Uwe Kortshagen

Uwe Kortshagen is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He holds the Ronald L. and Janet A. Christenson Chair in Renewable Energy and is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and former Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.

He earned his Diploma degree in Physics in 1988, and his Ph.D. in Physics in 1991 from the University of Bochum, Germany, under Hans Schlueter. He came to the U.S.A. in 1995 with an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and spent a year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was awarded the Habilitation in Experimental Physics at the University of Bochum in 1995. In 1996, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota as Assistant Professor, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999, and to Full Professor in 2003. He served as President of the International Plasma Chemistry Society and is a Fellow of APS, ASME, the International Plasma Chemistry Society, and of the Institute of Physics (IOP, London, UK).

His work is in the area of kinetic theory of plasmas, nonthermal plasmas at atmospheric pressures, and in the plasma synthesis and functionalization of nanomaterials, in particular, group IV nanocrystals, and their utilization in renewable energy technology. His work has been published in more than one 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and received more than 20,000 citations.

Specialties: Plasma technology, materials science, renewable energy, photovoltaics, nanotechnology.