CV

As the author of over 500 scientific publications, Rudolf Gross is an internationally renowned top researcher in the field of low-temperature, solid-state, and quantum physics. His textbooks and lecture notes are standard works in the education of physics students. He has made groundbreaking contributions to understanding superconducting and magnetic materials, their production using modern thin-film and nanotechnology, and their application in novel devices. Developing new experimental techniques has always been a major concern for him. Examples include low-temperature scanning electron microscopy, molecular beam epitaxy for oxide materials, dry dilution refrigerators, and extremely sensitive microwave measurement techniques. Shortly after the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1988, he discovered that grain boundaries in these materials limit their critical current density. This property, which continues to hinder the development of superconducting tape conductors with high current densities until today, he was able to exploit shortly thereafter for the realization of Josephson contacts and the first quantum interference detectors. Further pioneering work on high-temperature superconductors includes the first measurement of the flux quantum-based Seebeck, Nernst, and Righi-Leduc effects and the detection of Andreev bound states. 

After taking over as director of the Walther Meißner Institute (WMI) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) in 2000, Rudolf Gross made several pioneering contributions to realizing solid-state-based quantum systems and establishing the flourishing Munich quantum ecosystem. He founded the first Collaborative Research Center (CRC 631) on Quantum Information Processing in Germany and served as its spokesperson (2003–2015). He initiated the founding of the TUM Center for Quantum Engineering (ZQE) in 2017. From 2019 to 2025, he was the TUM spokesperson for the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST) cluster of excellence. After the founding of Munich Quantum Valley e.V. (2021), he led it as scientific and managing director from 2023 to 2024. 

Rudolf Gross has made the WMI a world-leading institute in the fabrication and research of superconducting quantum circuits and their application in the fields of quantum computing, sensing, and communication. Important pioneering work includes the fabrication of the first superconducting quantum bits in Germany, the first realization of ultra-strong light-matter interaction and strong magnon-photon coupling, and numerous groundbreaking experiments on microwave-based quantum communication (including the demonstration of path entanglement, single- and two-mode squeezing, teleportation, quantum key distribution, and the construction of a quantum LAN). His key experiments on pure spin currents in magnetic materials have also attracted broad international attention. These experiments have led to the discovery of numerous new phenomena (including the spin Hall magnetoresistance, the spin Nernst effect, and the magnon Hanle effect) and are fundamental to developing magnonic devices. 

 

Short biography

1976 – 1982	Study of Physics, University of Tübingen
1983 – 1987	Doctorate, University of Tübingen
1987	Visiting Scientist, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba, Japan
1988 – 1989	Scientific Assistant, Institute of Physics, University of Tübingen
1989 – 1990	Visiting Scientist, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, USA
1991 – 1995	Research Group Leader and Habilitation (1993), Institute of Physics, University of Tübingen
1996 – 2000	Professor of Applied Physics, II. Physics Institute, University of Cologne
2000 – 2025	Professor of Technical Physics, School of Natural Sciences, TUM, and  Director of Walther-Meißner-Institute of BAdW
2023 – 2024	Scientific and Managing Director of Munich Quantum Valley e.V.
seit 2020	Academic Director of TUM Venture Lab Quantum

 

Memberships and Services to the Community

• Principal Investigator and Board Member of the DFG Collaborative Research Center (CRC 341) on “Physics of Mesoscopic and Low-Dimensional Metallic Systems” (Cologne, Aachen, Jülich) (1996 – 2000)
• Spokesman of the DFG Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 631 on “Solid State Quantum Information Processing: Physical Concepts and Material Aspects”, Munich (2003 – 2015).
• Member of the Cluster of Excellence “Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM)”, Executive Board Member and Coordinator of Research Area 1 on “Quantum Nanosystems” (2006 – 2019).
• Member of the Cluster of Excellence “Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)” (seit 2019), TUM spokesperson (2019 – 2025).  
• Member of “Munich Quantum Valley e.V. (MQV)“ (since 2021), coordinator of consortium „Quantum Technology Park and Entrepreneurship“ (2021 – 2023), Scientific and Managing Director of MQV (2023 – 2024).
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Institut für Schicht- und Ionentechnik, Forschungszentrum Jülich (1999 – 2001).
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching (2001 – 2008).
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Leibniz-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Dresden (2008 – 2015).
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB), Barcelona (since 2016).
• Member (since 2016) and spokesperson (since 2024) of the Scientific Advisory Board, Bayerisches Geoinstitut für experimentelle Geochemie und Geophysik, Bayreuth.
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board “Matter and Light”, Deutsches Museum (2019 – 2024).
• Member of the selection committee, Walter-Schottky-Award of the German Physical Society (2005 – 2007).
• Member of the selection committee, Humboldt Research Awards, Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (2015 – 2025).
• Member (2010 – 2017) and spokesperson (2015 – 2017) of the selection committee, Stern-Gerlach-Medal of the German Physical Society.
• Member of the Board of Editors of the European Physical Journal B (2001 – 2013).
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Physik Journal (2008 – 2012).
• Member of the “Forum Technologie” of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (since 2018).
• Elected referee (Fachgutachter) for Condensed Matter Physics, German Research Foundation (2004 – 2006).
• Spokesman of the Low-Temperature Physics Division of the German Physical Society (2008 – 2012).
• Principal Investigator in several coordinated research projects of DFG, BMFTR, and EU.
• Organizer/Co-organizer of several international conferences: “Munich Conferences on Quantum Science & Technology” (2019 – 2024), International Conferences on “Resonator QED” (2013, 2015, 2017), International Schools and Workshops on “Solid-State Quantum Information Processing” (2004, 2006, 2009).

 

Honors and Awards

• Prof. Dr. Friedrich-Förster-Award of the University of Tübingen (1984).
• Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (seit 2002).
• Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal of the Technical University of Munich (2007)
• Silver Order of Merit of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2015).
• Leibniz Medal of IFW Dresden (2015).
• Member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) (seit 2020).
• Werner Heisenberg Medal of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2025).
• Pro Meritis Scientiae et Literarum of the Free State of Bavaria (2025). 

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