Poster award to Markus Kubin
Markus Kubin in front of his poster. © HZB
At the International Conference on X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Markus Kubin has been selected to receive one out of five poster awards. More than 300 posters have been presented at the poster session.
Markus Kubin is a PhD student at HZB-Institute for Methods and Instrumentation on Synchrotron Radiation Research. He presented results with femtosecond x-ray pulses concerning reactions in the oxygen evolving complex in the protein Photosystem II. This system plays a central role in natural photosynthesis in plants, algae and cyano bacteria.
The XAFS16 was held from 23. – 28. August in Karlsruhe.
- Environmental Chemistry at BESSY II: Radicals in waterwaysHow do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection, for example with regard to the overfertilisation of water bodies by intensive agriculture. A team at BESSY II has now developed a new method of investigating hydroxyl radicals in solution. By using a clever trick, the scientists gained surprising insights into the reaction pathway.
- AI-driven Catalyst Discovery: €30 million funding for German consortiumSix partners from research and industry, including Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI), BASF, Dunia Innovations, Siemens Energy, and the Technical University Berlin are launching a joint project to accelerate the catalyst discovery. The German Federal Ministry for Science, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is providing €30 million in funding for ASCEND (Accelerated Solutions for Catalysis using Emerging Nanotechnology and Digital Innovation). The research initiative targets the defossilisation of energy-intensive industries while safeguarding industrial competitiveness, with a focus on the chemical sector. The five-year project will start on 1st April 2026.
- Catalysis research at HZB gets new facilityAs part of the CatLab project, HZB has acquired a unique facility for measuring the catalytic performance of thin-film catalysts. Built by ILS in Adlershof, it has now been delivered. The facility consists of a total of eight chemical reactors in which catalytic systems can be tested. At over €2.5 million, this is the largest single investment in the CatLab project.