Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. mult. Sebastian M. Schmidt
Since April 1st 2020 Professor Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt is scientific director of the Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf. From 2007 to 2020 he was member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich (2007 – 2020). With his current position, he follows a tradition of working in the Helmholtz Association, as before his time in Jülich, he was Managing Director of the Helmholtz Association´s head office (2006 – 2007).
Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt holds a professorship for physics at the RTW Aachen University since 2012 and was awarded multiple honorary titles: He is honorary professor at the TU Dortmund (since 2009), visiting professor of the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT, since 2013) and honorary professor at the Xi’An Jiantong University in China and was awarded honorary doctorates by two Georgian universities (Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, since 2014 and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, since 2015). Schmidt is awardee of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”.
Sebastian M. Schmidt (born in 1967) studied at the University of Rostock and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and completed his degree in physics in 1993. After completing his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in theoretical physics at the University of Rostock in 1995, he received a Minerva Fellowship for a postdoc position at the Tel Aviv University, Israel. From 1997 to 1998 he worked as research associate at the University of Rostock and spent 1999 to 2000 at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, USA, having been awarded a fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2001, he obtained his habilitation at the universities of Tübingen and Rostock. His main area of research is quantum statistics with applications in quantum chromodynamics and quantum electrodynamics. Following this, he headed a DFG Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Group at the University of Tübingen before starting to work in the Helmholtz Association.
During his academic career, Prof. Sebastian M. Schmidt has published more than 100 publications with a citation-index of over 70 and a Hirsch-Index over 40 and serves as member of various committees and societies:
• 2008 – 2020 Steering committee ILL, Grenoble, France
(chair 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018)
• 2010 – 2019 Steering committee, Heinz-Meier-Leibnitz Zentrum, FRMII, Munich
• 2008 – 2019 Steering committee DELTA, TU Dortmund (chair)
• 2011 to 2015 FZJ (JARA) representative in the RWTH Aachen rectorate
• 2015 – 2019 ESS ERIC, Lund, Sweden (German representative + BMBF)
• 2013 – 2019 University Council Hochschule Niederrhein (vice chairman)
• Since 2013 International Science Policy Committee "Kurchatov Institute", Russia
• 2014 – 2020 Member of the board of trustees Centre for System and
Structural Biology (CSSB)
• Since 2016 European Association of Research Technology Organizations
(EARTO), HGF representative
• Since 1990 Member of the Deutsche Physikalischen Gesellschaft
• Since 2014 Member of the board of trustees of the DPG Physikzentrum, Bad Honnef
• Since 2018 International Board, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology,
MIPT, Russia
