Springer Handbook of Aerogels

Prof. Dr. Michel A. Aegerter graduated as Engineer and Physicist in 1962 at the Swiss Institute of Technology- EPFL, Switzerland and received his Ph.D degree (Dr. ès Sciences) in 1966 at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. After post-doctoral studies at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, he joined again the University of Neuchâtel as assistant professor and then the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, Brazil as a full Professor till 1995 where he initiated research in the sol-gel field in 1984 with the collaboration of Prof. Dr. J. Zarzycki. In 1995 he accepted an invitation to be Director of the Department of Coating Technology at the Leibniz-Institute for New Materials (GmbH-INM) in Saarbruecken, Germany. He is also Honorary Professor at the University of Saarland, Saarbruecken (Germany). He is the present Chairman of the Technical Committee TC-16 (Sol-Gel Glasses) of the International Commission on Glass (ICG), member of the American Ceramic Society, Material Research Society, SPIE, of several International Advisory Committees, of the Editorial Board of the International J. of Photochemistry, co-editor for Europe of the J. Sol-Gel Science and Technology, a member of the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Coatings on Glass-ICCG as well as referee for several international scientific journals. His fields of activity cover the research and industrial development of functional, conducting, photoelectrochemical and electrochromic coatings on glasses and plastics, the development of new sol-gel and nanocomposite coating technology. Prof. Dr. Aegerter is the author and co-author of more than 440 scientific publications, 8 patents and co-editor of 12 books.