Robert
WIMMER-SCHWEINGRUBER

University of Kiel

Speaker Biography

Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber is Director of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics at the University of Kiel, Germany, and Guest Professor at the National Space Science Center (NSSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing. Dr. Wimmer-Schweingruber obtained his PhD from the University of Bern, Switzerland, in 1994. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland in College Park, he was called back to the University of Bern to lead two space projects, where he also obtained his venia docendi in 2001. In 2002 he was called to the University of Kiel in northern Germany to lead the division of Extraterrestrial Physics.

He is interested in the physics of the heliosphere, the giant bubble that is inflated into interstellar space by the supersonic solar wind. Together with his team he has developed instruments for numerous space missions, most recently for the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter and China’s Chang’E-4 lunar mission. He has authored and co-authored more than 250 scientific publications which range from novel experimental methods to theoretical predictions, and from planetary science to mission descriptions to investigate interstellar space. He has directed more than 20 PhD theses, serves and has served on numerous national and international committees and is the recipient of the 2006 Greinacher prize of the University of Bern, of the 2020 International Cooperation Zhongguancun Award of the City of Beijing, and the 2023 Beijing Science and Technology Award. Currently he is working on better understanding the micro-physics of how particles are accelerated to such high energies that they can become a radiation danger to astronauts, and on designing a novel instrument for a future ESA space mission.