Jochen Mannhart studied physics at the University of Tübingen, Germany, from 1980 to 1986, where he also received his PhD in 1987 and his habilitation in 1994.
From 1987 to 1989, he was a visiting scientist at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.
The 2014 European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize is awarded to Jochen Mannhart.
Under his leadership, his research group has developed an improved scanning probe microscope (frequency-modulated lateral force microscopy), which features a resolution of 77 picometers.
With P. Chaudhari and D. Dimos, J. Mannhart revealed that grain alignment is key to the fabrication of high-temperature superconductors with useful critical currents, so that they are suitable for practical applications such as modern high-Tc superconducting cables.