined liquid crystalline oligomeres.

In 1984 he became a scientific employee at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz. In 1989 he published his Habilitation on „Investigations of synthesis, structure and phase characteristics of stiff-chain macromolecules”. In the same year he was appointed Professor (C-4) at the Faculty for Chemistry at the University (TH) Karlsruhe. He held this chair as a professor and head of the Polymer Institute from 1990-2003. From 1993-1995 and 1991-2001 he was Dean of the Faculty for Chemistry, from 1999-2005 member of the DFG committee on the matters of the special research fields.

In 2002 he was appointed to the University of Bayreuth where he held the chair Physical Chemistry I. In July he was appointed the W3-S-Professorship "Soft Matter and Functional Materials" at the Humboldt University Berlin in Berlin-Adlershof and became head of the correspondent Institute at the HZB. Professor Dr. Matthias Ballauff is the author of about 280 publications and co-editor of POLYMER.

Research focus

Professor Ballauff's group focuses on the research of colloidal nanostructures. The work ranges from the synthesis of these systems to the analysis of particles using scattering methods. Many of these are composites of colloidal polymer particles and inorganic nanoparticles. The picture as an example of such a system shows faceted platinum nanoparticles which are immobilized on a polymer carrier system. Such composites have a high catalytic activity and thus interesting practical prospect.

Further work includes the interaction of proteins with surfaces and possible applications, for example the use of colloidal systems in the nano medicine as well as the dynamics of colloidal systems as for example the flow behavior of suspensions.

Professor Ballauff is strongly engaged in teaching and introducing young people into the research at large-scale facilities. In this regard the networking of the Berlin Universities and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie offer splendid opportunities to involve young natural scientists to do research at the center. Networking and co-operations in the frame of novel special research fields to him are a priority.

Contact: Prof. Dr. M. Ballauff, matthias.ballauff(at)helmholtz-berlin.de, tel. 030 8062 307, www.helmholtz-berlin.de