Dr Christopher Gies has been appointed Professor of Statistical Physics at the Institute of Physics. Gies studied physics at the Freie Universität Berlin and then moved to the University of Otago in New Zealand, where he completed his Master's degree in 2004. He received his doctorate at the University of Bremen in 2008 and then went on to earn his habilitation there.

As a research associate, Gies led his own independent research group at the University of Bremen's Institute for Theoretical Physics, and was appointed Acting Professor of Theoretical Solid State Physics in 2022. He also undertook several research visits to the University of Otago and to the Sandia National Laboratories in the US.

His research focuses on quantum technologies such as the generation of quantum light and techniques for controlling the thermodynamic properties of quantum systems to generate multipartite entanglement. His research group is also working on quantum reservoir computing, a new branch of machine learning based on quantum architectures. Gies also conducts research into the material physics of atomically thin solids and semiconductor nanostructures. His work includes the development and derivation of analytical models as well as their numerical evaluation. He values close collaboration with partners in the field of experimental physics in the quest to jointly open up new perspectives for applications.