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About me
About me
Matthias Bickermann with oxide bulk crystals.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Bickermann is 51 years old. He is tenured professor for 'Fundamentals and Methods in Crystal Growth' at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany since September 2011. He works and performs research at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ) Berlin. There, he leads the department on 'Dielectrics and Wide Band-gap Materials' with about 30 researchers and technicians and acts as deputy director.

Previously, he was employed as scientist at the Chair of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (former Chair of Electrical Engineering Materials) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He studied materials science in Erlangen, earned his doctorate (Ph.D. equivalent) on 'Growth and characterization of semi-insulating SiC bulk crystals' in 2002 and his habilitation (qualifications as university lecturer) in materials science on 'Growth and characterization of AlN bulk crystals' in 2008. Until the end of 2015, he was Privatdozent (lecturer with venia legendi and venia docendi) in Erlangen.

The research activities of Prof. Dr. Matthias Bickermann are closely connected to the topics being investigated at the Department 'Volume Crystals' (former 'Dielectics and Wide Band-gap Materials') at the IKZ: Bulk growth and characterization of oxides and fluorides as well as semiconductor nitrides (mainly AlN). In the focus of personal research, he's interested in the correlations between growth and properties of crystals for optical and electrotechnical purposes (e.g., doping and defect formation during growth; homogeneity of structural, electrical, and optical properties). He provides various lectures at the Institute of Chemistry of the Technische Universität Berlin. He is supervisor and reviewer for several PhD, master, and bachelor students. He organized the annual "IKZ summer school on crystal growth" from 2012 to 2017 and leads the PhD seminar at the IKZ.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Bickermann regularly presents his results and represents his teams at national and international scientific conferences as well as at other universities and research facilities. He is also member of the program and advisory committees of several conference series, and is chief organizer of scientific workshops, e.g. the IWCGT-6 in 2014, the IWCGT-7 in 2017 and the IWCGT-8 in 2022, the DRIP 18 (together with Anna Mogilatenko), the WODIL 2016, 2020, and 2023, symposia on EMRS Fall Meetings, e.g. AlN and AlGaN materials and devices and Epitaxial Oxide Films for Electronic Applications in 2016 and 2018, and national meetings such as the DGKK Workshop on Bulk Semiconductors in 2015 and 2019 or the German-Japanese Gallium Oxide Technology Meeting 2016.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Bickermann co-authored 5 patents as well as more than 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is reviewer to about 65 scientific journals and in the editorial board of the prestiguous "Journal of Crystal growth" as well as "Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials" from Elsevier. Since 2015, he is a member of the executive committee of the Initiativ­gemeinschaft außer­universitärer Forschungs­einrichtungen in Adlershof (IGAFA) e.V., a local community of research institutes. In 2020, he was elected as a member of the DFG-Fachkollegium 406-03 "Thermodynamics and Kinetics as well as Properties of Phases and Microstructure of Materials". He also co-founded the start-up company CrystAl-N GmbH in 2010, which worked to advance AlN growth technology and commercialize AlN substrates for UV optoelectronics. The company ceased its activities in 2018.

It is Prof. Dr. Matthias Bickermann's mission to 'enable people and science' within the academic workplace of the IKZ. He uses his skills, expertise, and position to support the students and scientists through providing resources, information, and strategies as well as through promoting novel ways and ideas.

With human resources being the most valuable asset in science, and funding as the way to secure it, applicability and future-compliancy are always important issues in the research work. On the other hand, mastering the basics and understanding the technology are prerequisites to optimize existing processes and to develop new ones. This connection of fundamentals and application-related technologies, in the hand of a skilled team of experts, is the basis of success of the IKZ department. And it is the key value for its collaborators and customers.