Rainer Adelung is a professor at the Chair for Functional Nanomaterials in the Institute for Materials Science at the Faculty of Engineering, CAU, Kiel, Germany. Prior to this appointment at CAU, he was leading a scientifically independent research group from 2002 to 2007 at the Chair for Multicomponent Materials at the Faculty of Engineering, CAU Kiel, Germany, that focused on Nanotechnology. From 2001 to 2002, he worked as postdoctoral fellow and research assistant at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. In 2000, he received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, CAU Kiel, Germany (received award for the best Ph.D. thesis in the year 2000). His representative work includes various nanostructures, mainly on the synthesis and design of porous materials, nanostructured surfaces and nanowires. Applications range from energy technology like batteries and supercapacitors to sensor devices and antiviral agents to advanced adhesion technology in engineering. From 2013-2019, he was the spokesperson of the University focus on nanosurface and interface science.