Prof. Dr. Reiner Kümmel This page presents a summary of my former research on Theory of inhomogeneous superconductors Mesoscopic heterocontacts and the still ongoing research on Energy utilization and emission mitigation Research on non-equilibrium phenomena in inhomogeneous superconductors was focussed on effects that result from the generation and destruction of Cooper pairs by Andreev reflection at the phase boundaries between superconducting (S) and normal (N) or semiconducting regions. The influences of these effects on vortex motion in type II superconductors, Josephson currents in current- or voltage-biased mesoscopic superconducting heterocontacts, and microwave absorption spectra of superconducting multilayers were computed. Of special interest was the cooperation of Andreev reflections, Bloch oscillations, and Zener tunneling with normal scattering from coventional scalar potentials in mesoscopic superconducting contacts. The resulting structures in the current-voltage-characteristics were computed. How exchange-correlation effects in contacts with high temperature superconductors can be taken into account was investigated. Research in energy science is dedicated to thermoeconomic, system-analytical studies on the potentials of energy conservation and emission mitigation by optimum combinations of technologies for the utilization of renewable energies with those of the rational use of energy and the conventional combustion of fossil fuels. Furthermore, economic growth and technological progress in industrial countries is analyzed with the help of a model that takes energy into account as a third factor of production, besides capital and labor. This model reproduces well economic growth in Germany, Japan, and the USA and reveals that energy's productive power is much larger than its cost share, while for (routine) labor just the opposite is true. The production factor energy accounts for most of the growth that neoclassical economics attributes to "technological progress", while practically ignoring energy as a factor of production. Creativity, modeled by time-dependent technology parameters, complements energy in growth dynamics. It wil be decisive for responding successfully to the challenges that arise from the limits to growth that are imposed on finite systems by the laws of nature.