Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg appoints Olga Kasian
Olga Kasian has accepted a professorship at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).
Dr. Olga Kasian is investigating why catalysts for hydrogen production by water electrolysis are limited in efficiency. The chemist has now accepted a professorship at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). The W2 professorship is entitled "Materials for Electrochemical Energy Conversion" and is located at the Faculty of Engineering.
Olga Kasian completed her doctorate in 2013 at the State University of Chemical Technology in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, and was awarded as best young scientist of Dnepropetrovsk region in field of chemical technology. After a first postdoctoral stay in Germany, she joined the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Düsseldorf as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow in 2015. That year she got the Award of the President of Ukraine for Young Scientists. Since May 2019, she has been leading the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group 'Dynamic Electrocatalytic Interfaces' at HZB and the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energies (HI-ERN).
Together with her team, she is investigating how the catalytically active surfaces change under reaction conditions, using a wide range of methods including state of the art spectroscopy techniques available at the EMIL-Lab at the synchrotron radiation source BESSY II.
- Bernd Rech elected to the BR50 Board of DirectorsThe Scientific Director at Helmholt-Zentrum Berlin is the new face behind the "Natural Sciences" unit at Berlin Research 50 (BR50). Following the election in December 2025, the constituent meeting of the new BR50 Board of Directors took place on 22 January 2026.
Its members are Michael Hintermüller (Weierstrass Institute, WIAS), Noa K. Ha (German Centre for Integration and Migration Research, DeZIM), Volker Haucke (Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, FMP), Uta Bielfeldt (German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin, DRFZ) and Bernd Rech (HZB).
- HZB expert appointed chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Barcelona Research CentreProf. Dr. Susan Schorr has been appointed to the newly established Scientific Advisory Board of the Barcelona Research Centre in Multiscale Science and Engineering and elected as its chair.
- Compact electron accelerator for treating PFAS-contaminated waterSo-called forever chemicals or PFAS compounds are a growing environmental problem. An innovative approach to treating PFAS-contaminated water and soil now comes from accelerator physics: high-energy electrons can break down PFAS molecules into harmless components through a process called radiolysis. A recent study published in PLOS One shows that an accelerator developed at HZB, based on a SRF photoinjector, can provide the necessary electron beam.