Since the 2021/22 winter semester, Harald Oberhofer made Chair of Theoretical Physics VII - Computational Materials Design.
Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer (l.) is appointed professor by University President Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible.
UBT
Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer graduated in physics from the University of Vienna, where - after completing an additional master's degree in the simulation of various materials at ENS Lyon - he also obtained his PhD in computational physics in 2008. During his doctoral thesis, he discovered his interest in transport processes and was able to gain valuable experience in the field during a post-doctoral stay at the University of Cambridge, UK. Oberhofer then moved to the Technical University of Munich, first with a Humboldt Research Fellowship and later as a post-doctoral researcher and group leader at the Theoretical Chemistry research group. In 2017, he habilitated and also received two prizes, the Ernst Haage Prize for Chemical Energy Conversion and the Hans Fischer Memorial Prize for his research work.
These both focus on the computer- and data-based investigation of transport processes of charge carriers in a wide range of materials, from battery materials and photo-electrocatalysts to (metal-) organic semiconductors. The process is always based on building a fundamental physical understanding of microscopic processes using ab-initio simulations. The data generated are then analysed using statistical methods, so-called data-mining, and machine learning to extract general design criteria for the materials under consideration. This approach allows investigation of experimental data as well as supporting the experimental design of materials, which is very promising for high-performance battery research in interdisciplinary collaborations at the Bavarian Centre for Battery Technology (BayBatt).
At BayBatt, the University of Bayreuth offers interdisciplinary teaching along the entire value chain and all scales of battery technology. The University of Bayreuth is the first university in Germany to have its own battery-related master's programme to train the battery industry players of tomorrow."
In teaching, Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer initially participates in the master's programme in theoretical physics with special lectures on simulation techniques. Subsequently, he plans to contribute battery-specific topics in theoretical physics to the newly established master's programme "Battery Materials and Technology", starting in the 2022/23 winter semester. Interdisciplinary teaching along the entire value chain and all scales of battery technology is offered here by the University of Bayreuth.
