Bernd Abel

Bernd Abel
Born1960 (age 65–66)
Delmenhorst, West Germany
EducationUniversity of Göttingen (doctorate and habilitation)
Occupationschemist and university professor
Known forphysical chemistry of complex systems and technologies

Bernd Abel (born 1960) is a German chemist specializing in applied physical chemistry. He holds the Chair of Chemical Technology of Polymers at Leipzig University, and since 2025 he also serves as the ERA Chair holder and department head at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.

Personal life

Abel was born in 1960 in Delmenhorst, West Germany.[1][2]

Career

Abel studied chemistry at Georg-August University of Göttingen starting in 1982 and completed his degree with a diploma in 1986. In 1990, he received his doctorate in Göttingen under Jürgen Troe with a dissertation on the investigation of the dynamics of molecules following IR multiphoton excitation.[3] He then spent three years at the George Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.[4] From 1994 onward, Abel was a research scientist and group leader at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at University of Göttingen, where he also completed his habilitation in Physical Chemistry in 1999. Beginning in 2002, he served as an associate professor of Physical Chemistry in Göttingen.[2]

In 2008, Abel was appointed to the Chair of Physical Chemistry/Reaction Dynamics at the Wilhelm Ostwald Institute of Leipzig University.[5][2] From 2010 to 2015, he served as the managing director of the Wilhelm Ostwald Institute.[6] From 2012 to 2022, Abel was head of the Chemical Department at the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering, where he also served as deputy director during that time, while simultaneously holding a professorship in Technical Chemistry at Leipzig University.[2][7] Since 2022, Abel has held the Chair of Chemical Technology of Polymers at Leipzig University and leads an interdisciplinary research group working at the interfaces of chemistry, physics, and engineering, investigating the physical and chemical properties of complex materials and systems.[8][4]

Over the course of his research career, Abel has been a visiting scientist at various international universities,[7] for example during the winter semester 2018/2019 as a Somorjai Visiting Miller Professor at the University of California in Berkeley.[9] In April 2025, in addition to his position in Leipzig, Abel was appointed ERA Chair holder and head of the "Space Chemistry and Technology" department at the Jaroslav Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.[6]

Research

Abel's scientific focus is the physical and chemical properties of complex materials at the interfaces between chemistry, physics, and engineering.[4][8] The goal is to understand fundamental processes and to apply this knowledge to new technologies and materials.[10] Further research topics include nanomaterials,[11] surface and interfacial processes, soft matter (such as polymers and colloids) as well as quantum chemistry and simulation. These activities are complemented by spectroscopic analyses for investigating chemical dynamics and by work on materials for energy conversion and storage, such as for solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells.[12]

Abel and his team has also developed instruments for future space missions based on high-resolution mass spectrometry. For thus experiments are carried out which simulate the conditions near the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn[13][14][15] and provide data that is relevant, for example, for missions such as the space probe mission Europa Clipper (launched in 2024).[16]

Besides his research activities, Abel has served since 2022 as chairman of the board of the Wilhelm Ostwald Society (Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gesellschaft e.V.).[17] He is also an editor of the journal Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie.[18]

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie an der Universität Leipzig". Geschichte der Physik an der Uni Leipzig (in German). p. 245. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie an der Universität Leipzig". Geschichte der Physik an der Uni Leipzig (in German). p. 251. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  3. ^ Bernd Abel. "Experimentelle Untersuchungen zur Dynamik von CF3I (CFI) nach IR-Multiphotonenanregung mit Hilfe der REMPI-Spektroskopie". Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  4. ^ a b c "Prof. Dr. Bernd Abel". Leipzig University (in German). Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  5. ^ "August 2007 bis Mitte Oktober 2008". University of Göttingen (in German). Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  6. ^ a b "Bernd Abel, Head of the Department". Space Era Chair. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  7. ^ a b "Abel Group and Labs". Universität Leipzig. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  8. ^ a b "Abel Group". Leipzig University. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  9. ^ a b "Prof. Dr. Bernd Abel erhält Somorjai-Miller-Gastprofessur an der University of California in Berkeley". Iom-Leipzig. 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  10. ^ Manuel Hayn; Torsten John; Juhaina Bandak; Lena Rauch-Wirth; Bernd Abel; Jan Münch (2024). "Hybrid Materials From Peptide Nanofibrils and Magnetic Beads to Concentrate and Isolate Virus Particles". Advanced Functional Materials. Vol. 34, no. 27. p. 2316260. doi:10.1002/adfm.202316260. ISSN 1616-3028. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  11. ^ Christian Laube; Robert Temme; Andrea Prager; Jan Griebel; Wolfgang Knolle; Bernd Abel (2023-08-22). "Fluorescence Lifetime Control of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Nanodiamonds for Long-Term Information Storage". ACS nano. Vol. 17, no. 16. pp. 15401–15410. doi:10.1021/acsnano.3c00328. ISSN 1936-086X. PMID 37440601. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  12. ^ Maximilian Wagner; Oliver Lorenz; Felix P. Lohmann-Richters; Áron Varga; Bernd Abel (2021-05-11). "Study on solid electrolyte catalyst poisoning in solid acid fuel cells". Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Vol. 9, no. 18. pp. 11347–11358. doi:10.1039/D1TA01002F. ISSN 2050-7496. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  13. ^ Frank Postberg; Yasuhito Sekine; Fabian Klenner; Christopher R. Glein; Zenghui Zou; Bernd Abel; Kento Furuya; Jon K. Hillier; Nozair Khawaja; Sascha Kempf; Lenz Noelle; Takuya Saito; Jürgen Schmidt; Takazo Shibuya; Ralf Srama; Shuya Tan (June 2023). "Detection of phosphates originating from Enceladus's ocean". Nature. Vol. 618, no. 7965. pp. 489–493. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05987-9. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 10266972. PMID 37316718. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  14. ^ Frank Postberg; Nozair Khawaja; Bernd Abel; Gael Choblet; Christopher R. Glein; Murthy S. Gudipati; Bryana L. Henderson; Hsiang-Wen Hsu; Sascha Kempf; Fabian Klenner; Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer; Brian Magee; Lenz Nölle; Mark Perry; René Reviol; Jürgen Schmidt; Ralf Srama; Ferdinand Stolz; Gabriel Tobie; Mario Trieloff; J. Hunter Waite (June 2018). "Macromolecular organic compounds from the depths of Enceladus". Nature. Vol. 558, no. 7711. pp. 564–568. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0246-4. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 6027964. PMID 29950623. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  15. ^ F. Postberg; S. Kempf; J. Schmidt; N. Brilliantov; A. Beinsen; B. Abel; U. Buck; R. Srama (2009-06-25). "Sodium salts in E-ring ice grains from an ocean below the surface of Enceladus". Nature. Vol. 459, no. 7250. pp. 1098–1101. doi:10.1038/nature08046. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 19553992. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  16. ^ Matthias Müller (2023-01-03). "Kann es auf Europa Leben geben?". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. p. 12.
  17. ^ "Vorstand und wissenschaftlicher Beirat". Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gesellschaft e.V. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  18. ^ "Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie". De Gruyter (in German). Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  19. ^ "Somorjai Award". Miller Institute, University of California Berkeley. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
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