Debye Visiting Chair

The Debye Visiting Chair is a six-week chair for an eminent scientist in the field of Catalysis, Colloids or Nanophotonics.  As part of their tenure at the Debye Institute, the visiting chair gives a lecture series for the institute's PhD candidates and a colloquium.

The next Visiting Chair Event is planned for 2024.

Visiting Chair 2022:
dr. Leo Gross
IBM Research, Zurich

The Debye Visiting Chair 2022  was dr. Leo Gross, teamleader of the atom and molecule manipulation group at the IBM Research - Zurich Laboratory.

Dr. Leo Gross in lab
Leo Gross, IBM Research

Dr. Gross and his team study on-surface reactions by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM); they develop and apply the AFM as a tool for structure elucidation of individual molecules and investigate single-electron charging and transfer on the atomic scale.

For more information, visit the website of the atom and molecule manipulation group.

Previous Debye Visiting Chairs

  • 2022: Dr. Leo Cross (Atom and Molecule Manipulation group, IBM Research - Zurich Laboratory)
  • 2021: postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic
  • 2020: postponed due to COVD-19 pandemic
  • 2019: Prof. Joanna Aizenberg (Kavli Institute for Bionano Science & Technology, Harvard University, USA)
  • 2017: Prof. Peng Chen (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, USA)
  • 2016: Prof. Otto L. Muskens (School of Phyics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, UK)
  • 2015: Prof. Roberto Piazza (Department of Chemistry, Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Politecnic University of Milan, Italy)
  • 2014: Prof. Miquel Costas (Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis, University of Girona, Spain)
  • 2013: Prof. Daniel Gamelin (Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, USA)
  • 2012: Prof. Christophe Delerue (University of Lille, France / National Center for Scientific Research, France)
  • 2009: Prof. David Pine (Center for Soft Matter Research, Department of Physics, New York University, USA)
  • 2004: Prof. Christopher B. Murray (Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, USA)