Prof. Dr. Margit Zacharias received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Magdeburg in 1984. In 1999, she got her habilitation in Experimental Physics at the University of Magdeburg. She joined the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics/Halle in 2000 with a position in the prestigious C3 program of the Max Planck Society, where she established and led the Nanocrystals and Nanowires Group. This was followed by a move in 2006 to the University of Paderborn, Germany, where she was an Applied Physics professor. In 2007, she moved to the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, joined the Institute of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), and runs the Laboratory for Nanotechnology. Her research focuses on Nanostructuring; Quantum dot systems; Electronic/optical characteristics; ZnO nanowires, Si nanocrystals, Si-based solar cells.