Rate My Professor Hanno Weitering

Hanno Weitering is Chancellor's Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Groningen in 1991. His research specializes in experimental condensed matter physics, with emphasis on surfaces, interfaces, ultrathin film materials, electronic instabilities, and correlated electron phenomena in low-dimensional materials. Key contributions include the discovery of itinerant antiferromagnetism in ruthenium dioxide, a common chemical catalyst, and the realization of topological superconductivity at the surface of conventional silicon, opening silicon-compatible pathways to quantum matter phases for potential quantum technologies. Weitering's group employs molecular beam epitaxy synthesis and characterization techniques such as scanning tunneling microscopy, spectroscopy, photoemission, transport measurements, and SQUID magnetometry to study quantum materials, including 2D materials, quantum magnetism, strongly correlated electron systems, and low-dimensional superconductors.

Weitering joined the University of Tennessee in 1993 and advanced to full professor. He served as Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 2012 to 2022 and as Deputy Director of the UTK/ORNL Joint Institute of Advanced Materials from 2009 to 2019. He has advised or co-advised 15 graduate students and 13 postdoctoral associates, chaired international review panels, and contributed to leadership in advanced materials research. His honors include election as Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021, and designation as Chancellor's Professor in 2022. Prominent publications encompass 'Direct observation of a surface charge density wave' (Nature, 1996), 'Linear magnetization dependence of the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect' (Physical Review Letters, 2006), and 'Time-reversal symmetry breaking superconductivity between twisted cuprate interfaces' (Science, 2023). His work has significantly influenced the fields of topological superconductivity and quantum materials on semiconductor platforms.