Dr. Gerhard Ulm

Head of the scientific division called “Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation” at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt

Gerhard Ulm was born near Rothenburg ob der Tauber. He studied physics at the University of Würzburg. After his diploma he changed to GSI (Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt) and started the field of laser spectroscopy on radionuclids generated after fusion of heavy ions. With this subject he earned his PhD at the University of Mainz. Thereafter he moved to Geneva and worked at the mass separator ISOLDE at CERN in various collaborations.

In November 1986 he joined the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin, where his main activity became up to now radiometry with synchrotron radiation. For important radiometric issues its calculability is essential. The work was done first at the BESSY I storage ring until it was closed down in 1999. Thereafter, BESSY II became the relevant radiation source. In 2008 the Metrology Light Source (MLS), a synchrotron ring for lower energies owned by PTB, was added. It is located near BESSY II and operated by the Helmholtzzentrum Berlin (HZB).

Gerhard Ulm became in 1989 head of a laboratory and in 1995 head of the department, which extended the use of synchrotron radiation from radiometry to reflectometry, scatterometry and spectroscopy with simultaneously increasing manpower. Today, PTB as the German national metrology institute uniquely covers with is radiation sources the total spectral range from Terahertz to hard x-rays. Since the beginning of 2010 Gerhard Ulm is the head of one of PTB’s 8 scientific divisions called “Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation”.

His research focus

The most prominent focus of research of Gerhard Ulm is metrology with synchrotron radiation at the MLS and BESSY II. At this time, he is especially interested in generation and use of coherent radiation in the THz frequency range. Most important are actual metrological questions like nanometrology (e. g. characterization of nanoparticles) and microspectroscopy. With hard engagement he has planned the instrumentation of the MLS including beamlines and measuring facilities which are partly exclusive worldwide and pushed their relization with great success. He is the contact person for external users and cooperating partners, as well.

Contact: Dr. Gerhard Ulm, e-mail, tel.: +49 30 6392-5080 und +49 30 3481-7312, www.ptb.de