Slovenian president awards HZB scientist with "Apple of Inspiration"
Marko Topic, Bernd Rech, Janez Krc, Benjamin Lipovsek, Steve Albrecht, Marko Jost, Borut Pahor (f.l.t.r) © Faculty of electrical engineering University of Ljubljana
© Joze Suhadolnik
Marko Jošt, Steve Albrecht and Bernd Rech, researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) receive a rare award today, 19 December 2018. In the slovenian Grand Hall of Presidential Palace, the Slovenian President, Borut Pahor, presents them with the "Apple of Inspiration". It honours achievements in culture, science, sport and society. The Berlin scientists are the first foreigners who receive the prize together with colleagues from the University of Ljubljana.
The teams from Ljubljana and Berlin are honored for their long-standing collaboration, which has led to milestones in the development of perovskite solar cells. This is documented, for example, by a joint publication in the renowned journal Energy and Environmental Science on an efficiency record for a monolithic tandem solar cell made of silicon and perovskite layers.
Dr. Marko Jošt, who was the first author of the study and contributed significantly to the joint results, received his doctorate both at the University of Ljubljana and at the TUB. Today he is a postdoctoral researcher at the HZB.
The excellent international cooperation not only inspires young scientists in Slovenia, but also contributes to further strengthening research into alternative energy sources, according to the Slovenian government. "International cooperation and the results achieved are of great importance for society. They help to find solutions for a sustainable energy turnaround and thus also to fight against climate change and thus secure our livelihoods".
Prof. Steve Albrecht, head of a BMBF-funded junior research group at the HZB and junior professor at the TUB, is the coordinator of the mentioned study. In cooperation with the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT and the Photovoltaic Competence Centre PVcomB, he develops and analyses the very complex tandem cells with the aim of leading them to a greater technological maturity.
Prof. Bernd Rech, solar researcher and currently acting scientific director of the HZB, initiated the German-Slovenian cooperation together with the Slovenian professor Marko Topic. Among other things, he was a visiting professor at the University of Ljubljana in 2014. The close cooperation continues to this day. Marko Jost, the joint doctoral student at the time, is now a postdoctoral researcher in Steve Albrecht's group.
- Nanosilver as an electrocatalyst for CO₂ reductionVia electrolysis, CO2 can be reduced to CO, a raw material for further chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQuest Project, an internation team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has now systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both the size of the particles and their density. The best yield was achieved with nanoparticles with diameters of around 10 nm, which were loosely distributed. Furthermore, they demonstrated how the economic efficiency of the electrochemical cell can be enhanced by integrating an additional chemical reaction at the anode, enabling the simultaneous production of a valuable formic acid, hydrogen, and CO in one device.
- Marcel Risch has been appointed Professor at the Freie Universität BerlinMarcel Risch was appointed to a W2-S professorship in the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2026. His research group has been transformed into the department 'Mechanisms of Sustainable Electrocatalysis'. Risch investigates the fundamental mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions and, on this basis, develops knowledge- and data-driven strategies to improve electrocatalysts for the sustainable production of hydrogen, fuels and chemicals.
- BESSY II: Evaporated perovskites in tandem solar cells improvedPerovskite-silicon tandem solar cells achieve significantly higher efficiencies than silicon solar cells on their own. One particularly attractive method is co-evaporation of the perovskite precursor molecules on top of the silicon subcell. Scientists at HZB have analysed film growth on the nanoscale at BESSY II and found a new way to improve the quality of the perovskite layer: adding a thin seed layer of caesium chloride between the two sub-cells promotes uniform perovskite growth and suppresses the formation of undesired lead iodide at the interface.