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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 (CFEL) at DESY. He is also Professor of Physics and Professor by courtesy of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. Among 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. The results provide 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 as well as drug development. The research builds on developments of groundbreaking approaches to control molecules and nanoparticles in the gas phase, including their shock freezing, separation of structural isomers and fixation in space. It further includes pushing atomic-resolution imaging modalities to complex molecules and to the limits of spatial and temporal resolution, exploiting the group’s highly controlled sample techniques and both ultrafast table-top laser and X-ray facility light sources.
Academic career
| since 2025 | Spokesperson of the Helmholtz Programme From Matter to Materials and Life (MML) |
| since 2021 | Lead Scientist at DESY |
| since 2015 | Professor by courtesy of Chemistry, University of Hamburg |
| 2014-2021 | Deputy Chair of the Coherent Imaging Division at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY |
| since 2010 |
Leader of the Controlled Molecule Imaging Group at CFEL Professor of Physics, University of Hamburg |
| 2009 | Habilitation in Physics, Free University Berlin |
| 2008-2010 | Member of the Max Planck Advanced Study Group at CFEL |
| 2003-2010 | Leader of the Large Cold Molecules Team, Division of Molecular Physics, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin |
| 2002-2003 |
Visiting Scientist, FOM Instituut voor Plasmafysica “Rijnhuizen”, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands Postdoctoral Fellow, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin |
| 2001-2002 | Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, University of North Carolina, USA |
| 1996-2000 | Dr. rer. nat. (comparable to a PhD), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf |
| 1995 | Research Associate, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| 1994-2000 | Studies of Computer Science, FernUniversität Hagen |
| 1991-1996 | Diploma in Chemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and University of Pittsburgh, USA |
Memberships and roles
| Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2014) | |
| Chair of the Division of Molecular Physics of the German Physical Society (DPG), 2022-2025 | |
| Member of the 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) |
