Gerd Schröder-Turk studied physics in Cologne (Köln). After completing his Diploma thesis on statistical physics in 2000, he completed a PhD at the Australia National University in 2005 on geometric frustration in self assembled bicontinuous lipid systems, titled ’Skeletons in the Labyrinth’. From 2006-2015, he was employed as an academic at the university of Erlangen-Nürnberg, conducting and directing research into the geometry and physics of spatially complex systems, with a focus on disordered systems, network-like geometries and biophotonic/nanoengineered applications. In 2015 he moved to the Maths&Stats Department at Murdoch University in Perth where he is a professor. He completed a habilitation degree in 2013. He was awarded the Prize for Excellence in teaching of the FAU in 2010, and the Emmy-Noether Prize in 2014, and the Camurus Fellowship award in 2019. He was a founding member of the interdisciplinary research group 'Geometry and Physics of spatial random systems'. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2018, he was elected onto the Senate of Murdoch University and in 2023 selected as the Deputy President of Murdoch University's Academic Council, and has been a member of the National Executive of the Australian Institute of Physics. In 2019, the Times Higher Education listed him among the People of the year who mattered in higher education. 

See full biography at www.gerdschroeder-turk.org/biography

I refer to my research area as 'materials geometry', that is, the combination of geometry and the science of biological or synthetic materials. Much of my research is focused on systems where a complex spatial structure determines their physical or biological properties. In such systems, the route to understanding physics or function is often via modern geometry, including hyperbolic and stochastic geometry.

Formation of complex structure in biology and chemistry:

• Self-assembly of network phases in copolymeric or lipid systems
• Butterfly nanostructures and their biological formation mechanisms
• Formation of gyroid phases and other bicontinuous structures
• Pattern formation of spatio-temporal chaos in Turing reaction-diffusion systems

Applications of complex structures for advanced materials

• Triply-periodic surfaces as microstructure designs for bone scaffolds
• Gyroid-related geometries as nano-engineered photonic materials
• Geometries for nano-fabrication and 3D printing

Characterisation and 3D imaging of complex material morphologies

• Minkowski tensors and integral geometry of amorphous materials
• Medial axes and pore size measures for biopolymer networks
• Quantitative morphology of disordered porous, granular & cellular materials
• Local shape and anisotropy measures for granular materials
• Bond-orientational order metrics and Minkowski tensors

Geometric concepts and algorithmic solutions

• Triply-periodic minimal surfaces and constant mean curvature surfaces
• Tricontinuous and poly-continuous geometries
• Simulation approaches for complex bandstructures and evanescent modes
• Group theoretic approaches for optics and mechanics of microstructured materials

Statistical physics and materials properties

• Phase transitions of granular materials and random close packing
• Auxetic material microstructures: group theory, fabrication and geometry
• Emergence of structural chirality in chitin nanostructured materials
• Non-universal behaviour of percolation on four-valent networks
• Anomalous diffusion in critical pore spaces