Christopher Barner-Kowollik

Chemistry

Christopher Barner-Kowollik is a leading researcher in macromolecular photochemistry. Together with his team, he studies how light can be precisely controlled to produce new soft-matter materials such as light-controlled 3D printing.

He and his group made a groundbreaking discovery which questioned a fundamental assumption in photochemistry that had been held for 200 years: Traditional photochemistry assumed that molecules exhibit the greatest reactivity or efficiency (quantum yield) on the wavelength at which they absorb most light. When a molecule absorbs light particularly well at a certain wavelength, it was also supposed to exhibit most chemical activity at this wavelength. But Barner-Kowollik and his team discovered a discrepancy between absorbency capacity and quantum yield – which means that a molecule does not necessarily exhibit most chemical activity on the wavelength at which it absorbs most light.

This discovery has revolutionised our understanding of photochemical processes. Applications in phototherapy, light-controlled synthesis and materials development can be significantly optimised if researchers and engineers choose specific wavelengths at which the quantum yield is optimal rather than just maximising absorption.

Christopher Barner-Kowollik is invited to become the director of the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG) at KIT with the goal of scientifically reorganising and restructuring IFG to become an agile, innovative “multi-team platform institute” with a focus on research into next generation materials.

Brief bio

Christopher Barner-Kowollik studied at the University of Göttingen where he completed his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1999. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where he became a professor of polymer chemistry. In 2008, he assumed the chair in molecular chemistry at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology before returning to Australia in 2017. Here, he founded the Soft Matter Materials Laboratory at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. His many awards include the Australian Academy of Science’s David Craig Medal and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Centenary Prize.

Christopher Barner-Kowollik has been selected for a Humboldt Professorship and is currently conducting appointment negotiations with the German university that nominated him for the award. If the negotiations end successfully, the award will be granted in 2025.