Video portrait Hector Fellow Karl Leo

Prof. Dr. Karl Leo – Future Technol­ogy Organic Electronics

Hector Fellow Karl Leo is Profes­sor for Optoelec­tron­ics and Chair­man of the Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materi­als (IAPP) at the Dresden Univer­sity of Technol­ogy. He is a leading scien­tist in the field of Organic Electronics.

The Organic Electron­ics uses polymer-based electronic circuits or organic connec­tions. It enables the cost-efficient produc­tion of flexi­ble and light­weight electronic compo­nents and opens up new possi­bil­i­ties in multi­ple areas of appli­ca­tion. For this reason, it proves to be an extremely promis­ing future technology.

Currently, Prof. Leo works together with his team on the devel­op­ment of organic solar cells. Soon theses solar cells may play a major role in the world­wide power supply. A further field of research of Prof. Leo is the organic light emitting diode, the so called OLED. They form the basis for entirely new light and display technolo­gies. Today, they are already used in the displays of smart­phones. The research of Prof. Leo holds enormous poten­tial for the medical field. In an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary project Prof. Leo works together with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Eberhart Zrenner, Senior Profes­sor for Ophthal­mol­ogy at the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrated Neuro­science and Found­ing Direc­tor of the Research Insti­tute for Ophthal­mol­ogy at the Eberhard Karls Univer­sity of Tübin­gen. Together they work on the devel­op­ment of a new retinal implant based on organic electrodes, which shall restore the eyesight of blind people.

The inter­dis­ci­pli­nary project is financed by the Hector Fellow Academy. The young science academy sees itself as an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary network for cutting-edge research and it supports innov­a­tive research beyond the borders of insti­tutes and fields of research. The Hector Fellow Academy paves the way for inter­dis­ci­pli­nary projects between well renowned profes­sors from the STEM-fields (Science, Technol­ogy, Engineer­ing, and Mathe­mat­ics) as well as Medicine and Psychol­ogy. Further­more, the Hector Fellow Academy is commit­ted to the promo­tion of young scien­tists. It offers fully funded PhD positions for ambitious young scien­tists, who will work on their self-devel­oped research project for their gradu­a­tion. Through the connec­tion of excel­lent researchers from differ­ent fields of research, the Hector Fellow Academy provides new impulses for innov­a­tive projects, sociopo­lit­i­cal discourse and the solution of global challenges. At the same time it strength­ens Germany as a center for science.