“It is the doubt, the time and the tranquility needed for reflection and leaving the beaten path - in other words, the second thought - that leads to scientific breakthroughs.”

Peter Bobbert is Full Professor in the group Molecular Materials and Nanosystems in the Department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. He is a theoretical physicist and computational scientist active in the areas of organic and perovskite photovoltaics, nanowire thermoelectrics, and organic electronics. He focuses on theory and simulation of charge transport and spin dynamics, with applications in organic-light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic spintronics. He previously worked on Green-function techniques for the calculation of electronic excitations in semiconductors, on the theory of quantum phase transitions, and on the optical properties of rough surfaces.

Together with Philips Research, he developed organic device modelling software that is now being commercialized by the company Simbeyond, of which he is co-founder. In 2017, he took up the position of Associate Scientific Director of the Center for Computational Energy Research (CCER), which he helped establishing. He has the ambition to make the CCER a worldwide hub for computational energy research, developing and applying computational methods leading to solutions that will make the energy transition possible.  

Peter Bobbert holds a BSc, MSc and cum laude PhD degree from Leiden University, where he studied Theoretical Physics with a minor in Mathematics at the Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics. After a brief postdoc project at Utrecht University in 1988, he worked at Delft University of Technology as a postdoc for 3 years, researching quantum phase transitions in arrays of Josephson junctions. In 1991, Bobbert took a position as Assistant Professor in the Applied Physics department at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). In 2001, he became Associate Professor. In 2016, Bobbert was appointed part-time professor in Theory of Organic and Hybrid Nanoelectronics at the University of Twente. Bobbert has held guest researcher positions at a variety of universities.

• Center for Computational Energy Research
• Institute for Complex Molecular Systems
• Dutch Research School for Theoretical Physics

Partners in (semi-)industry

• Simbeyond
• Cynora
• Fluxim