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| Olaf Osswald | |
|---|---|
| Name | Olaf Osswald |
| Birth date | 1958 |
| Birth place | Bern, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Physicist; Materials Scientist; Professor |
| Alma mater | ETH Zurich; University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Electron microscopy; High-temperature superconductivity; Materials synthesis |
Olaf Osswald is a Swiss-born physicist and materials scientist noted for contributions to electron microscopy, superconductivity, and advanced materials synthesis. He has held faculty positions at leading European and North American institutions and collaborated with national laboratories, industrial research centers, and international consortia. Osswald’s work bridges experimental techniques such as transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation with applied research in energy materials, ceramics, and nanostructures.
Born in Bern, Osswald completed his secondary studies in the Swiss canton of Bern before matriculating at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), where he read physics and materials science. He earned an undergraduate degree and remained at ETH Zurich for doctoral work in condensed matter physics, studying phase transitions and microstructure using electron diffraction and microscopy techniques. A postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge expanded his work into low-temperature phenomena and superconductivity, where he collaborated with groups associated with Cavendish Laboratory, Royal Society-funded projects, and the Cambridge Graphene Centre. During this period he engaged with researchers from Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, CERN, and the Paul Scherrer Institute on instrumentation and beamline applications.
Osswald’s early academic appointment was at a Swiss technical university where he established a laboratory integrating transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and focused ion beam (FIB) systems. He later accepted a chaired professorship at a continental European university, directing a materials characterization center that hosted visiting scientists from MIT, Stanford University, and Tsinghua University. His career includes sabbaticals and collaborative posts at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Osswald has served on advisory boards for the European Research Council and on scientific committees for the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society. He has also consulted for industrial partners including Siemens, BASF, and ABB on ceramics and superconducting components.
Osswald’s research spans electron microscopy methods, materials synthesis, and superconductivity. He developed high-resolution TEM protocols for imaging grain-boundary structures in ceramic superconductors, collaborating on projects involving Yttrium barium copper oxide and iron-based superconductors studied at synchrotron facilities like ESRF and Diamond Light Source. His group published influential papers on defect engineering, nanoscale phase separation, and oxygen stoichiometry in perovskite oxides, with experimental comparisons to theoretical work from groups at Caltech, Princeton University, and ETH Zurich. Osswald contributed to instrumentation advances including in situ heating holders for TEM and correlative microscopy workflows linking TEM, SEM, and atom probe tomography; these methods were deployed in studies alongside researchers from IMEC and CSEM. He co-authored review articles in journals associated with Nature Materials, Physical Review Letters, and Advanced Materials on topics such as vortex matter in superconductors, grain-boundary engineering, and multifunctional ceramics.
His publication record includes collaborative studies with scientists from University of Oxford, Harvard University, University of Tokyo, National Institute for Materials Science, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology investigating thermoelectric oxides, solid oxide fuel cell materials, and nanoparticle catalysts. Osswald’s work frequently integrates spectroscopy techniques developed at Paul Scherrer Institute and Brookhaven National Laboratory beamlines and models provided by computational groups at Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
As a professor, Osswald supervised doctoral and postdoctoral researchers who later joined faculty at institutions such as ETH Zurich, TU Munich, University of Cambridge, Seoul National University, and University of California, Berkeley. He taught graduate courses on transmission electron microscopy, crystallography, and superconducting materials, and led practical workshops in coordination with facilities at EMBL and national microscopy centers. He organized summer schools with partners from European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions network to train early-career scientists in advanced characterization. His mentees have received fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Humboldt Foundation, and Fulbright Program.
Osswald’s honors include a national science award from the Swiss government, a visiting fellowship at CERN, and an invited chair at the Max Planck Society. He has been awarded grants from the European Research Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation and recognized with best-paper awards from the Microscopy Society of America and the Materials Research Society. He was elected to a national academy associated with physical sciences and holds honorary appointments at universities including University of Barcelona and Delft University of Technology.
Category:Swiss physicists Category:Materials scientists