Helmuth Möhwald
Helmuth Möhwald was a German physicist and founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. His research focus on molecular interfaces, ultrathin films, coated colloids and capsules, membranes, and nanostructured and functional interfaces. Together with Gero Decher and Yuri Lvov, Möhwald is credited with developing the technique of layer-by-layer assembly for multicomponent films made up of polyions, as well as other charged materials.
Education and career
Möhwald was born in Goldenöls in present-day Zlatá Olešnice in the Czech Republic. He studied physics at the University of Göttingen, where he received his PhD in 1974 under the supervision of Erich Sackmann. He then habilitated at the University of Ulm. After his stay as a postdoc at IBM San Jose, he became a research assistant at the University of Ulm and research associate at Dornier Flugzeugwerke. He also became C3 professor for physics at the Technical University of Munich and C4 professor for physical chemistry at the University of Mainz.From 1993 to 2014, Möhwald was a scientific member and director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. With his retirement on February 1, 2014, the Interfaces department was closed. He was then active as emeritus and consultant in the Biomaterials department at the institute. He has also been an honorary professor at the University of Potsdam, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Fudan University in Shanghai, Soochow University in Sozuou and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since 2011 he was a member of the Academia Europaea. He was also Chairman of the Colloid Society and President of the European Colloid and Interface Society.