Gambke was born on October 16, 1949 in
Rimsting, at the
Lake Chiemsee in Upper
Bavaria. He visited a
Volksschule in Mehlem (Bonn) and went to
Gymnasium in
Bad Godesberg (Bonn) and
Gehrden. After graduating in 1968 and completing Basic military service, Gambke studied
physics at the
Technische Universität Darmstadt where he got his diploma in 1976, followed by a
doctorate in 1981. He worked as a research assistant at the Institut für Festkörperphysik (Institute for
Solid State Physics) at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and did scientific work at the
University of California in San Diego, USA. From 1982, he was as a technology consultant at the in Berlin. Gambke joined
Schott AG in 1984 where he first worked as a project manager in the Research & Development department. He became that department's head in 1985 and did research at the
Otto Schott Research Center in Mainz. In 1990, Gambke took over the commercial management of the Schott plant in
Landshut. He contributed to the creation of production facilities in Czechia (1992), Singapore (1994) and in the USA (2001). Towards the end of his time at Schott, he held high positions in Schott: He was the head of Schott's Packaging Department and the vice-president of the newly founded
NEC SCHOTT Components Corporation. Last he was the Spokesman of the Executive Board of
SCHOTT Electronics GmbH from 2003 to 2006. Gambke left Schott in 2007 and founded
Bürgerenergie Isae e.G. in 2012, an organization focussing on
Energy transition. He was a member of the board of trustees of the
University of Applied Sciences Landshut and a member of the
Petra Kelly Foundation, named after one of the founders of the Green Party. == Political Work ==