Prof. em. Dr. Hans Rudolf Ott

Hans Rudolf Ott was born on July 4, 1940 in Bern. He studied physics at the Department of Mathematics and Physics (IX) of ETH Zurich where he earned his doctorate in 1973 under Professor J. L. Olsen with a dissertation on superconductivity. In 1972, as senior assistant, he assumed responsibility for the lab courses in physics for beginners and in 1976 became delegate of the Physics Department, charged with the infrastructural operation of the department. He was appointed Full Professor of Physics on 1 October 1987, after having turned down an offer from Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. His research interests are focused on the fundamental understanding of the characteristics of solids in all their forms, especially at low temperatures. Among the goals of his experimentation are the explanation of anomalous behavior in connection with superconductivity and magnetism and investigating the properties of unusual new materials. Hans Rudolf Ott retired at the end of September 2005 and is professor emeritus at ETH Zürich since.

From 1988 until 1991 he was the founding head of the condensed matter division of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) at Villigen, Switzerland, and from 1992 to 2008 he chaired the international research committee of this institution. From 2001 until 2005 he was the chairman of the physics department of ETH Zürich.

His current research interests are focused on various properties of condensed matter at low temperatures, including superconductivity, electronic-, transport- and magnetic phenomena and phase transitions in highly correlated electron- and low-dimensional spin systems, as well as specific properties of non-periodic solids, i.e., quasicrystals. Up to present he authored and co-authored more than 600 scientific publications. In 1989 he was awarded the Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize for Condensed Matter Physics and in 1990 he received the International Prize for New Materials of the American Physical Society. Between 1988 and 2007 he served terms as an editor for Physica C (Superconductivity), Review of Modern Physics and The European Physical Journal B. He is an honorary member of the Physical Society of Zürich, the Swiss Physical Society and the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences SCNAT). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences. From 1997 to 2006 he was a member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation and chaired its section for natural, mathematical and engineering sciences from 2004 to 2006. From 1997 until 2005 he was chairman of the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society. From 2007 to 2013 he served as chairman of the section for mathematics, astronomy and physics of the SCNAT. From 2013 up to 2021 he chaired the steering group of the program “MINT Schweiz” of the SCNAT, a mandate sponsored by the Federal Office for Education,Research and Innovation (SERI). He also was a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge, USA (2002 – 2008), of DESY in Hamburg, Germany (2005 – 2011) and HEPHY in Vienna (2009 – 2017 (chair 2014 – 2017)). From 2008 to 2014 he was a member of the Executive Board of the International Council for Science (ICSU), acting as its treasurer. From 2015 to 2017 he co-chaired the OECD-GSF expert group on strengthening the effectiveness and sustainability of international research infrastructures. Since 2015 he chairs the Council of the Swiss initiative CHART (Swiss Accelerator Research and Technology), a collaborative effort between CERN and Swiss academic institutions including selected international partners.

Since 2008 he is the president of the Albert Einstein Society in Bern (Switzerland).