Holger Frauenrath

Holger Frauenrath is an Associate Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he leads the Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials (LMOM) within the Institute of Materials at the School of Engineering. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Industry & Innovation at the School of Engineering, responsible for technology transfer, industry partnerships, and sustainability initiatives. His academic journey includes undergraduate and PhD studies at RWTH Aachen, a postdoc at Northwestern University with Prof. Sam Stupp, research positions at FU Berlin and ETH Zurich, and his current tenure-track position at EPFL since 2009.

His research spans multiple areas of soft matter and materials science, with particular focus on supramolecular self-assembly, carbon nanomaterials, and organic electronics. He investigates how the balance between order and disorder across different structural levels can be harnessed to create novel functional materials. His group develops molecular precursors that enable bottom-up synthesis of carbon nanomaterials at room temperature, creates organic nanowires for electronic applications, and designs hierarchically structured supramolecular materials with tailored mechanical properties.

His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on developing novel synthetic approaches for carbon-rich molecular precursors, understanding charge transport in confined organic semiconductors, and creating supramolecular networks with unusual mechanical properties. His work bridges fundamental chemistry with practical applications in electronics, energy, and sustainable materials. The research demonstrates consistent innovation in molecular design, supramolecular organization, and materials characterization across multiple length scales.

• Feodor Lynen fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
• Emmy Noether Grant from German Science Foundation
• European Research Council (ERC) Starting Investigator grant

Professor Frauenrath advises numerous doctoral students and has developed strategic partnerships with industry. His laboratory brings together materials scientists, chemists, physicists, and mechanical engineers in a multidisciplinary team that bridges materials chemistry, physics, processing, and characterization. The LMOM group has established expertise across the full spectrum from molecular synthesis to device fabrication, including organic field-effect transistors, damping systems, railpads, and food packaging applications. The laboratory maintains state-of-the-art facilities for spectroscopy, microscopy, diffraction, and thermomechanical characterization.