Martin Kaltenbrunner

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Martin Kaltenbrunner is currently head of the department for Soft Matter Physics, one of the liveliest and most creative physics departments at Johannes Kepler University (JKU), Linz. His research group specializes in soft electronics and soft transducers, in particular on sustainable and biodegradable elastic materials and processes for skin-inspired electronics and embodied robotics. They are pioneers in soft and stretchable batteries and solar cells and ultrathin and lightweight electronic foils. The group develops materials strategies, design rules and technologies including resilient yet degradable soft and elastic substrates, passive and active components and power sources that enable green wearable (bio)electronics, and soft robots. In his own words, his career is as below:
“Starting with PhD in physics at JKU, I had the privilege to learn from best teachers (Siegfried Bauer as my PhD supervisor, Takao Someya and Tsuyoshi Sekitani in my postdoc position) and then to collaborate with brilliant colleagues in prime labs all over the world. I learned from them that particularly young researchers deserve attention and support, which now is one of my main aims and daily tasks that I enjoy. Solving early problems in stretchable electronics, I developed the first ever stretchable batteries (Adv. Mat. 2010). At the dawn of soft robotics, I worked on elastomeric actuators, introducing methods for capacitive strain sensing (now widely used in soft electrostatic actuators), electrode-free operation and novel concepts of soft energy harvesting. Early on, I recognized the need for conformable power sources, eventually allowing untethered soft devices. Beyond batteries, I pushed the limits in ultrathin organic solar cells with record specific power (Nat. Comm. 2012).
My seminal work as Postdoc at Tokyo University laid the foundation for imperceptible electronics. These early successes earned me an assistant professor appointment at JKU, where I swiftly built up my own group. Venturing into the then new research direction on perovskite PV, I established my lab as one of the thought leaders in flexible PV with high specific power (Nat. Mat. 2015, Nat. Energ. 2024). With Wei Gao, we recently pioneered solar powered bioelectronic sweat sensors (Nat. Elect. 2023). In a more fundamental study with Harry Atwater, our perovskite solar cells are currently part of the ALBA mission within the Caltech Space Solar Power Project. They already power soft swimming robots (within the SOMIRO EU project) and aerial drones (Nat. Energ. 2024). Simultaneously, I promoted the merging of soft electronics and robotics, explored hydrogels in soft systems (ERC Gel-SYS), and firmly positioned my group as innovation leader in soft biodegradable materials. With industrial partners, we develop wood- and paper-based sensors (FFG projects with Wood K plus, Adv. Mat. 2021), while former lab members now commercialize them with our spin-off Sendance (https://sendance.at).
These broad academic and entrepreneurial successes allowed me to defend Habilitation only 4 years post PhD. Upon receiving my ERC StG, I turned down an offer at NC State to pursue a career in Europe, becoming a full professor 7 years after the PhD (one of the youngest in JKU history).”

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