Group Leader

Functions within ETH

Head of Laboratory of Physical Chemistry

Professional experience

• 2023 – present: Full Professor, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• 2013 – 2023: Associate Professor, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• 2010 – 2013: Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• 2007 – 2010: Research Associate, in the group of Prof. P. B. Corkum, Joint Laboratory for Attosecond Science, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
• 2007 – 2007: Postdoctoral Fellow in the group of Prof. Ch. Jungen, Laboratoire Aimé-Cotton du CNRS, Orsay, France

Education

• 2007: PhD in Physical Chemistry, Dissertation Topic: “High-resolution spectroscopic studies of non-Born-Oppenheimer effects”, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, 2004 - 2007
• 2003: Diploma in Chemistry,  Studies of Chemistry (2^nd preliminary diploma and diploma), ETH Zürich, Switzerland, 2000 - 2003
• 2000: Studies of Chemistry (1^st preliminary diploma), EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, 1999 - 2000

Awards & Honours

• 2026: ERC Advanced Grant, European Research Council
• 2026: Honorary doctorate (Doctor honoris causa), University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague
• 2025: Honor Award for Scientific Excellence, American Chemical Society, Divisions for Physical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry, USA
• 2020: New Horizon Lectureship, International Solvay Institutes, Belgium2018: Coblentz Award, The Coblentz Society, USA
• 2017: ERC Consolidator Grant, European Research Council
• 2015: Carus Medal, Leopoldina, German National Academy of Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
• 2014: Klung Wilhelmy Science Award, Otto Klung Foundation at the Free University of Berlin and Dr. Wilhelmy Foundation, Germany
• 2013: Broida Prize, 32^nd International Symposium on Free Radicals, Potsdam, Germany
• 2013: Elected Member of the Junge Akademie, The Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Berlin, Germany
• 2013: Nernst-Haber-Bodenstein Prize, German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2012: Academy Prize for Chemistry, Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Göttingen, Germany
• 2012: ERC Starting Grant, European Research Council
• 2012: Grammaticakis-Neumann International Prize in Photochemistry, Swiss Chemical Society, Berne, Switzerland
• 2012: Ruzicka Prize, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• 2010: SNSF Professorship, Swiss National Science Foundation, Berne, Switzerland
• 2007: Medal for outstanding PhD thesis, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
• 2007: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Swiss National Science Foundation, Berne, Switzerland

Academic Activities

Organization of conferences and conference sessions

• ATTO X, the 10^th International Conference on Attosecond Science and Technology, Member of the International Program Committee, Lund, Sweden, July 6-11, 2025
• International Workshop on Photoionization (IWP) & Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) 2024 (IWP&RIXS2024), Conference Chair and Member of the Local Organizing Committee, Ascona, Switzerland,  July 21-26, 2024
• ATTO IX, the 9^th International Conference on Attosecond Science and Technology, Member of the International Program Committee, Jeju Island, Korea, July 9-14, 2023
• ATTO VIII, the 8^th International Conference on Attosecond Science and Technology, Member of the International Program Committee, Orlando, Florida, USA, July 10-15, 2022
• Ultrafast Optical Technologies" Chair of Sub-Committee for the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) / and European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC), Munich, Germany, June 23-27, 2019
• Member of the International Steering Committee for the International Conference on Extreme Light (ICEL) 2017, Szeged, Hungary, November 6-9, 2017
• "Ultrafast Optical Technologies" chair of Sub-Committee for the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) / Europe 2017 Munich, Germany, June 25-29, 2017
• Session Chair at Faraday Discussion, "Ultrafast Imaging of Photochemical Dynamics", Edinburgh, UK, August 31 - September 2, 2016
• "Ultrafast Optics and Applications" Sub-Committee for the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) / Europe - the European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) 2015, Munich, Germany, June 21-25, 2015
• "Ultrafast Dynamic Imaging of Matter", Grindelwald, Switzerland, March 8-12, 2015
• "Physical Chemistry" at the Fall Meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society, Zurich, Switzerland, September 11, 2014
• ”Chemical Dynamics", 113^th Bunsentagung (Annual German Conference on Physical Chemistry), Hamburg, Germany, May 29-31, 2014
• ”Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics” at the Frontiers in Optics / Laser Science Conference of the Optical Society of America, Orlando (Florida), USA, October 6-10, 2013
• ”High-Harmonic Spectroscopy”, Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Seminar, Bad Honnef, Germany, January 28 - February 1, 2013
• ”Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics” at the Frontiers in Optics / Laser Science Conference of the Optical Society of America, Rochester (New York), USA, October 14-18, 2012
• Physical Chemistry at the Fall Meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society, September 13, 2012

Member of proposal review committees

• Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS, free-electron laser): 2024-present
• Swiss Free-Electron Laser (SwissFEL): 2019-present 
• Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS, free-electron laser): 2024-present

Reviewer for the following funding agencies:

• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
• US Department of Energy (DOE)
• Austrian Science Foundation (FWF)
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
• Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
• European Research Council (ERC)

Reviewer for the following journals (∼ 25 articles /year):

Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Physics, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A, Journal of Chemical Physics, Molecular Physics, Chemical Physics, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Optics Express, Applied Sciences, etc.

Editorial Advisory Board Memberships

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Structural Dynamics (AIP)
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Ultrafast Science

Member of faculty search committees

• Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Fall 2025, member of the search committee
• Serra-Hunter Lectureship in Physical Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Fall 2025, president of the search committee