Dr. Matthias Koebel received his PhD in physical and surface chemistry from Brown University followed by a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Gabor Somorjai. His research activities range from preparative sol-gel chemistry to scale-up of soft-chemistry derived nanomaterials. He currently heads the Building Energy Materials and Components laboratory, targeting next generation, nanoporous aerogel materials for thermal insulation and energy applications. He is a known expert in aerogels, published over 70 scientific articles, numerous patents and is coeditor of the “Aerogels Handbook”.