Berlin Science Award: Young Talent Award for Steve Albrecht
The award ceremony in the dinosaur hall of the Natural History Museum in Berlin: Governing Mayor Michael Müller, Steve Albrecht and laudator Jürgen Mlynek. © Landesarchiv Berlin
Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht was awarded by the Mayor of Berlin with the "Young Talent Award" (Nachwuchspreis) of the Berliner Wissenschaftspreis. © HZB/Michael Setzpfandt
On November 7, 2019, Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin and Senator for Science and Research, honoured outstanding research achievements for the twelfth time. Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht was honoured this year with the "Nachwuchspreis" (Young Talent Award) for his research on novel tandem solar cells. Albrecht teaches as a junior professor at the Institute for High Frequency and Semiconductor System Technologies at the Technical University of Berlin and heads the research group "Perovskite Tandem Cells" at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. The Young Talent Award is given to scientists who are not older than 35 years and is endowed with 10,000 euros.
The award recognises innovative research approaches in a future-oriented field that offers Berlin particular benefits as a science and business location.
“We warmly congratulate Steve Albrecht on this award. He has already achieved enormous progress in photovoltaic research including record efficiency levels and patents through his creative approaches“, says Prof. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
"The award is presented to a young scientist whose work on solar cells is advancing photovoltaic technology and directly building a bridge from research to application. Steve Albrecht is thus making a significant contribution to the energy transition. I congratulate him on his success," says Prof. Dr. Christian Thomsen, President of the Technical University of Berlin.
Albrecht is a junior professor at the Technische Universität Berlin and heads a Young Investigator Group focussed on perovskite tandem-solar-cell research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. These types of solar cells combine conventional semiconductors such as silicon or CIGS with novel semiconductors made of metal-halide perovskite compounds. The advantage: these tandem solar cells convert a larger portion of the solar spectrum into electrical energy and thus achieve considerably higher efficiencies.
Albrecht has just published a new world record for a tandem CIGS-perovskite solar cell that he developed and patented with his team. The group conducts their research at the Helmholtz HySPRINT Innovation Lab and is working closely with colleagues at the HZB PVcomB (Photovoltaic Competence Centre Berlin) to develop these experimental tandem cells into a more mature technology.
About the prize winner:
Steve Albrecht grew up in Potsdam, Germany. He studied physics at the University of Potsdam where he earned his doctorate with distinction. He was awarded the Carl Ramsauer Prize of the German Physical Society (DPG) and the Young Investigators Prize of the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam for his dissertation on organic solar cells. He came to the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin as a post-doctoral fellow in 2014. He has headed a Young Investigator Group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2016 and has held a junior professorship at the Technische Universität Berlin, Faculty IV - Electrical Engineering since December 2018.
Steve Albrecht founded a family at an early age and remained in the Berlin-Brandenburg region for that reason. During his studies he worked as a stuntman at the Babelsberg film studio in action films like Inglorious Bastards and the Tribute von Panem. He was awarded the “Apple of Inspiration“ together with Prof. Bernd Rech and Dr. Marko Jost by the President of Slovenia in 2018. He received the Karl Scheel Prize from the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin physics association this year for his research.
- Self assembling monolayer can improve lead-free perovskite solar cells tooTin perovskite solar cells are not only non-toxic, but also potentially more stable than lead-containing perovskite solar cells. However, they are also significantly less efficient. Now, an international team has succeeded in reducing losses in the lower contact layer of tin perovskite solar cells: The scienstists identified chemical compounds that self-assemble into a molecular layer that fits very well with the lattice structure of tin perovskites. On this monolayer, tin perovskite with excellent optoelectronic quality can be grown, which increases the performance of the solar cell.
- Berlin Science Award goes to Philipp AdelhelmBattery researcher Prof. Dr. Philipp Adelhelm has been awarded the 2024 Berlin Science Award. He is a professor at the Institute of Chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin (HU) and heads a joint research group at HU and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB). The materials scientist and electrochemist is investigating sustainable batteries, which play a key role in the success of the energy transition. He is one of the leading international experts in the field of sodium-ion batteries.
- Long-term test shows: Efficiency of perovskite cells varies with the seasonScientists at HZB run a long-term experiment on the roof of a building at the Adlershof campus. They expose a wide variety of solar cells to the weather conditions, recording their performance over a period of years. These include perovskite solar cells, a new photovoltaic material offering high efficiency and low manufacturing costs. Dr Carolin Ulbrich and Dr Mark Khenkin evaluated four years of data and presented their findings in Advanced Energy Materials. This is the longest series of measurements on perovskite cells in outdoor use to date. The scientists found that standard perovskite solar cells perform very well during the summer months, even over several years, but decline in efficiency during the darker months.