Short CV
Dr. Heike Riel is IBM Fellow and the Manager of the Materials Integration & Nanoscale Devices (MIND) group at IBM Research – Zurich, Switzerland. She is responsible for projects in the area of III-V semiconductors for applications in electronics, optoelectronics and energy harvesting and molecular electronics.
Heike Riel studied physics at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and received a PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in 2003 for her work on the optimization of multilayer organic light-emitting devices. After an internship at the Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, she joined the IBM Zurich Research Lab in 1998 as a PhD student, and became a Research Staff Member in 2003. From 2008 to 2014 she headed the Nanoscale Electronics Group and since 2014 she has been leading the MIND group. In 2011, she graduated with an MBA from Henley Business School. In 2013, Heike Riel was named IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical distinction and became Member of the IBM Academy of Technology.
Selected Awards
- 2014, Elected Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences SATW (November)
- 2013, Alexander von Humboldt Professorship (declined)
- 2012, SVIN Award in the category “Technical or Scientific Innovation” which was awarded by the Swiss Association of Women in Engineering (SVIN) on the occasion of their 20th anniversary (June)
- 2005, Award of the Swiss Physical Society for Applied Physics (July)
- 2003, Top Young Researcher TR100, MIT Technology Review (September)
- 2002, Young Researcher Award of the 11th International Workshop on Inorganic and Organic Electroluminescence and International Conference on the Science and Technology of Emissive Displays and Lighting, held in Ghent, Belgium. Received for the work on: Optimizing OLED Performance by Using Interference Effects (September)
- 1989, Bavarian State Award for her „Facharbeiterprüfung im Schreinerhandwerk“ (July)
Research Interests
Heike Riel’s research focuses on new materials and novel device concepts for future nanoelectronics in particular steep slope devices for energy efficient computation.
Selected Publications
- Menges, Fabian; Riel, Heike; Stemmer, Andreas; Dimitrakopoulos, Christos; Gotsmann, Bernd: Thermal Transport into Graphene through Nanoscopic Contacts. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (20), 2013-
- Schmid, Heinz; Bessire, Cedric; Björk, Mikael T.; Schenk, Andreas; Riel, Heike: Silicon Nanowire Esaki Diodes. Nano Letters 12 (2), 2012, 699-703.
- Ionescu, Adrian M.; Riel, Heike: Tunnel field-effect transistors as energy-efficient electronic switches. Nature 479 (7373), 2011, 329-337.
- Björk, M. T.; Schmid, H.; Bessire, C. D.; Moselund, K. E.; Ghoneim, H.; Karg, S.; Lörtscher, E.; Riel, H.: Si–InAs heterojunction Esaki tunnel diodes with high current densities. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97 (16), 2010, 163501-
- Lörtscher, Emanuel; Ciszek, Jacob W.; Tour, James; Riel, Heike: Reversible and Controllable Switching of a Single-Molecule Junction. Small 2 (8-9), 2006, 973-977.
- Schmidt, Volker; Riel, Heike; Senz, Stephan; Karg, Siegfried; Riess, Walter; Gösele, Ulrich: Realization of a Silicon Nanowire Vertical Surround-Gate Field-Effect Transistor. Small 2 (1), 2006, 85-88.
- Riel, H.; Karg, S.; Beierlein, T.; Rieß, W.; Neyts, K.: Tuning the emission characteristics of top-emitting organic light-emitting devices by means of a dielectric capping layer: An experimental and theoretical study. J. Appl. Phys. 94 (8), 2003, 5290.
Publications as TUM-IAS-Fellow