Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg

Professor Eicke Weber, 56, is one of the few German scientists who has returned to his home country after decades abroad. He is also an internationally recognised specialist in research into silicon and other semiconductors, which alongside chip production are increasingly also being used for the production of solar cells. This has turned out to be his life-long subject, one that also featured during his physics studies at the University of Cologne, where he graduated in 1973.

After completing research fellowships in the US and Sweden, he conducted post-doctoral studies in 1983 in Cologne with a paper on transition metals in silicon, still regarded as a fundamental study to this day. The same year, Weber took up a position at the University of California at Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. In 1991, he was awarded a full professorship and appointed Director of the Integrated Materials Laboratory.

Weber assumed the post of Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg on 1 July, 2006 – an institute that his predecessor Professor Joachim Luther had built up into Europe’s largest solar research institute. While at the ISE, Weber plans to utilise his research at Berkeley to develop cheap silicon for solar cells. He also currently serves as a Professor of Physics and Solar Energy at the University of Freiburg. Weber is President of the German Scholars Association (GSO) founded in 2003 and based in San Francisco. The association looks after German scientists abroad and also operates a job network aimed at finding positions for scientists who want to return to Germany.

Expertise: Photovoltaics, Development of energy prices