Jan M. Rost (born 1961) is a German theoretical physicist and director at the

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems The Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex systems is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, located in Dresden, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. I ...

in Dresden heading the research department Finite Systems. He was awarded the status of Fellow in the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, after nomination by the Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics in 2007, for ''seminal investigations of correlated doubly excited states, threshold fragmentation in few-body Coulombic systems and small clusters, pendular states of linear molecules, and for elucidating the role of correlation and relaxation in ultracold plasmas and Rydberg gases.'' His research interests reach from ultracold to ultrafast dynamics in finite systems including Rydberg excitation and ionization. Former group leaders of his department include Andreas Buchleitner, Andreas Becker, Klaus Hornberger, Stefan Skupin, Nina Rohringer, and Thomas Pohl. He was Editor in Chief of ''Journal of Physics B'', chairman of the SAMOP section of the

German Physical Society The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...

, chair of the Chemical-Physical-Technical Section of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

and is presently lead editor of ''

Physical Review A ''Physical Review A'' (also known as PRA) is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society covering atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information. the editor was Jan M. Rost ( Max Planck ...

'' and member of the

Wissenschaftsrat The ''German Science and Humanities Council'' (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) is an advisory body to the German Federal Government and the federal state governments. It makes recommendations on the development of science, research, and the universities, a ...

advising German Science politics.

Controversy

In 2025, an investigative unit of the German broadcaster

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

and ''Der Spiegel'' released a documentary alleging that Jan Rost perpetrated abusive behavior and misconduct towards several members of the

in Dresden.

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century German physicists Max Planck Institute directors {{Physicist-stub