Prof. Dr. Heiner Linke

Heiner Linke is a professor of nanophysics at the Physics Department at Lund University, Sweden. Previously he served as the Dean for Research of the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) and as Director of NanoLund, the Center for Nanoscience at Lund University. He has a master’s degree (Dipl. Phys) from the Technical University in Munich (1992), and a doctorate degree in semiconductor quantum physics from Lund University in Sweden (1997).  Between 1998 and 2001 he was a research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, before joining the physics department at the University of Oregon in 2001, where he received indefinite tenure in 2005 and remained until 2009. A recipient of an U.S. NSF CAREER Award, his research in experimental physics is concerned with harvesting thermal fluctuations to produce useful work, for example in artificial molecular motors and in photovoltaics, and with the use of nanostructures for highly sensitive diagnostics.

He is an appointed member of the Committee of Experts of Germany’s Excellence Strategy and was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (physics class) in 2014, where he currently serves as the chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.