Prof. Dr. Thess is director of the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Professor of Energy Storage at the associated chair of the University of Stuttgart. He was born in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) on 23 February 1964. He was appointed Professor of Technical Thermodynamics at the TU Ilmenau in 1998. Since 2014, he has been teaching in Stuttgart and holds a senior position as Institute Director at the DLR. He has also worked as a visiting professor in Japan, China and at the renowned Stanford University in California. Thess focuses on researching and developing novel efficient and resource-saving energy storage and energy conversion technologies. He particularly distinguished himself with expert knowledge in the context of the German energy transition and nuclear power debate. In the so-called "Stuttgart Declaration", a petition by twenty distinguished professors, he advocated for the continued operation of German nuclear power plants beyond 2022, citing energy security and climate balance advantages.