Former SENSIndoor engineer receives award for best PhD thesis

Dr.-Ing. Christian Bur, former member of the SENSIndoor team at Saarland University, the coordinating institution, received an award for his PhD thesis from the AHMT, the German association of metrology professors. The AHMT award is given to junior researchers who contribute significantly to the advancement of measurement science and technology.

In their laudations, AHMT chair Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fernando Puente León and SENSIndoor coordinator Prof. Andreas Schütze not only emphasized the outstanding academic output achieved by Christian Bur during his time at both Saarland University and the University of Linköping but also highlighted the laureate’s contribution to the collaboration between both universities, a collaboration which is being continued within the SENSIndoor project as well as within the COST Action EuNetAir.

Christian Bur’s bi-national PhD thesis with the title "Selectivity Enhancement of Gas Sensitive Field Effect Transistors by Dynamic Operation" was accepted at both Saarland University and the University of Linköping under the DocMASE program leading to the dual degree Dr.-Ing./Dr. tekn. In it, Christian Bur studies a class of sensors called SiC-FETs, gas sensitive field effect transistors based on silicon carbide, which are applied predominantly in the area of exhaust and combustion monitoring. The thesis presents a systematic methodology for improving the selectivity of these sensors via dynamic operation, mainly temperature modulation. The thesis was defended on April 24, 2015, during a common colloquium held at Saarland University and broadcast via live stream to the University of Linköping.

During his employment at Prof. Schütze’s institute, Christian Bur published 16 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, 14 of which were published in the context of his PhD thesis. The junior researcher also presented his research and results at 32 conferences, most of them international.

Christian Bur now works as development engineer at Wipotec in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

The SENSIndoor consortium warmly congratulates Christian Bur on his award.