Faculty of Physics

Founded in 1969

Institutes 18

Professorships 55

Students 1,200

Degree programs 10

Further information can be found here.

About the history

The Faculty of Physics was founded in 1969. Previously, physics was rooted at the Technical University and the University of Karlsruhe (TH).

1948-1966: Faculty of Natural Sciences and Humanities
1966-1969: Faculty of Natural Sciences I (Mathematics and Physics)

Personalities
Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894)
Heinrich Hertz taught as a professor of physics at the TH Karlsruhe from 1885 to 1889. In 1886, he was the first person to succeed in generating and demonstrating free electromagnetic waves. On November 13, 1886, he transmitted these waves from a transmitter to a receiver, which confirmed the basic equations of electromagnetism and the electromagnetic theory of light. In Karlsruhe, Hertz continued his research into radio waves and proved that they propagate like light waves. His findings formed the basis for wireless telegraphy and radio.
Julius Wess (1934-2007)
Julius Wess was appointed full professor and director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Karlsruhe in 1968. He gained worldwide recognition in the field of theoretical particle physics through the development of the first quantum field theory with intrinsic supersymmetry, the so-called Wess-Zumino model. Many of his other works were also dedicated to his field of modern quantum field theories, which are still highly relevant today. The annual Julius Wess Prize of the KIT commemorates his groundbreaking work.

Wolfgang Gaede (1878-1945)
Wolfgang Gaede moved to the TH Karlsruhe as Professor of Experimental Physics in 1919. His groundbreaking pioneering work on vacuum physics in the early 1930s and the resulting numerous patents are still relevant today. His stature as one of the fathers of modern vacuum physics is honored by the annual award of the Gaede Prize of the German Physical Society. Young physics students at KIT can learn the basics of vacuum physics and other modern technologies in exciting lectures in a lecture hall named after him.

Herwig Schopper

From 1961 to 1973, Herwig Schopper was the director of the joint Institute for Experimental Nuclear Physics of the TH Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center, and thus one of the pioneers of today's KIT as a research university in the Helmholtz Association. His pioneering work on superconducting cavity resonators and his development of the first hadron calorimeter for particle physics at high energies led to close links with CERN, of which he was Director General from 1981-1988. On his 100th birthday in 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Physics as a living witness of the KIT.


Alexander Gerst (1976)

Alexander Gerst began to study geophysics - strongly impressed by the volcanoes of New Zealand - and graduated from the then University of Karlsruhe in 2003. He also studied geosciences in Wellington, where he was awarded a Master of Science in 2005. In 2006, he was a summer scholarship holder of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Gerst was one of 8,413 applicants in the 2008 ESA selection process and was the only German among six new astronauts to be presented to the public on May 20, 2009.