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  2. About Us
  3. The Institute

The institute

The Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology e.V. (INP) is a research institution of the Leibniz Association, with the legal form of a registered association (e.V.). The INP is an organisationally and legally independent research institute with the following constituent bodies:

  • General Assembly
  • Board of Trustees
  • Scientific Advisory Council
  • Board of Directors

On the grounds of parity, it is financed jointly by its host state - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - and the German federal government. The functional responsibility lies with the Ministry of Science, Culture, Federal and European Affairs at host-state level and with the Federal Ministry for Education and Research at federal level.

The management of the institute, the Board of Directors, consists of four people including the Chairman of the Board and Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann. Since 2003, he heads the INP.

From idea to prototype

We see ourselves as the leading institution in plasma research and technology in Germany, comprehensively combining basic research and applications. As part of the Leibniz Association, the INP is a non-university research facility with focus on application-oriented basic research in the field of low temperature plasma physics.

Good scientific practice

We deliver top performances in the areas of science and technology due to good scientific practice. Our research is carried out in accordance to the rules for the safeguarding of good scientific practice of the Leibniz Association and the German Research Foundation (DFG). This includes, amongst other things, the consistent orientation towards the current standard of international research and technology, the continuous advancement of the scientific methods in use, an in-depth working method; including the constant questioning of one’s own results; the recognition of the scientific work of each individual and the promotion of broad cooperation.

Strategy

Strategically, the institute aims at the realisation of long-term goals and sustainable results. In the pursuit of offering the best possible working conditions for its employees, the institute secures a creative working environment and seeks to open up new perspectives. High scientific standards and future-oriented topics of relevance for all of society, on an international scale, are central to our work. Which, based on a well-founded overall strategy, allows us to help shape trends in politics, economics and research.

Equal opportunities

We offer fair and balanced life and access opportunities for all. The INP actively promotes equal opportunities for women and men, as well as for people with special needs, whilst creating a family friendly working environment. Equal opportunities, non-discrimination, family-friendliness and the reconciling of work and family life are an integral part of the institute’s culture, on all organisational levels. We see it as our responsibility to live along the lines of these standards and to secure them.

Communication and Team Spirit

We regard each other with openness, fairness and tolerance. In dealing with each other, as well as our partners, we treat everyone with esteem, respecting cultural diversity. Interdisciplinary and internal cooperation is the foundation of our success. We encourage our  employees to take responsibility and to co-decide within their scope of work, as defined by the matrix structure.

Junior staff development

We support junior staff on all organisational levels of the institute and beyond. In the competition for the best scientific minds, junior staff development is one of our main concerns, in all fields of activity. Our application oriented basic research sparks young researchers’ interest in topics of relevance to society as a whole. We facilitate concrete experience in research, as well as in cooperation with industry partners. To us, junior staff development comprises all qualification stages – from school, over university and apprenticeship, to profession.

Internationalisation

We operate nationally and internationally with success. From Greifswald, we cooperate with globally recognised research institutes. We encourage our scientists to seize international exchange opportunities and support fellowships for international researchers at our institute. The active participation in the shaping of the European research activities is one of our focal points.

Transfer of research results

The results of our research are socially and economically exploitable, by turning them into concrete applications. This includes the publication of scientific results and their transfer into products and services.

The strategy of the INP is supported by the structure of the institute. This has a matrix structure: in terms of content, divided according to scientific aspects, there are three research areas (FB), each with two main research areas (FS); organisationally and in terms of personnel, the INP is divided into 14 scientific departments plus three cooperative departments (plus staff, management units and administration).

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The organisational units provide the staff for projects within the research divisions, guaranteeing the preservation and expansion of know-how. Thematically and methodically specialised project groups are at the core of the organisation and responsible for the handling of the in-depth topics of the research divisions. Collaboration is regarded as a matter of course during cross-cutting assignments.

The management support assists the different management levels in matters of research strategy and research policy and guides INP researchers in raising of external funds. In addition, the management support provides assistance in the implementation of large-scale projects and in project management.

The institutes legal and patent consulting as well as communications and public relations are integrated directly within the board departments. Tasks relating to administration and infrastructure are merged into a separate department.

The Board of Directors is responsible for the direction and administration of the INP within the framework of the statutes and in accordance with the resolutions of the Board of Trustees and the General Assembly. The Board of Directors consists of two scientific board members, an administrative board member and an additional person from any arbitrary organisational unit of the INP.   

 

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann       Chairman of the Board and Scientific Director,
    Division Manager Renewable Energies & Bioeconomy
     
Jens Berger   Administrative Board Member,
    Chief Financial Officer
     
Prof. Dr. Dirk Uhrlandt      Scientific Board Member,
    Division Manager Plasma Chemistry & Process Technology
     
Prof. Dr. Thomas von Woedtke   Scientific Board Member,
    Division Manager Health & Hygiene
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Jens Berger, Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann, Prof. Dr. Thomas von Woedtke, Prof. Dr. Dirk Uhrlandt (f.l.t.r.)

The members of the association with voting rights (full members) elect the Chairman from among their number; as well as the members of the Board of Trustees and decide upon proposals for amendments of the statutes. The General Assembly convenes at least once a year.

Dr. Wolfgang Blank   (Chairman) WITENO GmbH - BioTechnikum Greifswald
     
Dr. Bjoern Schulte   Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Bonn
     
Woldemar Venohr   Ministry of Education, Culture & Science – Mecklenburg-West Pomerania
     
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Braun   Braun Beteiligungs GmbH
     
Dr. A. Melzer   University of Greifswald, Institute of Physics
     
Dr. Stefan Fassbinder   Mayor of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald
     
Mario Kokowsky   DEN GmbH
     
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Meichsner   University of Greifswald, Institute of Physics
     
Dr. Arthur König   Former Mayor of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald

The Board of Trustees decides all issues of fundamental importance to the INP. It determines the guidelines of the association’s work and monitors the statutory use of the budgetary funds.

Woldemar Venohr   Ministry of Education, Culture & Science – Mecklenburg-West Pomerania
     
Dr. Björn Schulte   Ministry of Education and Research
     
Prof. Dr. med. habil. Wolfgang Schareck        University of Rostock
     
Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Motz   Karlsburg Clinic of the Dr. Guth GmbH & Co. KG Hospital Group
     
Dr. Christiane Gebhardt   BLUE CITY Development Drees & Sommer
     
Prof. Dr. Albert Sickmann   Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V.

The Works Council is the body elected by the employees for the representation of the employees’ interests, on the basis of the Works Constitution Act. The Act specifies in which cases the Works Council can or must contribute or participate.

But also in cases where no right of contribution or participation exists, the Works Council always promotes an open-door-policy towards the concerns of all colleagues. Most of the times, counsel or a conversation can already help. To that, every employee may turn to a Works Council member of his or her choice. These conversations are subject to confidentiality for all intents and purposes. This trustworthy handling of information is paramount for all Works Council members!

Head of Works Council:
Daniel Köpp
Tel.: +49(0) 3834 554 3800
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Deputy Head of Works Council:
Liane Kantz
Tel.: +49 3834 554 3871
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The Scientific Advisory Council consists of internationally renowned representatives from science and industry, who are active in the research area of the INP. The Scientific Advisory Council advises the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors in all significant scientific and organisational matters; in particular with regard to long-term research and development planning. It is independent in its advisory activity and develops suggestions and recommendations for the fields of research in which the INP is active, as well as for the associated work planning. It convenes at least once a year.  

 

Dr. Uwe Kaltenborn   (Vorsitzender) HIGHVOLT Prüftechnik Dresden GmbH, Deutschland
     
Dr. Eric Robert   CNRS/Université d’Orléans
     
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Martina Meinke   Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
    Klinik für Dermatologie, Venerologie u. Allergologie
     
Prof. Dr. Luc Stafford   Chaire de recherche du Canada en physique des plasmas hautement réactifs (PPHARE)
     
Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Volker Göke   ITM Linde Electrolysis GmbH
     
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Thumm   Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Deutschland
     
Prof. Dr. Satoshi Hamaguchi   Osaka University, Japan
    Center for Atomic and Molecular Technologies (CAMT) Graduate School of Engineering
     
Prof. Dr. Annemie Bogaerts   University of Antwerp, Belgien
    Dept. Chemistry
     
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Ursula van Rienen   Universität Rostock, Fakultät für Informatik und Elektrotechnik
     
Prof. Dr. Alexander Fridman   Drexel University, USA
    C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute
     
     

Equal opportunities, non-discrimination, family-friendliness and the reconciliation of family and professional life are core components of our mission statement and the institute’s culture on all organisational levels. The INP actively promotes equal opportunities of women and men, as well as for people with special needs, and supports its employees with tailored personnel development measures. The INP offers its employees a family friendly working environment, allowing a balance between family and professional life e.g. by offering individual working hours and individual workplace arrangements. As a family friendly organisation, we offer our employees extensive flexibility regarding their working hours, home office solutions and support in the planning of childcare or care of dependent family members.

Flexible working hours and workplace arrangements

We facilitate the reconciliation of career and family for our employees through flexible working hours in form of flexitime, whereby our employees can individually organise their workday around the core time. For all employees to be able to participate, we schedule institute events during the core time. We also offer the possibility of home office, having established the technical prerequisites in this regard. This allows our employees an individually structured workday and is often used by our scientists for the conducting of research and the writing up of publications.

Support in obtaining childcare or care for dependent family members

We offer our employees support in obtaining childcare or care for dependant family members. Together, we contact the local institutions to quickly find a solution. We also support employees with small children in need of short-term childcare, for them to be able to participate in scientific conferences to further their career.

Parent-child room

Additionally, we have set up a separate parent-child room in our institute with child-friendly playing and sleeping facilities, offering our employees an option to bridge gaps in child-care. The room is open to all employees and a suitable retreat for nursing.

Support for participation in trainings

For the participation in trainings and seminars, the gender equality officer has funds for the targeted support of female staff. This includes the costs of the successful application for a mentoring programme.

Total E-Quality rating 2014 and 2017

The INP was awarded with the Total E-Quality certificate. After 2014, the institute received the prestigious award for the second time in 2017, recognising its efforts in creating equal opportunities between the sexes in the field of science. "The active and well established gender equality work" as well as "a significant development in the field of equal opportunities" justifies the renewal of the award as the jury saw it. TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e.V. aims at establishing equal opportunities in economy, science and politics and at implementing them sustainably. This aim is achieved once talent, potential and competences of all genders are equally recognised, considered and supported - a high standard, especially for the personnel policy. The certificate remains valid for 3 years. Afterwards, the INP can apply again. The award was developed with the assistance of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union for exemplary action and conduct in respect of a personnel management facilitating equal opportunities. TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e.V. was founded in 1996 in Frankfurt am Main and was intended for business enterprises at first. To date, approximately 250 organizations have been certified. Since 2001, research institutions and colleges can also apply for the award.

Gender Equality Officer:
Dr. Christine Zädow
Phone: +49 3834 - 554 3914
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Deputy Gender Equality Officer:
Dr. Gesa Bierwerth
Phone: +49(0) 3834 554 3969
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Liane Kantz Security Officer   kantzinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3871
Roland Erler Fire Prevention Officer   erlerinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 411
Dr. Antje Quade Hazardous Substances Officer   quadeinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3877
Prof. Jürgen Röpcke Laser Safety Officer   roepckeinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 444
Gabriele Henkel Radiation Protection Officer   henkelinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3908
Nadja Dahlhaus Data Security Officer   dahlhaus@inp-greifswald.de 03834 / 554 313
Prof. Christian Wilke Ombudsman   wilkeinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3855
Dr. Kai Masur Biological Safety Officer   kai.masurinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3322
Dr. Anke Schmidt Genetic Safety Officer   anke.schmidtinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3958
Dr. Florian Siegeneger IT Secruity Officer   siegenegerinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 462
Dr. Christine Zädow Gender Equality Officer   christine.zaedowinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3914
Uta Haeder-Schult Deputy Gender Equality Officer   haederinp-greifswaldde 03834 / 554 3851

Buil­ding

Sin­ce 1999 INP is lo­ca­ted in Fe­lix-Haus­dorff-Str. 2 in Greifs­wald. It is in the midst of the sci­en­ti­fic and me­di­cal cam­pus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Greifs­wald. The main buil­ding has a floor space of about 3.700 squa­re metres. It is equip­ped with 133 office work sta­tions and 41 la­bo­ra­to­ries. The ex­ten­si­on buil­ding clo­sing the gap bet­ween INP and Bio­tech­ni­kum Greifs­wald was opened in 2010. The­re, main­ly the la­bo­ra­to­ries and of­fices of the cent­re for in­no­va­ti­on com­pe­tence (ZIK) plas­ma­tis (​www.​plasmatis.​de) are hou­sed. 30 office work sta­tions and eight la­bo­ra­to­ries are lo­ca­ted on 540 squa­re metres.

Staff

INP has about 206 em­ployees at pre­sent. The sci­en­ti­fic di­sci­pli­nes in­clu­de phy­sics, che­mis­try, phar­ma­cy and bio­lo­gy.

Bud­get

INP had a to­tal bud­get of about 20.1 mil­li­on eu­ro in 2020. 10.3 mil­li­on eu­ro of that are com­pe­ti­ti­ve third-par­ty funds rai­sed from fe­deral and sta­te mi­nis­tries, the Ger­man Re­se­arch Foun­da­ti­on (DFG), the Eu­ropean Uni­on and in­dus­try.

Plas­ma Re­se­arch with Tra­di­ti­on

For mo­re than 100 ye­ars phy­si­cists ha­ve be­en ex­pe­ri­men­ting with io­ni­zed ga­ses, which they call plas­ma sin­ce the la­te 1920s. Ru­dolf See­li­ger was one of the pioneers when he took over a po­si­ti­on at the Phy­sics In­sti­tu­te of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Greifs­wald and foun­ded an in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly re­co­gni­zed school in this field. Paul Schulz, a re­now­ned phy­si­cist as well, foun­ded the Re­se­arch Cent­re for Gas Di­sch­ar­ge Phy­sics, which was at­ta­ched to the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces. His re­se­arch al­lo­wed, among others, the con­struc­tion of xe­non high pres­su­re lamps, which are still used to­day for spe­ci­fic pur­po­ses. In 1950 the re­se­arch cent­re re­cei­ved the sta­tus of a re­gu­lar In­sti­tu­te for Gas Di­sch­ar­ge Phy­sics, which al­lo­ca­ted to the Cen­tral In­sti­tu­te for Elec­tron Phy­sics (ZIE) of the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces of GDR in 1969. 

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Af­ter the Ger­man re­uni­fi­ca­ti­on ZIE, li­ke all other in­sti­tu­tes of the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces in East Ger­ma­ny, was dis­sol­ved ac­cor­ding to the Ger­man Uni­fi­ca­ti­on Trea­ty on De­cem­ber 31, 1991. In ac­cor­dance with the eva­lua­ti­on of the re­se­arch ac­tivi­ties the Sci­en­ti­fic Coun­cil of the Fe­deral Re­pu­blic of Ger­ma­ny re­com­men­ded the foun­da­ti­on of a new in­sti­tu­te, which was car­ri­ed out on Ja­nu­a­ry 1, 1992. From the be­gin­ning, the new in­sti­tu­ti­on, the In­sti­tu­te for Low Tem­pe­ra­tu­re Plas­ma Phy­sics (INP Greifs­wald) has be­en a mem­ber of the Leib­niz As­so­cia­ti­on. In or­der to ho­nor Gott­fried Wil­helm Leib­niz in its na­me and app­re­cia­te his aspi­ra­ti­on – "theo­ria cum pra­xi" – as part of the stra­te­gy of the in­sti­tu­te, INP was re­na­med Leib­niz In­sti­tu­te for Plas­ma Sci­ence and Tech­no­lo­gy on the oc­ca­si­on of its 15th an­ni­vers­a­ry. 

On June 1, the INP celebrated its 25th anniversary and renewed its claim to the close interweaving of basic research and applied science.

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The INP offers a broad spectrum of research services in the area of low temperature plasmas. Future-oriented topics of international macrosocial relevance and with a high scientific standard are the center of our work.

Employees with excellent qualifications and our technological equipment, which in some cases is unique worldwide, enable research work on the highest international level. Plasma technology is a cross-sectional technology and is supremely interdisciplinary. This fact is also reflected in our competencies

The range from classic physical competencies, such as modeling and the diagnostics of plasmas, to strong application-related competencies in plasma surface treatment or the development of plasma devices, and extend to competencies in the life sciences and environmental area. Our research is implemented in specific applications. This includes publication of scientific results and the transition of these results into products and services. Via our application laboratories we offer industrial enterprises direct and uncomplicated access to the processing of very specific application scenarios.

  • Application Laboratories
  • Plasma Bioengineering
  • Plasma Diagnostics
  • Plasma Life Science
  • Plasma Modelling
  • Plasma Surface Technology
  • Plasma Process Technology
  • Plasma Sources
  • Plasma Radiation Techniques
  • ZIK plasmatis
  • Management Support - Research Management

 

The INP is active in national and international networks as well as organizations relevant to plasma technology. It is member of several organizations including

The Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) is the largest nonuniversity institute in the field of low temperature plasmas, their basics and technical applications in Europe. The institute carries out research and development from idea to prototype. The topics focus on the needs of the market. At present plasmas for materials, energy, environment and health are the focus of interest. 

 

Contact

Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology
Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 2
17489 Greifswald

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann
Chairman of the Board and Scientific Director, Division Manager of Environment and Bioeconomy

Phone.: +49 3834 - 554 314
Fax: +49 3834 - 554 301

weltmanninp-greifswaldde
www.leibniz-inp.de

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