Prof. Dr. Thomas Hannappel is a full professor at Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Physics. His research is focused on efficient solar energy conversion, high-performance optoelectronic materials and critical interfaces. Before, he was scientific director at CIS Research Institute Erfurt, acting director of the Institute “Dynamics of interfacial reactions” at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, department head at Hahn-Meitner-Institute Berlin, and lecturer at the Free University Berlin (since 2005). In 2003/04 he conducted research on silicon/III-V-heterointerfaces at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL. He received his PhD at the Technical University Berlin with studies on photo-induced charge carrier dynamics he performed in the Department ‘Physical Chemistry’ at the Fritz-Haber-Institute.