Markus Gühr

Leading Scientist of FLASH

Markus Gühr is a lead scientist at DESY, appointed jointly with the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. As head of the free electron laser FLASH, Markus is responsible for the world's first SASE X-ray laser, which has been working as a user facility since 2005 and whose research potential is currently being further improved with the FLASH2020+ expansion project.

Markus and the FLASH team want to make the entire complexity of nature – the interaction of nuclei and electrons in the context of quantum mechanics – visible with FLASH. His specialty is the conversion of (sun)light into other forms of energy in molecules. He wants to use FLASH to push the boundaries of what is possible and conceivable, to open up additional areas of science that can be worked on with free-electron lasers, and thus turn FLASH into a free-electron laser that will attract new users.

Academic career

Since 2022 Lead Scientist at DESY and Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Hamburg
2020-2022 Associate Professor for experimental quantum physics, University of Potsdam
2015 - 2020 Lichtenberg Professor, University of Potsdam, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
2007 - 2015 Staff Scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, USA
2006 - 2007 Postdoc, Stanford University
2001 - 2005 Research assistant, Free University of Berlin
2005  Doctorate in Physics, Free University of Berlin

 

Activities, Memberships, Awards

2017-2022 Board Member of the ‘Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin’
2017-2023 Member of the LCLS Advisory Board (Chair: 2020-2022)
2017-2022 Member of the LCLS proposal review panel
2015 Lichtenberg Professorship by Volkswagen Stiftung
2011 US Department of Energy Early Career Grant
2006-2007 Feodor Lynen Fellowship
2005 Best PhD thesis of the Free University Berlin 2005 (Ernst Reuter Preis)