Klaus-Dieter Kreuer obtained his PhD in the department of Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart (Germany) in 1982. Since Kreuer became a fellow of Germany’s largest, oldest and most prestigious scholarship “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” (German Academic Scholarship Foundation) he got the opportunity to do a research at the California Institute of Technology by joining Robert W. Vaughan research group in 1978. Moreover a Max-Planck award allowed him to join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) as a visiting scientist in 1983-1984. Klaus-Dieter Kreuer built an R&D group within a Swiss-German company “Endress & Hauser” (1985-1991) before joining the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, where he assisted J. Maier in building his new department. Since 1990 Kreuer is lecturing at the University of Stuttgart from which he received his Habilitation degree.
Klaus-Dieter Kreuer’s research aim is to get a deeper understanding of ion conduction phenomena in order to develop ion conducting materials for electrochemical applications such as fuel cells and batteries.
His “Proton Conductivity: Materials and Applications” review from 1996 has been cited more than two thousand times.
Chemistry of Materials (December 2014)
-What is your advice to young scientists trying to discover the next breakthrough in materials science?
“Do not think of impact when you perform and publish scientific work! Science is much more than that! “Intellectual fun” is a great driving force in science. Trying to keep the right balance between enthusiasm and skepticism may be a good means to become a happy and successful scientist.”