Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung 
(Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research)

Heisenbergstr. 1 
D-70569 Stuttgart 
Germany 
Phone: +49 711 689-1660 
Fax: +49 711 689-1662 
e-mail: k.kern[at]fkf.mpg.de 
Internet: http://www.fkf.mpg.de/kern

 

Brief curriculum vitae

Klaus Kern is Director and Scientific Member at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany and Professor of Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He also is Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany. His present research interests are in nanoscale science, self-ordering phenomena and in chemistry and physics of surfaces and interfaces. He holds a chemistry degree and PhD from the University of Bonn and an honorary doctor’s degree from the University of Aalborg. After his doctoral studies he was staff scientist at the Research Center Jülich and visiting scientist at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill before joining the Faculty of EPFL in 1991 and the Max-Planck-Society in 1998. Professor Kern has authored and coauthored 500 scientific publications, which have received nearly 20’000 citations. He has served frequently on advisory committees to universities, professional societies and institutions and has received numerous scientific awards and honors, including the 2008 Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize. Kern can be reached by e-mail at k.kern@fkf.mpg.de  

Key Publications (selection)

J. Bork, Y.-H. Zhang, L. Diekhöner, L. Borda, P. Simon, J. Kroha, P. Wahl, and K. Kern
A Tunable Two-impurity Kondo system in an atomic point contact
Nature Physics 7, 901 (2011)
Article

S. Fabris, S. Stepanow, N. Lin, P. Gambardella, A. Dmitriev, J. Honolka, S. Baroni, and K. Kern
Oxygen Dissociation by Concerted Action of Di-Iron Centers in Metal-Organic Coordination Networks at Surfaces: Modeling Non-Heme Iron Enzymes
Nano Letters 11, 5414 (2011)
Article

S. Bose, A. M. García- García, M. M. Ugeda, J. D. Urbina, C. H. Michaelis, I. Brihuega, and K. Kern
Observation of shell effects in superconducting nanoparticles of Sn
Nature Materials 9, 550 (2010)
Article

Tzu-Chun Tseng, Christian Urban, Yang Wang, Roberto Otero, Steven L. Tait, Manuel Alcamí, David  Écija, Marta Trelka, Jose María Gallego, Nian Lin, Mitsuharu Konuma, Ulrich Starke, Alexei Nefedov, Christof Wöll, María Ángeles-Herranz, Fernando Martín, Nazario Martín, Klaus Kern, and Rodolfo Miranda
Charge Transfer-induced Structural Rearrangements at Both Sides of Organic/Metal Interfaces
Nature Chemistry 2, 374 (2010)
Article

Lucia Vitali, Giacomo Levita, Robin Ohmann, Alessio Comisso, Alessandro De Vita, and Klaus Kern
Portrait of the potential barrier at metal-organic nanocontacts
Nature Materials 9, 320 (2010)
Article

Jens Dorfmüller, Ralf Vogelgesang, R. Thomas Weitz, Carsten Rockstuhl, Christoph Etrich, Thomas Pertsch, Falk Lederer, and Klaus Kern
Fabry-Pérot Resonances in One-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructures
Nano Letters 9, 2372 (2009)
Article

Pietro Gambardella, Sebastian Stepanow, Alexander Dmitriev, Jan Honolka, Frank de Groot, Magalí Lingenfelder, Subhra Sen Gupta, D.D. Sarma, Peter Bencok, Stefan Stanescu, Sylvain Clair, Stefan Pons, Nian Lin, Ari P. Seitsonen, Harald Seitsonen, Johannes V. Barth and Klaus Kern
Supramolecular control of the magnetic anisotropy in two-dimensional high-spin Fe arrays at a metal interface
Nature Materials 8, 189 (2009)
Article

I. Brihuega, P. Mallet, C. Bena, S. Bose, C. Michaelis, L. Vitali, F. Varchon, L. Magaud, K. Kern, and J. Y. Veuillen
Quasiparticle Chirality in Epitaxial Graphene Probed at the Nanometer Scale
Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 206802 (2008)
Article

E. J. H. Lee, K. Balasubramanian, R.T. Weitz, M. Burghard and K. Kern
Contact and edge effects in graphene devices
Nature Nanotechnology 3, 486 (2008)
Article

C. Gómez-Navarro, R.T. Weitz, A.M. Bittner, M. Scolari, A. Mews, M. Burghard, and K. Kern
Electronic transport properties of individual chemically reduced graphene oxide sheets
Nano Letters 7, 3499 (2007)
Article

C. R. Ast, J. Henk, A. Ernst, L. Moreschini, M.C. Falub, D. Pacilé, P. Bruno, K. Kern, and M. Grioni
Giant spin splitting through surface alloying
Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 186807 (2007)
Article

P. Wahl, P. Simon, L. Diekhöner, V.S. Stepanyuk, P. Bruno, M.A. Schneider, and K. Kern
Exchange interaction between single magnetic atoms
Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 056601 (2007)
Article

M. Lingenfelder, G. Tomba, G. Costantini, L. Colombi Ciacchi, A. De Vita, and K. Kern
Tracking the Chiral Recognition of Adsorbed Dipeptides at the Single Molecule Level
Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed. 46, 4492 (2007)
Article

R. T. Weitz, U. Zschieschang, F. Effenberger, H. Klauk, M. Burghard and K. Kern
High-performance carbon nanotube field effect transistors with a self-assembled monolayer gate dielectric
Nano Letters 7, 22 (2007)
Article

G. Costantini, A. Rastelli, C. Manzano, P. Acosta-Diaz, R. Songmuang, G. Katsaros, O.G. Schmidt, and K. Kern
Interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics in the capping of InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 226106 (2006)
Article

J.V. Barth, G. Costantini, and K. Kern,
Engineering atomic and molecular nanostructures at surfaces,
Nature 437, 671 (2005)
Article

P. Wahl, L. Diekhöner, G. Wittich, L. Vitali, M.A. Schneider, and K. Kern
Kondo effect of molecular complexes at surfaces: Ligand control of the local spin coupling
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 166601 (2005)
Article

L. Vitali, M. Burghard, M.A. Schneider, L. Liu, S.Y. Wu, C.S. Jayanthi, and K. Kern,
Phonon spectromicroscopy of carbon nanostructures with atomic resolution,
Phys. Rev. Lett 93, 136103 (2004)
Article

S. Stepanow, M. Lingenfelder, A. Dmitriev, H. Spillmann, E. Delvigne, N. Lin, X. Deng, C. Cai, J.V. Barth, and K. Kern,
Steering molecular organization and host-guest interactions using two-dimensional nanoporous coordination systems,
Nature Materials 3, 229 (2004)
Article

M. Knez, A.M. Bittner, F. Boes, C. Wege, H. Jeske, E. Maiß, and K. Kern,
Biotemplate synthesis of 3nm Nickel and Cobalt nanowires,
Nano Letters 3, 1079 (2003)
Article

G. Costantini, C. Manzano, R. Songmuang, O.K. Schmidt, and K. Kern,
InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots close to thermodynamic equilibrium,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 3194 (2003)
Article

P. Gambardella, S. Rusponi, M. Veronese, S.S. Deshi, G. Grazioli, A. Dallmeyer, I. Cabria, R. Zeller, P.H. Dederichs, K. Kern, C. Carbone, and H. Brune
Giant magnetic anisotropy of Co adatoms and nanoparticles on Pt(111),
Science 300, 1130 (2003)
Article

S.E. Kooi, U. Schlecht, M. Burghard, and K. Kern,
Electrochemical modification of single carbon nanotubes,
Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed. 41, 1353 (2002)
Article

P. Gambardella, A. Dallmeyer, K. Maiti, M.C. Malagoli, W. Eberhard, K. Kern, and C. Carbone,
Ferromagnetism in one-dimensional monatomic metal chains,
Nature 416, 302 (2002)
Article

N. Knorr, H. Brune, M. Epple, A. Hirstein, M.A. Schneider, and K. Kern,
Long-range adsorbate interactions mediated by a two-dimensional electron gas,
Phys. Rev. B 65, 115420 (2002)
Article

L. Nilsson, O. Gröning, C. Emmenegger, O. Küttel, E. Schaller, L. Schlapbach, H. Kind, J.M. Bonard, and K. Kern,
Scanning field emission from patterned carbon nanotube films,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 2071 (2000)
Article

J.V. Barth, J. Weckesser, C. Cai, P. Günter, L. Bürgi, O. Jeandupeux, and K. Kern,
Building supramolecular nanostructures at surfaces by hydrogen bonding,
Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed. 39, 1230 (2000)
Article

L. Bürgi, O. Jeandupeux, H. Brune, and K. Kern,
Probing hot-electron dynamics at surfaces with a cold scanning tunneling microscope,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4516 (1999)
Article

H. Brune, M. Giovannini, K. Bromann, and K. Kern,
Self-organized growth of nanostructure arrays on strain relief patterns,
Nature 394, 451 (1998)
Article

K. Bromann, Ch. Félix, H. Brune, W. Harbich, R. Monot, J. Buttet, and K. Kern,
Controlled deposition of size-selected Ag nanoclusters,
Science 274, 956 (1996)
Article

H. Brune, H. Röder, C. Boragno and K. Kern,
Microscopic view of nucleation on surfaces,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1955 (1994)
Article

H. Röder, E. Hahn, H. Brune, J.-P. Bucher, and K. Kern,
Building one- and two-dimensional nanostructures via diffusion controlled aggregation at surfaces,
Nature 366, 141 (1993)
Article

K. Kern, H. Niehus, A. Schatz, P. Zeppenfeld, J. George, and G. Comsa,
Long range spatial selforganization in the adsorbate induced restructuring of surfaces : Cu(110) - (2xl)O,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 855 (1991)
Article