Prof. Rainer Waser received honorary doctorate from the University of Silesia

Prof. Andrzej Ślebarski from the August Chełkowski Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, emphasized that the honorary doctorate had been awarded to Prof. Waser in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements and merits in setting new directions of research in physics and materials science.

"Professor Waser’s huge contribution to the development of the technology of ferroelectric materials and thin films has gained worldwide recognition, proven by awarding him the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2014" - said Prof. Ślebarski. He added that it is "the most important research award in Germany".

Another reason for the award of this title, as indicated by laudator, is Prof. Waser’s and his Juelich Research Center research team’s extensive cooperation with the Institute of Physics in Katowice. This cooperation includes in particular joint research and publications. "Thanks to the personal involvement of Professor Waser, the Institute of Physics has equipped its laboratories with professional and expensive equipment for scientific research".

German scientist, Prof. Rainer Waser was born on September 16, 1955. In the years 1974-1979 he studied chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. After graduating, he held a researcher internship at the University of Southampton in the UK, and in 1984 he received his doctorate in Darmstadt. After eight years at Philips Research Laboratories in Aachen he was appointed professor at the RWTH Aachen University, where he works to this day. In parallel, he also received a position at the Peter Gruenberg Institute in Juelich Research Center.

Prof. Waser is one of the foremost experts in the broad solid state physics and chemistry, new materials technology, surface physics and crystal lattice defects. He also specializes, as the laudator explained, in research of "resistive switching mechanism in transition metal oxides", which in the future will be used to build "modern storage components", in the "not nano, but atomic" scale.

Waser’s academic achievements include more than 600 papers in scientific journals and several books.

The importance of Prof. Waser, according to the University of Silesia, is enormous, as evidenced by his collaboration with "leading representatives of the semiconductor industry in Europe, the United States and the Far East, also with global +giants+ in the field of electronics". (PAP)

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