Dr. Volker Deckert is Professor for Physical Chemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller University and jointly as a department head at the Leibniz IPHT both in Jena. He obtained his Diploma and his Ph.D. from the University of Würzburg, working on Raman spectroscopy. After a postdoc at the University of Tokyo he started his research on near-field optical spectroscopy, first at the ETH Zurich, then in Dresden and Dortmund before he finally came to Jena. In 2020, he received the Ellis R. Lippincott Award form OSA.

His research focusses on Raman spectroscopy, near-field optical microscopy, and plasmon enhancement. The major goal is to extend the limits of spatial resolution for label-free techniques, particularly for methods based on tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). Research is mainly driven by questions related to chemical and/or bio-related problems that require structural information at the highest possible resolution. These studies then help us to understand underlying theoretical concepts of the often surprising lateral resolution.