The award of the title is a special distinction that is only conferred on the basis of outstanding achievements comparable to those of a regularly appointed professor. Candidates often have a high degree of practical relevance and thus optimally complement teaching. In this case, TU Hamburg also recognizes Dr. Petrov's outstanding achievements in photonics research.
Dr. Petrov is significantly involved in research initiatives at the Hamburg University of Technology: Since 2012 he has been conducting research in the Collaborative Research Center 986 “Tailor-made Multiscale Materials Systems”.
In the research initiative “BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials” and the associated excellence cluster application he coordinates the area of “Photonic Materials”.
Dr. Petrov has been a senior engineer at the Institute for Optical and Electronic Materials since 2008. He has been teaching Bachelor's and Master's degree courses on his own responsibility since 2010 and has supervised almost 40 theses to date. His research is dedicated to structured photonic materials, also called photonic metamaterials, for such applications as pigments, energy generation and photocatalysis. The scientist recently made a contribution to an opinion article on the storage of renewable energy using thermophotovoltaic cells in the top nanotechnology journal “Nature Nanotechnology”.
Dr. Petrov is one of six new §17 professors who have been awarded the title at TU Hamburg in the winter semester 2024/2025. President Andreas Timm-Giel comments: “The awarding of the title of professor is a special recognition of outstanding achievements in research and teaching. In this way, we strengthen the ties of excellent personalities from business and industry to the TUHH, enrich our range of courses or, as in the case of Dr. Petrov, distinguish outstanding scientists.”
