interview with peter baum

Germany or the USA? For the young scientist Dr Peter Baum that was a key question last year. He decided on Germany. After two years at the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, the physicist has come back to his home country and is now working at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, with Professor Ferenc Krausz. Here he is setting up a team dedicated to researching into the inner world of atoms, molecules, and materials.

It is obvious to see your enthusiasm for physics. What is it that so fascinates you?

Baum: So many processes in nature are still unclear! It is important to explore the fundamentals, and to track down the essential connections. For this you have to be very creative and keep developing new ideas. I love feeling the excitement when it all works out and some unexpected discoveries show up.

You started your research into fundamental mechanisms in nature during you PhD work at LMU with Professor Eberhard Riedle. What were you looking into at that time?

Baum: We were researching into the quantum dynamics of molecules. For this we needed ultraviolet and visible laser pulses lasting no longer than a few femtoseconds. We generated these and were then able to measure previously unknown chemical processes.

Then you went to the US for two years, to Caltech, to work with the famous Nobel Prize winner and femto-chemist Professor Ahmed Zewail. How did the contact come about?

Baum: I knew, of course, about his groundbreaking experiments with electron diffraction and I contacted him, with the support of Ferenc Krausz. Zewail invited me to come along for an interview – and then I had a position at Caltech. Later I received a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which made me more independent. Professor Ahmed Zewail is a very friendly and optimistic person who is always searching for the fundamental truth behind the apparent results. It was a great pleasure to work with him.

What do you see as the differences in working at an American and a German research institute?

Baum: The Americans are very practical and solve problems without great debate. There are almost no regulations and you are free to have a go yourself. I was impressed by that.

What were your reasons for coming back to Germany?

Baum: I am fond of my home country. Germany provided my education and now I want to contribute to science here. Yes, the surfing is better in Los Angeles than in Munich, but the skiing is better here!

What goals have you set yourself for your work in Munich?

Baum: Using electron pulses, we will be investigating what happens inside atoms and materials. The electron pulses will last for only attoseconds. With this new technique we can observe how the atoms and electrons move while a material is changing or while a chemical reaction is taking place. We measure with sub-atomic resolution and in all four dimensions – that's including time and space. I am very excited about what we will discover!

Interview: Thorsten Naeser