Jun.-Prof. Dr. Christian Dreßler has been head of the Theoretical Solid State Physics Group at TU Ilmenau since September 2022. His path in science began with a chemistry degree at the University of Leipzig. He then completed his doctorate at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg on the development of cross-scale approaches to the description of proton conduction and intermolecular interactions. Parallel to his PhD, he studied mathematics for several semesters. He completed his PhD in 2020, and already one year later he received a call to TU Ilmenau.
In the context of his research, Jun.-Prof. Dreßler deals with the simulation of the motion of atoms and molecules by means of molecular dynamics. In particular, he investigates ion transport in energy materials, for example proton transport in fuel cell membranes or lithium ion transport in electrodes for lithium batteries. In order to calculate proton transport in realistic, for example nanostructured or porous materials, Jun.-Prof. Dreßler developed a multiscale approach, which he would like to further improve in the future and extend to the transport of additional ion types. In addition, he plans to extend his research to areas that already have great relevance for TU Ilmenau, for example, the simulation of the semiconductor/water interface using molecular dynamics. Next semester, he will give a quantum mechanics lecture and also plans to establish a lecture and lab on molecular dynamics in the future.