Andreas Schönhals received his Diploma degree in Physics (1981), and the degree Dr. rer. nat. from the Technical University Leuna-Merseburg (1984). After that, he moved to the Central Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the former GDR (Berlin) and, in 1993, to the Institute of Applied Chemistry Berlin-Adlershof. Between 1991 and 1995, he conducted several research stays at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz in the group of E. W. Fischer. In 1996, Andreas Schönhals did his habilitation at Technical University of Berlin. He joined the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in 1997. Together with his group, he conducts research on a wide variety of Soft Matter systems ranging from low molecular weight materials, liquid crystals to polymers, polymer-based nanocomposites, and polymers in nanometre confinement and in ultrathin films. In 2010, he was awarded a position as an associate professor at the chemistry department of the Technische Universität Berlin. Moreover, he was an invited as guest professor at the University Lyon I “Claude Bernard” (France) and at the Lodz University of Technology (Poland). Together with F. Kremer, he edited the book Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (Springer, 2003) which is one of the standard textbooks in the field.
Paulina Szymoniak received her PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in the field of Soft Matter Physics from the Technische Universität Berlin in 2020. She earned her joint Master of Science degree in Polymer Science from Humboldt Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Potsdam. Since 2016 she works at the Bundestanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in Germany in the field of polymer nanocomposites and polymers in nanoscale confinement. Her areas of expertise include dielectric spectroscopy and advanced calorimetry.