Guest researcher at HZB: Bessel Prize Winner Benjamin Rotenberg
Benjamin Rotenberg is a guest researcher at the HZB-Institute for Solar Fuels in 2018. © CNRS/Cyril Fresillon
Prof. Benjamin Rotenberg has received a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 2018 and will be spending time regularly as a guest researcher at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. Rotenberg is a researcher of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and heads a research group in Sorbonne Université in Paris. He works in an interdisciplinary area spanning physics and chemistry for modelling transport processes in materials, at interfaces, and in electrolytes.
Rotenberg heads a theory group at the PHENIX laboratory of the (CNRS) and Sorbonne Université in Paris. He has previously worked at research establishments in Amsterdam, Berkeley, Barcelona, and Cambridge. The models developed by him can be applied to many problems, especially to those in the environmental field and energy research.
Currently, Rotenberg is concentrating on processes in complex material systems that are of interest for energy storage and conversion. It was for this reason that Prof. Joe Dzubiella, who heads a theory group at the HZB, nominated him for the Bessel Research Prize. During his time at the HZB-Institute for Solar Fuels, Rotenberg will work closely with colleagues from experimentation groups investigating complex electrolytes and catalysts that facilitate production of hydrogen from sunlight.
About the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize
Nominees for the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize must be internationally recognised scientists from abroad who have completed their doctorates no more than 18 years ago. This funding enables them to carry out research of their own choosing in collaboration with colleagues in Germany over a period of up to one year. The prize is endowed with 45,000 euros.
For further information: https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/bessel-award.html
arö
-
Green Deal Ukraina: HZB launches an Energy & Climate Project
Green Deal Ukraina, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, is working with partner institutions in Ukraine and Poland to establish an energy and climate think tank in the capital, Kiev. The aim is to provide independent and evidence-based advice on rebuilding a sustainable energy system in Ukraine. After all, the implementation of energy and climate legislation is a prerequisite for Ukraine's accession to the EU. The project started on 1 June 2023 and will run for four years.
-
Spintronics at BESSY II: Domain walls in magnetic nanowires
Magnetic domains walls are known to be a source of electrical resistance due to the difficulty for transport electron spins to follow their magnetic texture. This phenomenon holds potential for utilization in spintronic devices, where the electrical resistance can vary based on the presence or absence of a domain wall. A particularly intriguing class of materials are half metals such as La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) which present full spin polarization, allowing their exploitation in spintronic devices. Still the resistance of a single domain wall in half metals remained unknown. Now a team from Spain, France and Germany has generated a single domain wall on a LSMO nanowire and measured resistance changes 20 times larger than for a normal ferromagnet such as Cobalt.
-
Fractons as information storage: Not yet quite tangible, but close
A new quasiparticle with interesting properties has appeared in solid-state physics - but so far only in the theoretical modelling of solids with certain magnetic properties. An international team from HZB and Freie Universität Berlin has now shown that, contrary to expectations, quantum fluctuations do not make the quasiparticle appear more clearly, but rather blur its signature.