Metin Tolan

Metin Tolan, Professor of Experimental Physics at TU Dortmund

Metin Tolan (born March 27, 1965 in Oldenburg in Holstein ) is a German physicist , professor of experimental physics at the Technical University of Dortmund and science cabaret artist.

Life

Tolan was born in northern Germany in 1965 to a German mother and a Turkish father. From 1984 to 1989 he studied physics and mathematics at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In 1993 he completed his doctorate there in the field of X-ray scattering. Research stays in the USA followed before he qualified as a professor at Kiel University in 1998. In 2001 he took over the chair “Experimental Physics I” at the Technical University of Dortmund.

research

With the help of X-rays, he researches the behavior of interfaces of so-called “soft matter”, such as polymers , liquids or biomaterials. The Dortmund electron storage ring facility (DELTA) enables experiments with synchrotron radiation , a particularly intense type of X-ray radiation. Tolan was Chairman of the Scientific Council of DESY in Hamburg from 2007 to 2010 . He was also a member of the board of directors for public relations at the German Physical Society (DPG) and a member of the steering committee of the Internet portal “World of Physics”. He has been a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2003 . From September 2008 to March 2011 Metin Tolan was Vice President Research at TU Dortmund University, from April 2011 to September 2016 Vice President Studies and since October 2016 he has been Vice President Finance.

Publicity

In addition to his scientific work, he devotes himself to the humorous and physical examination of football, film and television. For example, he gives lectures on topics such as “The physics of soccer games ”, “The physics of James Bond ”, “The physics of Star Trek ” or “ Titanic - More than just a downfall”. He examines (as a self- confessed Trekkie ) inventions, stunts and film effects for physical feasibility and also compares the films with historical reality (e.g. RMS Titanic ) or presents (as a VfB Stuttgart fan) a formula that determines the placement of the German team predicts at the next soccer World Cup. The lectures are popular science, so that laypeople can also follow the lectures. The entertainment insert is also an advertisement for the subject of physics.

One of the lectures - "Shaken, not stirred!" - James Bond in the sights of physics - about the physical background in James Bond films was filmed on October 11, 2005 in the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum , Paderborn, and is available there on DVD. The book Shaken, Not Stirred: James Bond and Physics , which he wrote with Prof. Joachim Stolze and some students as part of a seminar, went on sale in September 2008.

Awards

In 2013, Tolan received the € 50,000 Communicator Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft for his diverse and particularly original communication of physical issues and research results to the public and the media . For 2017, Tolan was awarded the Robert Wichard Pohl Prize of the German Physical Society (DPG).

Fonts

• X-Ray Scattering from Soft-Matter Thin Films. Materials Science and Basic Research. In: Springer Tracts in Modern Physics. Springer, Berlin a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-540-65182-9 (English, dissertation at the University of Kiel 1993).
• With Joachim Stolze: Shaken, not stirred: James Bond and physics. Piper , Munich / Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-492-05082-1 .
• How we become world champions: The physics of the soccer game . Piper, Munich / Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-492-05355-6 (TB re-edition updated in 2011: Sometimes the better wins: the physics of the soccer game. Piper-TB 6492, ISBN 978-3-492-26492-1 ) .
• Titanic: down with physics. [Illustrations by Sven Binner]. Piper , Munich / Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05458-4 .
• The STAR TREK physics. PIPER Verlag , Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-492-05653-3

Movies

• "Shaken, not stirred!" - James Bond in the sights of physics - DVD (2005) of the lecture of the same name in the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum on October 11, 2005.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ piper-verlag.de: Metin Tolan  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , "Born in 1965 as the son of German-Turkish parents in Oldenburg"  
2. ↑ literaturportal.de: NeunMalKlug - science cabaret, educational comedy, infotainment & Co
3. ^ Robert Wichard Pohl Prize. Retrieved May 9, 2019 . 

Web links

• Literature by and about Metin Tolan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Detailed curriculum vitae of Prof. Dr. Metin Tolan (PDF file; 164 kB)
• Metin Tolan at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• The physics at Star Trek , lecture October 25, 2002 in Leipzig
• Physics at James Bond, Professor 007 , Stern Online, December 9, 2005
• With 007 in the lecture hall, Why Bond's zipper trick is extremely dangerous , Spiegel Online, December 22, 2005
• Football and Physics, The Secret of the Banana Flank , Spiegel Online, January 31, 2006
• Soccer Physics, Science with Kick , Stern Online, April 23, 2006
• Numerator, Football is a game of chance , Spiegel Online, February 20, 2007
• Numerator, The Football God rolls the dice , Spiegel Online, February 25, 2008
• Entry in the Bochum university bibliography