Dr. Horst Störmer is a distinguished German-American physicist renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to quantum physics and condensed matter research. Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on April 6, 1949, he completed his Diploma in Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1974 and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart in 1977 under advisor Hans-Joachim Queisser. Following his doctoral studies, he joined Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he spent nearly two decades conducting pioneering research, eventually rising to become Director of the Physical Research Laboratory. In 1998, he transitioned to academia, joining Columbia University as Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, where he was later appointed the prestigious I.I. Rabi Professor of Physics before retiring as professor emeritus in 2011.
Dr. Störmer's most significant achievement was the co-discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect in 1982, conducted with Daniel Tsui at the Francis Bitter High Magnetic Field Laboratory at MIT, which revealed a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. This landmark discovery, which built upon his earlier invention of modulation doping in 1978, fundamentally transformed our understanding of quantum states in two-dimensional electron systems and paved the way for the development of the world's fastest and quietest transistors. His experimental work provided crucial evidence for novel quantum phenomena that Robert Laughlin later explained theoretically, resulting in the three scientists jointly receiving the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics. Over his career, Störmer published more than 200 papers on the properties of two-dimensional electron sheets in semiconductors, with his research continuing to influence the fields of condensed matter physics and quantum electronics.
Beyond his Nobel-winning work, Störmer's contributions to semiconductor physics have had profound technological implications, as the modulation doping technique he co-invented enabled numerous advances in high-speed electronic devices and optical experiments on two-dimensional electron systems. His leadership at Bell Labs, where he headed the Physical Research Laboratory for six years, helped shape the direction of fundamental physics research during a critical period of innovation in solid-state physics. As a professor at Columbia University, he mentored numerous students and continued his research on transport phenomena in single molecules until his retirement. Though retired as professor emeritus, Störmer's discoveries remain foundational to ongoing research in quantum Hall physics and continue to inspire new generations of physicists exploring the frontiers of quantum matter.
