Former Senior Vice President, BASF in charge of Organic Electronics Research, Biological & Effect Systems Research. He is currently Chair of the University of Heidelberg Foundation
Karl Hahn studied physics and is a graduate from the University of Heidelberg. He also received his PhD from the same University in 1980. From 1981 – 1984 he worked as a Senior Scientist at the University of Mainz.
In 1984 he joined BASF AG Ludwigshafen, Germany as Research Expert in the Polymer Physics Department of the Polymer Laboratory, and went on to become Senior Engineer, Production Engineering, BASF Corporation, Anderson Plant, SC, USA in 1988. In 1991 he returned to Germany where he was nominated Vice President, Product Development and Tech. Service, Fiber Raw Materials, BASF AG, Ludwigshafen. Hahn became Vice President, Product development and Tech. Service Polyethylene, BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany in 1995 and Group Vice President, Performance Polymers NAFTA, BASF Corporation, Mount Olive, NJ, USA in 1999. In 2003 he returned to Ludwigshafen, Germany, and became Senior Vice President, Physical Chemistry, Biological & Effect Systems Research. From 2012 until June 2015 Karl Hahn was in charge of Organic Electronics Research, Biological & Effect Systems Research, BASF SE, Ludwigshafen as Senior Vice President.
He retired in July 2015. Currently he is Chair of the University of Heidelberg Foundation.