Karl-Ludwig Kratz

Who is Karl-Ludwig Kratz?

Karl-Ludwig Kratz is a German nuclear chemist and astrophysicist. He is professor for nuclear chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and adjunct professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

One of the main interests of Kratz is the study of nuclear structure of very neutron-rich isotopes. He concentrated on the beta-delayed neutron decay mode, especially the spectroscopy of the emitted neutrons. These isotopes are obtained by nuclear fission or proton induced spallation of heavy elements as uranium. In general, the extremely neutron-rich species of interest are produced together with an overwhelming amount of shorter-lived ones. Therefore he is developing chemical and physical separation techniques with very high chemical selectivity. These studies are performed in international collaborations at high-flux reactors or accelerator facilities as the CERN in Switzerland or the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University.

The nuclear structure data are also applied by Kratz to nucleosynthesis, especially the astrophysical r-process.