Martin's Bio

I'm a ~50 year old physicist, I live in the greater Zürich area and work in Windisch at Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz as a professor of Physics, and for my spinoff company, naneos, which builds miniature nanoparticle detectors.
I studied physics at ETH Zürich, finishing with a diploma thesis in nonlinear optics, did a PhD in solid state physics with Professor H.C.Siegmann and a Postdoc in beautiful Hawaii with Professor Klaus Sattler. When I got homesick in Hawaii I realized that I had to return; which I did in late 2002. After that, I have worked for many years in Professor Heinz Burtscher's group as a research scientist, and since 2011 I also teach classes for students of energy and environmental engineering (an introductory course on energy, measurement and sensor technology, and a course on global warming). Together with colleagues at the Fachhochschule, we devised one of the world's smallest nanoparticle detectors, the Miniature Diffusion Size Classifier, for which I received the Swiss aerosol award 2011. After that, I started a spinoff company with Dominik Meier, who did a very successful master project for me. In the following years, we have grown a bit, and some of my brightest students at FHNW now work with me, something I enjoy very much!
Before marriage and kids, I used to play chess a lot, in the highest Swiss league with the team of Wollishofen; but my family has taken a higher priority and I hardly play any more. I also used to program a lot when I was a bit younger - mostly board games (chess / checkers / 4 in a row / solitaire). My program CheckerBoard is a de-facto standard program for all checkers enthusiasts. I'm working harder on the job now and have more other responsibilities in life, so I also program less these days. Whenever I can, I spend my holidays in the alps.