On September 15, Prof. Ludger Wirtz took office as head of the Physics and Materials Science research unit of the University of Luxembourg. He follows Roland Sanctuary who headed the research unit during eight years.

Prof. Ludger Wirtz joined the University of Luxembourg in February 2012 and now just started his mandate as head of the Physics and Materials Science research unit. In a few questions we collected his thoughts on his new position...

Prof. Wirtz, on September 15 you were nominated as head of your research unit by the University President. What is your first reaction?
“First of all, I would like to thank my predecessor, Roland Sanctuary for his successful management and dedicated service to the research unit. During his mandate, the research unit has grown from initially three research groups to its current size of eight research groups with a total of about 60 members. It is a challenge and a pleasure to take over this responsibility at a moment of rapid evolution on all levels: the research unit, the University, and national science politics.”

What are your plans and what is your vision for the research unit?
“In the coming months, the research unit is already going to welcome a new ATTRACT fellow and a new professor for theoretical condensed-matter physics. My vision is to become an internationally visible physics and materials science research unit of comparable size to competitive universities in the neighbouring countries. On the long run, we would like to establish materials science as a priority of the university, in line with its position as a priority of the national research fund FNR.”

How would you define the mission of your unit for the next years?
“The mission of the research unit is twofold: on the one hand, we perform high-level fundamental research that is internationally competitive and increases the visibility of the University as a modern research university. In this context, we make a contribution to the intellectual life of the country and we put emphasis on undergraduate, graduate, as well as post-graduate teaching.

On the other hand, we apply our research results to technical challenges. Thus, we are looking forward to intensifying our contacts with industrial partners and developing new research collaborations with the department of materials science of the future Luxembourg Institute for Science and Technology.”

More information about the new head
Ludger Wirtz, born 1971, studied physics at Bonn University, Germany, and at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, USA. He received the PhD from the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, in 2001. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain, he worked from 2004-2012 as a CNRS-researcher at the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnology (IEMN) in Lille, France. In February 2012, he joined the University of Luxembourg as professor of Theoretical Solid-State Physics. His research group focuses on electronic structure calculations and theoretical spectroscopy of semiconductors and novel nanomaterials for optical and electronics applications.

Photo: © Université du Luxembourg, Michel Brumat