Technische Universität Dresden

Rainer Waser

Short Biography

Rainer Waser received his PhD in physical chemistry at the University of Darmstadt in 1984, and worked at the Philips Research Laboratory, Aachen, until he was appointed Professor at the faculty for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the RWTH Aachen University in 1992 and director of the Institute for Electronic Materials at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, in 1997. He is member of the Emerging Research Devices working group of the ITRS, and he has been collaborating with major semiconductor industries in Europe, the US, and the Far East. Since 2002, he has been the coordinator and spokesman of the research program on Nanoelectronic Systems in Information Technology within the Germany national research centres in the Helmholtz Association. In 2007, he has been co-founder of the Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance, section Fundamentals of Future Information Technology (JARA-FIT). Together with Professor Wuttig, he heads a collaborative research center on resistively switching chalcogenides for future electronics (SFB 917) which comprises of 14 institutes within JARA-FIT and has been funded by the German national science foundation (DFG) since 2011. In 2014, Rainer Waser received the Leibniz Prize of the DFG for his work on the phenomenon of redox-based resistive switching.

Education and Career

1974-1979

Studies of Chemistry (Field: Physical Chemistry)

Technische Universität Darmstadt

1978-1979

Diploma in Chemistry, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany, Institut für Physikalische Chemie (Prof. Dr. A. Weiss);

Topic: „Aufbau eines JFET-Oszillator-Detektors nach dem Prinzip von Pound und Knight als Kernquadrupolresonanz-Spektrometer“

1979-1980

  • Research stay abroad, University Southampton /Great Britain (Institute of Electrochemistry)

1980-1984

Scientific Assistant at the Institut für Physikalische Chemie, TH Darmstadt (Prof. Dr. K.G. Weil); Topic: „Studien zur Bildung Beweglichkeit von Oberflächenkomplexen an der Silber/Elektrolyt-Grenzfläche“.

1984

Ph. D. defense (summa cum laude).

1984-1992

Scientist at the Philips Research Laboratories Aachen (research group Electronic Ceramics)

1992

Full professor at the Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik, Lehrstuhl II, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, RWTH Aachen

1997

Director at the Institut für Festkörperforschung (now: Peter Grünberg Institute), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany (as a supplement to the professorship at the RWTH Aachen)

2002

Spokesman of the HGF-Research Programme Information Technology with Nanoelectronic Systems within the Helmholtz Association, Germany

2007

Initiator of the Section “Fundamentals of Future Information Technology” of the Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-FIT) between Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University

2010-

Spokesman of the HGF-Research Programme Fundamentals of Future Information Technology (FIT) within the Helmholtz Association, Germany

2012-2015

Spokesman of the professors (Professorensprecher), Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, RWTH Aachen

Awards and Honors

1980

Carl-Wagner-Prize awarded by the Max-Planck-Institute for biophysical  Chemistry (Göttingen, Germany) for achievements in the field of  defect chemistry of protons in perovskites

1990

John D. Moynihan Award from CARTS Europe; sponsored by the  International Electronic Components Institute

1994

Edward C. Henry Award from the American Ceramic Society (jointly with T. Baiatu and K. H. Härdtl)

2000

Ferroelectrics Recognition Award 2000 from the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society

2001

Award of the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics (ISIF):

“Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Integrated Ferroelectrics”

2003 –

Working Group “Emerging Research Devices” der International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS)

2004

Appointment as Adjunct Professor by the School of Electronics and Information Engineering of Xi´an Jiaotong University, China (2004 – 2008)

2006

Admittance to the Akademie der Wissenschaften Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany)

2007

Masao Ikeda Award, Ikeda Memorial Foundation, Kyoto, Japan in recognition of “Excellent contribution to the characterization of ferroelectric thin films for non-volatile memory”

2013

Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize 2014 awarded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

2014

Tsungming Tu Award 2014 awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan (award ceremony April 17th, 2015)

2015

Doctor Honoris Causa of the Silesian University of Katowice, Poland

2015

Doctor Honoris Causa of the Silesian University of Katowice, Poland

2015

RWTH Fellow 2015 awarded by the RWTH Aachen University for outstanding research achievements contributed to the University within the framework of the Excellence Initiative

2016

Member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of Wiley’s Journal Advanced Materials Technologies

2017

W.R. Buessem Award awarded by the Center of Dielectrics & Piezoelectrics (CDP)

Publication Statistics

  • Number of publications: approx. 580
  • Sum of citations: approx. 19000
  • Citations per year (in 2014): approx. 2400
  • Average citation per paper: 32
  • H-Index (May 2014): 65

Book edition

Most relevant book:

“Nanoelectronics and Information Technology – Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Devices”

Rainer Wasser (editor and author of the block instructions) 3rd, Completely Revised and Enlarged Edition, Wiley-VCH 1048 pages, full color