physicist university professor
Gerhard graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt as Diplom-Physiker in 1978 and was a research student with Martin M. Perlman (1930–2013) in 1978/79. In 1984, he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy with Gerhard M. Sessler at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Between 1979 and 2006 he used the last name "Gerhard-Multhaupt". From 1985 until 1994, Gerhard was scientist and project manager at the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut fuer Nachrichtentechnik (now Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications) Berlin in the department led by Gerhard Mahler. In 1994 and 1996, he was appointed university professor for sensorics and for applied condensed-matter physics, respectively, at the science faculty of the University of Potsdam.
From 1997 until 2000, Gerhard served as director of the institute of physics and astronomy, from 2006 to 2008 as vice dean, and from 2008 to 2012 as dean of the faculty of science at the university.
Between 2004 and 2012, he chaired the joint board of the master-of-science program in polymer science at the four universities with science faculties in Berlin and Potsdam. He has undertaken visiting appointments at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, United States of America (1981, 1982, 1983), at the Tongji University in Shanghai, China (1987 and 1989), at the École Normal Supérieure (École Normale Supérieure) in Cachan, France (1995/96 and 2014/15), at the University of São Paulo (United States Pharmacopoeia) in São Paulo Carlos, Brazil (1999, 2005-2006, 2012), at the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris) in Paris, France (1999), at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (HUJI) (2013) and at the Xi"an Jiaotong University (XJTU) in Xi"an, China (2015).
Gerhard served as secretary of the 5th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Symposium on Electrets (International Securities Exchange) in Heidelberg (1985), co-chair of the 7th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Symposium on Electrets (International Securities Exchange) in Berlin (1991), chair of the 10th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Solid Dielectrics (ICSD) in Potsdam (2010) and chair of the 2nd International Conference on Electromechanically Active Polymers (EuroEAP) in Potsdam (2012). He was the vice president for technical activities of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) in 2007-2008 and 2014-2015.
His research portfolio includes polymer electrets with quasi-permanent space charge, ferroor piezoelectrets (polymer films with electrically charged cavities), ferroelectric polymers with piezoand pyroelectric properties, polymer composites with novel property combinations, physical mechanisms of dipole orientation and charge storage, electrically deformable dielectric elastomers (sometimes also called "electro-electrets"), as well as the physics of musical instruments.
Student fellowship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (1974–1979) ITG Award of the Informationstechnische Gesellschaft im Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker (1988) Silver medal as young scientist of the foundation Werner-von-Siemens-Ring (1989) Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) (1992) Technology-Transfer Award of the Technologie-Stiftung Brandenburg (2001) Fellow of the American Physical Society (Australian Psychological Society ) (2011) Whitehead Memorial Lecture of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena (CEIDP) (2014).
Since 2014, he has been a member of the university senate in Potsdam.
