Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award
The Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize went to Dr. Victoriia Saveleva (right) for her work on catalysts. © M. Setzpfandt/HZB
Laudator Prof. Gerd Schneider, award winners Dr. Christian David and Prof. Alexei Erko and Prof. Mathias Richter, Friends of HZB, (From left to right). © M. Setzpfandt/HZB
On December 6, 2018, the Association of Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin awarded the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize for an outstanding doctoral thesis in the field of research with synchrotron radiation at the HZB or at DESY as well as the European Innovation-Award on Synchrotron Radiation. The award ceremonies took place during the 10th User Meeting at the HZB.
The decisions between excellent proposals have not been easy for the two selection committees, Prof. Mathias Richter, chairman of the “Friends of HZB” pointed out.
The Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize went to Dr. Victoriia Saveleva for her doctorate at the University of Strasbourg on in-situ investigations of electrochemical processes using photoemission spectroscopy. Her experiments at BESSY II focused on reactions on catalyst surfaces of ruthenium and iridium during the electrolytic decomposition of water. Saveleva is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2018 went to Dr. Christian David, also from the Paul Scherrer Institute, and to Prof. Alexei Erko, who recently moved from the HZB to the Institute for Applied Photonics (IAP) in Berlin-Adlershof. The two physicists were honored for their innovative contributions to the application of diffractive X-ray optics, which enable complex X-ray experiments with high resolution. The laudation was held by Prof. Gerd Schneider from the HZB. This time it was not the "ring makers" who were honoured for developing the accelerators, but those who had cut the "diamonds for the ring", Schneider explained pictorially. The Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award is sponsored by SPECS GmbH and BESTEC GmbH.
- BESSY II: Phosphorous chains – a 1D material with 1D electronic propertiesFor the first time, a team at BESSY II has succeeded in demonstrating the one-dimensional electronic properties of a material through a highly refined experimental process. The samples consisted of short chains of phosphorus atoms that self-organise at specific angles on a silver substrate. Through sophisticated analysis, the team was able to disentangle the contributions of these differently aligned chains. This revealed that the electronic properties of each chain are indeed one-dimensional. Calculations predict an exciting phase transition to be expected as soon as these chains are more closely packed. While material consisting of individual chains with longer distances is semiconducting, a very dense chain structure would be metallic.
- What vibrating molecules might reveal about cell biologyInfrared vibrational spectroscopy at BESSY II can be used to create high-resolution maps of molecules inside live cells and cell organelles in native aqueous environment, according to a new study by a team from HZB and Humboldt University in Berlin. Nano-IR spectroscopy with s-SNOM at the IRIS beamline is now suitable for examining tiny biological samples in liquid medium in the nanometre range and generating infrared images of molecular vibrations with nanometre resolution. It is even possible to obtain 3D information. To test the method, the team grew fibroblasts on a highly transparent SiC membrane and examined them in vivo. This method will provide new insights into cell biology.
- Prashanth Menezes awarded prestigious VAIBHAV Fellowship by Government of IndiaThe Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, has announced the recipients of the Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Fellowship, a flagship initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between the Indian STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) diaspora and leading research institutions in India. Among the 2025 awardees is Dr. Prashanth W. Menezes, Head of the Department of Materials Chemistry for Catalysis at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB).