Laurens W. Molenkamp is a Professor of physics and Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Würzburg.
Education
He received his Doctor of Philosophy in physical chemistry from the University of Groningen, and spent several years first with Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven and then as Associate Professor at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen.
Career
He is known for his work on semiconductor structures and topological insulators. Molenkamp is an experimental condensed matter physicist. He came to the University of Würzburg in 1999 and is now the Chair of Experimental Physics 3 and leads the II-VI Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire (molecular beam epitaxy) unit
His research interests include quantum transport in nanostructures, semiconductor spintronics, and optical spectroscopy of semiconductors.
He was a co-recipient of the American Physical Society for his experimental observation of the quantum spin Hall effect, opening up the field of topological insulators. Thomson Reuters included him on their annual prediction shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for his experimental research, with Charles L. Kane and Shoucheng Zhang, on the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators.
Membership
American Physical Society]
2013 Foreign Member of the Dutch Academy of Sciences.