Uwe Kortshagen

Background & Expertise

Uwe Kortshagen is a professor of mechanical engineering and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He holds the Ronald L. and Janet A. Christenson Chair of Renewable Energy. His research is in the area of plasmas for renewable energy and sustainable technologies. He earned his PhD in physics in 1991, and his habilitation in experimental physics in 1995 from the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. In 1996, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1999 and to professor in 2003. He served the department as director of Graduate Studies from 2006-08 and as department head from 2008-18. He served as president of the International Plasma Chemistry Society and as chair of two Gordon Research Conferences. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Physics (UK), the International Plasma Chemistry Society and the Institute on the Environment. As of 2026, his work has been published in more than 250 journal articles. He holds four U.S. patents that have been central to three start-up companies.