Leonhard Grill
Leonhard Grill studied physics at the University of Graz before moving to the Laboratorio TASC in Trieste/Italy (supervisor: Silvio Modesti) for his doctoral studies with a scholarship from the Italian National Institute of Solid State Physics (INFM). He then joined the group of Karl-Heinz Rieder at the Free University of Berlin, where he entered the field of single-molecule manipulation using scanning tunneling microscopy and became research group leader in 2006. After his habilitation in 2009 at the FU Berlin, he moved to the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (Berlin) and became group leader in the Department of Physical Chemistry (Director: Martin Wolf). He has been a full professor of physical chemistry at the University of Graz since 2013.
His research focuses on the imaging, characterization and manipulation of single functional molecules adsorbed on surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy, typically at cryogenic temperatures and under ultra-high vacuum conditions. His research covers various topics in this field, from chemical processes in single molecules and polymerization on surfaces to charge transport through molecular wires, molecular assemblies, operation of molecular switches and motors, cooperative phenomena in molecular nanostructures, molecular dynamics and microscopic reversibility on surfaces. He received the Schering Stiftung Young Leaders in Science Fellowship (2010), the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (2011) and won the first Nanocar Race in 2017. He was awarded the Seraphine-Puchleitner Prize (2021) and received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (2023).
Presentations on the group's research and the manipulation of individual molecules on surfaces:
- Foresight conference (Jan 2013)
- TEDx MPI Stuttgart (Oct 2019)
- Foresight Molecular Machines group May 2022 (starting at 22:16)