Call to the University of Hamburg acceptedNew professorship in physics

25 July 2019, by Heiko Fuchs

Photo: ISO K° photography

Dr. Oliver Gerberding

Dr. Oliver Gerberding has accepted the call for a W1 (Tenure Track W2) professorship in "Gravitational Wave Detection". Gerberding will participate in the "Quantum Universe" excellence cluster of the University of Hamburg and strengthen the research focus "Particle, Astro and Mathematical Physics".

Dr. Oliver Gerberding works experimentally on the earthbound and space-based detection of gravitational waves. With innovative concepts in optical metrology, he will explore new laser interferometry concepts and evaluate the use of novel material processing methods for the construction of future detector systems.
Gerberding studied at Leibniz Universität Hannover and received his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics. As a PostDoc, he did research at the University of Maryland in the USA and at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hanover. He joined the Department of Physics at the University of Hamburg on August 1, 2019.

This appointment strengthens the "Quantum Universe" excellence cluster, which deals with fundamental questions concerning the origin, history and composition of the universe. What does Dark Matter consist of? What is the structure of space and time? What are the origin and history of our universe? To answer these questions, the research teams use methods from observational, experimental and theoretical research and combine basic research on particle physics and quantum field theory with questions from astronomy and mathematics.