I am working in the field of low-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures since 1988. I started with optical investigations in the fractional quantum Hall regime at the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Grenoble, France, and then focused on nanostructures working at the Physics Department at the University of Nottingham, England. Since 1996 I am more focused on the transport properties of zero-, one- and two-dimensional systems. In 1999 I started my career at the University of Würzburg and became an Apl. Professor in 2007, the same year when we were able to demonstrate experimentally the existence of the Quantum-Spin Hall state in the two-dimensional topological insulator HgTe. This seminal experiment boosted the new research field on topological insulators.

Today the focus of my research is on:

• quantum transport in nanostructures
• quantum spin Hall effect in two-dimensional topological insulators
• transport properties of three-dimensional topological insulators
• the MBE-growth of one-, two-, and three-dimensional HgTe
• the micro- and nano-fabrication of transport devices and superconducting hybrid structures.