New Head of Research Department at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marcus Bär – new Head of HI ERN's research unit "X-ray spectroscopy at interfaces of thin films".

In a joint procedure, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialen und Energie (HZB) and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) appointed Marcus Bär head of „X-ray spectroscopy at interfaces of thin films“ at HI ERN in November 2018. The position is associated with a professorship at the FAU.

Prof. Bär's research interests lie in the field of X-ray spectroscopic investigation of the chemical and electronic structure of energy-conversion materials and structures with a focus on thin-film solar cells. In the future, Prof. Bär wants to establish the infrastructure for in-situ and operando investigations on (photo)electrocatalytic materials within the joint appointment of the FAU with HZB at HI ERN.

Marcus Bär studied physics at the University of Potsdam and Environmental Engineering/Renewable Energies at the University of Applied Sciences (FHTW) in Berlin. In 2003 he earned his doctorate in electrical engineering in the field of solar energy research at the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin GmbH and at the TU Berlin. Thereafter, Prof. Bär was Emmy-Noether Fellow at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas/USA. He was promoted to an Adjunct Assistant Research Professor at this department in 2006 and to an Assistant Research Professor in 2007. In 2009 he returned to Berlin and became head of the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group "Improving thin-film solar cells by deliberate interface tailoring" at the HZB. Two years later he was appointed professor for photovoltaics at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.