Dr. Ferdinand Scholz was born in 1954 in Stuttgart, Germany. After graduating with a diploma in physics in 1981, he obtained a PhD in metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) of GaInAs-InP quantum well structures in 1986. After heading the epitaxial group of the Physical Institute, University of Stuttgart, he got a full professorship at the Institute of Optoelectronics, Ulm University, Germany, in 2003. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 scientific papers in refereed journals.