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Jochen Küpper
Controlled Molecule Imaging
Jochen Küpper leads the Controlled Molecule Imaging group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY. He is also a professor of physics and adjunct professor of chemistry at Universität Hamburg. Amongst other distinctions, he received the Nernst- Haber-Bodenstein Prize of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.
His group’s research focuses on understanding the details of complex molecules at work by disentangling the ultrafast dynamics during (bio)chemical reactions under well-defined conditions. This research provides important information on the dynamical basis of chemistry for a better understanding of processes ranging from chemistry to medicine, for example improved chemicals and materials, energy harvesting and storage, and drug development. This research builds upon developments of groundbreaking approaches to control molecules and nanoparticles in the gas phase, including their shock freezing, separation of structural isomers, and fixing them in space. It further includes pushing atomic-resolution imaging modalities to complex molecules and the limits of spatial and temporal resolution, exploiting our highly-controlled-sample techniques and both ultrafast table-top-laser as well as X-ray-facility light sources.
Academic career
| since 2021 | Lead Scientist at DESY |
| since 2015 | Professor by courtesy, Department of Chemistry, Universität Hamburg |
| 2014-2021 | Deputy chair, DESY Coherent X-ray Imaging Division |
| since 2010 |
Group leader Controlled Molecule Imaging at Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY University professor, Department of Physics, Universität Hamburg |
| 2009 | Dr. habil. in physics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Thesis: Manipulating the motion of large molecules, lecture: Metrology and SI base units |
| 2008-2010 | Member of the Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free Electron Laser Science CFEL, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2003-2010 | Team leader Large Cold Molecules, Division of Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany |
| 2002-2003 | Post-doctoral fellow with Gerard Meijer, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max- Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany |
| 2001-2002 | Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with Roger E. Miller, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA |
| 1996-2000 | Dr. rer. nat. (degree is comparable to a Ph.D.), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf: Rotationsauflösende Laserspektroskopie – Beziehung zwischen Struktur und interner Dynamik von Molekülen |
| 1995 | Research associate, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
| 1994-2000 | Studies of Computer Science, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany |
| 1991-1996 | Diploma in Chemistry, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburg, PA, USA. |
Memberships and Offices
| Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC, 2014) | |
| 2022-2025 Chair of the Division of Molecular Physics of the German Physical Society DPG | |
| Member of German Physical Society DPG, Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft, European Physical Society | |
| International Advisory Committee of International Symposium on Molecular Beams (ISMB), Femtochemistry (FEMTO), and Cold and Controlled Molecules (ICCM) |
