Susan Schorr named DGK Chair
Susan Schorr is Head of the Department of Crystallography.
Prof. Dr. Susan Schorr was elected Chair at the German Crystallographic Society’s (DGK) recent annual conference. The conference took place from March 16-19, 2015, in Göttingen, Germany. Prior to her current appointment, Susan Schorr was head of the DGK’s National Committee.
Susan Schorr is the current head of the Department of Crystallography at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and is also a professor at the Freie Universität Berlin. The focus of Schorr’s work is on an examination of the underlying structure-property relationships of materials used in energy conversion, for example, in new types of materials for solar cells. In her work, Schorr is drawing on methods for neutron diffraction, synchrotron radiation, and conventional X-rays. In addition, Prof. Schorr is actively engaged in the promotion of junior scientists, as through her work on the faculty of the MatSEC Graduate School and as part of the school’s focus on research management.
DGK, the German Crystallographic Society, is a nonprofit organization whose mission it is to promote crystallography in the educational, research, and industrial settings, as well as in the public sphere. The Society currently has over 1,000 individual members.
www.dgk-home.de
- What Zinc concentration in teeth revealsTeeth are composites of mineral and protein, with a bulk of bony dentin that is highly porous. This structure is allows teeth to be both strong and sensitive. Besides calcium and phosphate, teeth contain trace elements such as zinc. Using complementary microscopy imaging techniques, a team from Charité Berlin, TU Berlin and HZB has quantified the distribution of natural zinc along and across teeth in 3 dimensions. The team found that, as porosity in dentine increases towards the pulp, zinc concentration increases 5~10 fold. These results help to understand the influence of widely-used zinc-containing biomaterials (e.g. filling) and could inspire improvements in dental medicine.
- Fascinating archaeological find becomes a source of knowledgeThe Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (BLfD) has sent a rare artefact from the Middle Bronze Age to Berlin for examination using cutting-edge, non-destructive methods. It is a 3,400-year-old bronze sword, unearthed during archaeological excavations in Nördlingen, Swabia, in 2023. Experts have been able to determine how the hilt and blade are connected, as well as how the rare and well-preserved decorations on the pommel were made. This has provided valuable insight into the craft techniques employed in southern Germany during the Bronze Age. The BLfD used 3D computed tomography and X-ray diffraction to analyse internal stresses at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), as well as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at a BESSY II beamline supervised by the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).
- Element cobalt exhibits surprising propertiesThe element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic structure. Spin-resolved measurements of the band structure (spin-ARPES) at BESSY II revealed entangled energy bands that cross each other along extended paths in specific crystallographic directions, even at room temperature. As a result, cobalt can be considered as a highly tunable and unexpectedly rich topological platform, opening new perspectives for exploiting magnetic topological states in future information technologies.