Funktion und Aufgaben:

Richard Wirth is retired and  currently Guest Research Scientist at GFZ Potsdam. He was supervisor of the electron microscopy (FIB/TEM) laboratory at GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany until 2020. Dr. Wirth received his PhD in 1978 at the University Würzburg, Germany. He spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Metals Physics at the University Saarbruecken (Prof. Gleiter) followed by research scientist positions at the University Cologne, head of administration of the Institute of Advanced Materials, Saarbruecken (INM) and research scientist at Ruhr-University-Bochum. In 1994 he established the TEM laboratory at the GFZ Potsdam, which he has continued to develop by incorporating modern technologies such as the focussed ion beam (FIB). His main research areas are geomaterials, micro- and nano-inclusions in minerals, structure and behaviour of grain boundaries, meteorites and materials in bio-geosciences. He was and is co-operating with groups in Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and USA. Dr. Wirth was awarded the GFZ Research Award in 2003 and in 2005 was granted the W.F. James Chair in Science at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 2009 he was granted Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and in 2010 Fellow of the Geological Society of America. In 2010/2011 he was granted visiting Professor at University of Vienna, Austria. He was nominated distinguished lecturer of the Mineralogical Society of America 2013/14.