Welcome to the website of Joachim Stöhr
and the exciting world of X-ray science

Also see my other websites: 
SLAC/SSRL website:  https://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/stohr/
Stanford profile:   https://profiles.stanford.edu/joachim-stohr

My Life and Career: American Institute of Physics Interview

The link below is the transcript of an interview conducted as part of the oral history documentation of the American Institute of Physics in 2021 about my life and scientific career

https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/48025

Brief Career Milestones 

Education:

• 1968   Vordiplom in Physics, Bonn University, Germany
• 1971   M.S. in Physics, Washington State University
• 1974   Dr. rer. nat. in Physics, TU München, Germany

Professional History:

• Postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1975-76)
• Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1976-77)
• Senior Research Associate at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (1977-81)
• Senior Staff Physicist at Exxon Research and Engineering Company (1981-85)
• Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center (ARC)  from 1985 to 1999 
• Manager, Department of Condensed Matter Science, IBM ARC (1989-91)
• Manager, Department of Magnetic Materials and Phenomena, IBM ARC (1991-94)
• Manager, Synchrotron Radiation Project, IBM ARC (1994-95)
• Professor of Photon Science, Stanford University (2000 – 2017)
• Deputy Director, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC (2000-2005)
• Director, SSRL (2005-2009)
• Director, Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC (2009-2013)
• Professor Emeritus of Photon Science (2017 – present)

Fellowships, Awards, Honors:

• Fulbright Scholarship 1969-70
• Postdoctoral Scholarship from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 1975-76
• Fellow of the American Physical Society since 1988
• Adjoint Professor in Physics at Uppsala University, Sweden (1993-2000)
• Consulting Professor at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (1994-1999)
• IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award 1997
• Hofstadter Lecture, Stanford University, 2010
• Davisson-Germer Prize 2011 in Surface Physics from American Physical Society
• Distinguished Lecture, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, 2013
• Ångstrom Lecture, Uppsala University, 2017

Summary of Scientific Work:

After my Masters and Doctorate degrees where I worked in optical and Mössbauer spectroscopy, respectively, and a postdoctoral period where I conducted photoemission spectroscopy, my independent scientific research began in 1977 and focused on the use of soft-x-ray synchrotron radiation for different scientific problems. In the process, I improved existing and built new monochromators that could continuously cover the previously existing photon energy gap between about 300-3000eV.

The availability of  soft x-rays led to the development of x-ray techniques for the study of surface chemical reactions, referred to as  SEXAFS and NEXAFS, which allow the determination of the geometric arrangement and bonding of atoms, molecules and thin organic films on surfaces.  This work is summarized in my review article “SEXAFS: Everything you always wanted to know about SEXAFS but were afraid to ask” (in X-Ray Absorption:  Principles, Applications, Techniques of EXAFS, SEXAFS and XANES, Edits. D. Koningsberger and R. Prins, Wiley, 1988) and my 1992 book “NEXAFS Spectroscopy” (Springer).

My later research, inspired by my employment at IBM, focused on magnetic materials and phenomena, in particular the study of magnetic thin films, interfaces and nanostructures, and their ultrafast dynamics by use of forefront x-ray techniques.  This work forms the foundation of my 2006 book (with H. Siegmann) entitled “Magnetism: From Fundamentals to Nanoscale Dynamics” (Springer).

With the advent of x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) around 2010 at SLAC/Stanford, my research increasingly focused on the utilization and description of XFEL radiation and its interaction with matter. In the process, I cast the nature and applications of x-rays, long described only semi-classically, into the framework of modern quantum optics, leading to my 2019 tutorial on multi-photon interference in Advances in Optics and Photonics and my 2023 book “The Nature of X-Rays and their Interactions with Matter” (Springer).  In this book all x-ray phenomena, including diffraction, are treated in terms of the photon concept of light underlying quantum electro-dynamics (QED) and quantum optics.

In total I have written 3 books, 10 review articles in the form of book chapters, more than 250 articles in refereed scientific journals, about 50 articles in conference proceedings, and I hold 5 patents (see Research tab on webpage and https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AquBArcAAAAJ&hl=en). I have given more than 150 invited talks at international scientific conferences, about 100 colloquia at Universities and Scientific Research Institutions, and 3 public lectures on the topics of "magnetism" and "x-ray free electron lasers".  

I have hosted about 30 postdoctoral scholar from around the world, several of whom became University Professors and/or Directors of international science laboratories. While at Stanford, I supervised about 20 Ph.D. graduate students (see "People" menu link on this website).  

My life after retirement - more than science...

Skiing with my wife Linda at "Red". Welcome to the good life: https://youtu.be/jWG3rpONMF4

Contact:

stohr@stanford.edu or stohr@slac.stanford.edu