Prof. Dr. Tobias Hertel

Tobias Hertel is Professor and Chair of Physical Chemistry II and Adjunct Professor of Physics. He received his Ph.D. from the Free University Berlin in 1995 for work with Nobel Laureate Gerhard Ertl at the Fritz-Haber-Institute, followed by postdoctoral research at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center. Following his Habilitation in Experimental Physics at the Free University Berlin, he became Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University before returning to Würzburg in 2008 to take up the Chair of Physical Chemistry II.

His research spans surface science, spectroscopy of low-dimensional semiconductors, and more recently machine learning for science and education. He is known for pioneering work on the first carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, which helped establish nanotubes as candidates for future electronics. He also carried out influential studies of interactions and ultrafast dynamics in graphite and in low-dimensional semiconductors such as single-wall carbon nanotubes and layered hybrid perovskites. Recent projects include benchmarking large language models for education and developing novel λ-sensitization methods to enhance CCD sensor color perception using machine learning.

Hertel has published widely in leading journals and is currently Subject Editor for Royal Society Open Science. He has a long-standing record of international community building as founding organizer and chair of major conference series, including the NT conference symposia and the WONTON workshop on nanotube optics and nanospectroscopy.