Group Leader

Prof. Dr. Hans Jakob Wörner

Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences
Deputy head of Laboratory of Physical Chemistry

Lab. für Physikalische Chemie
Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1-5/10
8093 Zürich
Switzerland

Publications

Curriculum Vitae

Download Full CV (PDF, 210 KB)

Appointments

03/2023 - present: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Full Professor
10/2013 - 03/2023: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Associate Professor
09/2010 - 09/2013: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Assistant Professor
08/2007 - 07/2010: Joint Laboratory for Attosecond Science, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Research Associate in the group of Prof. P. B. Corkum
04/2007 - 06/2007: Laboratoire Aimé-Cotton du CNRS, Orsay, France
Postdoctoral Fellow in the group of Prof. Ch. Jungen

Education

ETH Zürich, Switzerland

PhD in Physical Chemistry 2007
Dissertation Topic: “High-resolution spectroscopic studies of non-Born-Oppenheimer effects”
Diploma in Chemistry
Studies of Chemistry (2^nd preliminary diploma and diploma)

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Studies of Chemistry (1^st preliminary diploma)

Honors and Awards

Honor Award for Scientific Excellence (2025)
American Chemical Society, Divisions for Physical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry, USA
New Horizon Lectureship (2020)
International Solvay Institutes, Belgium
Coblentz Award (2018)
The Coblentz Society, USA
ERC Consolidator Grant (2017)
European Research Council
Carus Medal (2015)
Leopoldina, German National Academy of Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
Klung Wilhelmy Science Award (2014)
Otto Klung Foundation at the Free University of Berlin and Dr. Wilhelmy Foundation, Germany
Broida Prize (2013)
32^nd International Symposium on Free Radicals, Potsdam, Germany
Nernst-Haber-Bodenstein Prize (2013)
German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, Frankfurt, Germany
Elected Member of the Junge Akademie (2013)
The Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Berlin, Germany
Ruzicka Prize (2012)
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Academy Prize for Chemistry (2012)
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany
ERC Starting Grant (2012)
European Research Council
Grammaticakis-Neumann International Prize in Photochemistry (2012)
Swiss Chemical Society, Berne, Switzerland
SNSF Professorship (2010)
Swiss National Science Foundation, Berne, Switzerland
Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007)
Swiss National Science Foundation, Berne Switzerland
Medal for outstanding PhD thesis (2007)
ETH Zürich, 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