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.
- BESSY II: How pulsed charging enhances the service time of batteriesAn improved charging protocol might help lithium-ion batteries to last much longer. Charging with a high-frequency pulsed current reduces ageing effects, an international team demonstrated. The study was led by Philipp Adelhelm (HZB and Humboldt University) in collaboration with teams from the Technical University of Berlin and Aalborg University in Denmark. Experiments at the X-ray source BESSY II were particularly revealing.
- Fuel Cells: Oxidation processes of phosphoric acid revealed by tender X-raysThe interactions between phosphoric acid and the platinum catalyst in high-temperature PEM fuel cells are more complex than previously assumed. Experiments at BESSY II with tender X-rays have decoded the multiple oxidation processes at the platinum-electrolyte interface. The results indicate that variations in humidity can influence some of these processes in order to increase the lifetime and efficiency of fuel cells.
- Best Innovator Award 2023 for Artem MusiienkoDr. Artem Musiienko has been awarded a special prize for his groundbreaking new method for characterising semiconductors. At the recent annual conference of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) in Milan, Italy, he received the MCAA Award for the best innovation. Since 2023, Musiienko has been carrying out his research project with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions in Antonio Abate's department, Novel Materials and Interfaces for Photovoltaic Solar Cells (SE-AMIP).