Klaus Stefan Kirch

Professor Kirch’s research is centred on fundamental particle physics with ultra-cold neutrons and muons.

His group’s experiments are precision measurements at low particle energies and can be divided into two categories: high-precision measurements of fundamental parameters of the standard model and searches for processes forbidden in the standard model.

One example is the search for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron, which would violate time reversal invariance and could have something to do with the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe.

Klaus Kirch is Full Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics (IPA) and at the same time, since 2009, Head of the Laboratory of Particle Physics, www.psi.ch/ltp, at the Paul Scherrer Institute. He was Associate Professor from 2009 to 2014. For one year, 2022-2023 he was serving as Head of IPA.

He was born in Cologne, Germany, on 26 December 1967.

From 1989 to 1994 Professor Kirch studied mathematics and physics at the Albertus Magnus University of Cologne, completing a physics degree with a nuclear physics project entitled "Kollektive Zustände in Ba-132 nach beta-Zerfall" in 1994.

He worked at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich from 1994 to 1997, completing a doctorate there with his thesis "Bildung, Abregung und 2S-Metastabilität leichter myonischer Atome" in 1997. From 1997 to 1999 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, focussing on projects concerning muon decay.

He then moved to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM, USA, as a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow specialising in neutrino physics on SNO and the generation of ultra-cold neutrons (UCN).

In 2001 he returned to the PSI, where he worked as a scientist specialising in fundamental particle physics with neutrons and collaborating on the development of the UCN source. From 2008 to 2018, he was the head of the UCN-Physics (Ultra Cold Neutrons) group at PSI, www.psi.ch/ltp-ucn-physics.