The unique feature of his approach is the local, chemical view on elementary processes at surfaces, interfaces or in bulk materials with the aid of electronic structure theory in contrast to the band-like views inspired by physics, which is often taken in the field. The view on electronic properties is taken quantitatively with several quantum chemical methods for computation and analysis, going beyond the mostly qualitative approaches. An important aspect is to generalize findings from specific systems investigated to derive models and trends, e.g. for typical reaction channels or bonding features. Model systems as well as actually experimentally realized systems are investigated with this approach.
