Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Andreas Tünnermann was born in Ahnsen, Germany, on June 10th, 1963. He received the diploma and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Hannover in 1988 and 1992, respectively. His Ph.D. work was focused on nonlinear processes with emphasis on the interaction of high intensity laser sources with matter for the generation of short wavelengths lasers. In 1997 he recieved the habilitation for his work on ultrastable light sources for interferometric gravitational wave detectors.
He was head of the department of development at the Laser Zentrum Hannover from 1992 to 1997. In 1994 he has become the national scientific coordinator for the topic diode pumped solid state lasers within the LASER 2000 programme. In the beginning of 1998 he joined the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany as a Professor and Director of the Institute of Applied Physics. In 2003 he became the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena.
Research and Teaching Career
Andreas Tünnermann is currently leading one of the most creative and productive research groups in modern optics and photonics world-wide. His main research interests include scientific and technical aspects associated with the tailoring of light. Research topics are the design and manufacturing of novel passive and active photonic devices and its application for generation, amplification, steering and switching of light - with a strong foundation in laser physics. He exhibits a unique combination of considerable experience in optical system design and in the development of advanced light sources, including a profound knowledge about micro- and nano-optics. He enjoys an excellent reputation in the international optics and laser community in both, fundamental and applied physics. Especially his work on high power continuous and pulsed fiber lasers operating in the visible and near infrared spectral range is highly appreciated by the laser community. Outstanding developments in photonic crystal fiber design performed in his laboratories made it possible to overcome restrictions due to nonlinear pulse distortions in the amplification fiber and revealed the full potential of rare-earth-doped fibers as a power-scalable solid-state laser concept even in the ultrashort pulse regime. Andreas Tünnermann is also known for his pioneering work in utilizing high power femtosecond lasers for material processing. In collaboration with his coworkers he demonstrated new prospects for ultra precise laser based microstructure technology. Due to the rapid progress in this field, nowadays one starts to think about "real world" industrial applications of those ultrafast lasers.
Andreas Tünnermann is actually involved in groundbreaking experiments in fundamental physics like the observation of gravitational waves applying laser interferometers but also in applied research activities with strong economic and ecological impact like the development of nano layers for photon managements in highly efficient thin film solar cells. The blend of experience and knowledge manifests itself in a work that has attracted and continues to attract considerable attention as proven by over 700 peer-reviewed publications in renown international journals (e.g. Nature Physics, Nature Photonics, Physical Review Letters, Optics Letters, Applied Optics, Applied Physics A+B and Optics Express), and more than 130 invited talks at most important national and international conferences, including plenary talks and tutorials - h-index= 83 (web of Knowledge 04/2020).
Andreas Tünnermann has a strong record of inspiring the next generation of researchers. He has to date supervised 107 students to successful completion of PhD, currently he is supervising a further 12 PhD students. Of his former graduate students and post-docs, eleven have become full-professors, further three assistant professors.
Interdisciplinary affiliation and administrative experience
Andreas Tünnermann is providing service contributions to the discipline as a professional board and committee member as well as a reviewer of proposals or papers. In particular, he served as a member of the international council of the Optical society of America (OSA) and a board member of the European Physical Society (EPS); Quantum Electronics and Optics Division. He worked as a General Chair for conferences operated by EPS, OSA and SPIE. Actually, he is stakeholder of the European Photonics 21 platform and member of the board of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Lasertechnik. He is consultant for the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as a member of the program board optical technologies and serves as a member of the steering committee of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. In addition Andreas Tünnermann is currently serving as member of the board of trustees for diverse institutions of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and Leibniz-Gemeinschaft. He is a sought-after expert in optics and photonics industry, too. He is founder and member of the board of directors of the industry driven cluster OptoNet Jena, one of the most dynamic regional optics clusters in Europe. Today, OptoNet represents companies with more than 16.000 employees and a total turnover of 3.3 bn€ around the city Jena - prominent partners are companies like Zeiss, Jenoptik, Schott.
