Werner Hofer

Werner A. Hofer was born in Salzburg, Austria. He is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (since 2003) and Professor of Chemistry and Physics in the Surface Science Research Centre of the University of Liverpool. He holds a Ph.D. (1999) from the Vienna University of Technology. Before joining the University of Liverpool in 2002, he held Research Fellow positions at University College London. Dr. Hofer was appointed as an Associate of CIAR's Nanoelectronics Program in 2007.Dr. Hofer's research is focused mainly on high-precision methods to simulate electron transport within a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Initially, the application of perturbation theory centered on the modification of images due to different tip structures and atomic displacement in the close distance regime between surface and STM tip. He has shown that the method can be applied to practically all experimental situations, where STMs are used to analyze the geometric or electronic structure of metals, semiconductors, and molecules adsorbed on a conducting substrates. Recently, he has developed a scattering approach for the tunneling problem, which overcomes the problems related to perturbation theory, in particular the low-bias limit, imposed by a perturbative treatment.

"Werner Hofer has a foot in both camps. He's an expert on the conventional theory behind the scanning tunnelling microscope, but maybe at heart he's a dissident." - Caroline Thompson