Gerhard Theodor Materlik CBE FRS (born 16 January 1945) is a German physicist and science manager. He has made significant contributions to X-ray physics, notably improvements in the real-world application of synchrotron radiation.[2] He is a Professor of Facilities Science at the University College London since 2013.[1][3]

Gerhard Materlik
Born (1945-01-16) 16 January 1945 (age 79)
Alma materUniversity of Dortmund (PhD)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Education and early career

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Materlik completed his undergraduate education in physics in Münster and Munich in 1970. He earned his doctorate from the University of Dortmund in 1975.[1] After postdoctoral appointments at Cornell University (1975–1977) and Bell Laboratories, he took a job at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg.

Work

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From 2001–2013, Materlik was Chief Executive of the Diamond Light Source, the United Kingdom's synchrotron facility. He was the leader of the team that constructed the accelerators, which speed up electrons to near the speed of light, and also the instrumentation installed to apply this radiation in experiments covering a spectral range from infrared radiation up to X-rays.

His discoveries have become widely used experimental methods. He has published more than 200 papers. He assisted in the development of synchrotron sources worldwide.[2]

Awards and honours

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In 2007, Materlik was awarded a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2011.[2] His certificate of election reads:

Gerhard Materlik has made important discoveries in the science and application of Synchroton Radiation and is the leader of the team that constructed and now operates the world leading Diamond Light Source facility. He has contributed to the many fields in the application of synchrotron x-rays (SXR) most of which are now widely used experimental methods with SXR. He has made notable contributions to the improvement of SXR sources, notably the soft X-ray FEL, FLASH at DESY, the newly commissioned hard X-ray FEL, LCLS at SLAC and the hard X-ray FEL, E-XFEL, currently been built at DESY.[4]

In 2014 he was awarded the Glazebrook Medal by the Institute of Physics for his leadership in establishing a world-leading laboratory at the Diamond Light Source.[5][6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "MATERLIK, Prof. Gerhard Theodor". Who's Who. Vol. 2016 (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c "Gerhard Materlik". London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." "Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Iris View Profile". iris.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  4. ^ "EC/2011/25: Materlik, Gerhard Theodor". The Royal Society. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  5. ^ Prof. Gerhard Materlik wins Glazebrook Medal prize, UCL, retrieved 2016-03-20.
  6. ^ 2014 Glazebrook Medal, IoP, retrieved 2016-03-20.
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