New board „HZB Succeed“ has been founded
Members of the board "HZB succeed": The founding meeting showed how important the further development of our early career researchers is.
To support the development of young scientists at HZB in the best possible way - this has been a long-standing goal of the HZB. Now this task will be pursued even more strategically. To this end, the new board “HZB Succeed” has been founded in January 2022.
What does “HZB Succeed” stand for?
The members of this strategically oriented board provide impulses for high-quality support of scientists in the qualification phase, which is oriented towards the latest international standards and also meets the future scientific challenges of the HZB.
The name “HZB Succeed” stands for: HZB support, competence and career advice (for early career researchers development).
“With the strategic board, we have another important building block for optimally setting up and further developing the support of our early career researchers. The first meeting of the board was very motivational and I am looking forward to the lively exchange”, says Bernd Rech, scientific director of the HZB.
What are the goals of “HZB Succeed”?
The goal of this collaborative effort is to connect the scientific needs of the research areas at HZB more strongly to personnel development measures, and to check the current offers from the Graduate Center and the Postdoc Office for their future viability. In addition to academic career paths, non-academic career paths and the respective requirements for early career researchers will be given greater consideration in the HZB offers.
The board meets twice per year. “It is a milestone for the career support of early career researchers. With this, HZB once again makes clear how important it takes its responsibility for temporarily employed scientists”, says Christoph Scherfer, contact person of the Postdoc Office. His colleague from the HZB Graduate Center Nicole Schmid: “The new perspectives on the support of early career researchers at the center will directly benefit our target groups.”
Who is part of the board?
- Bernd Rech, scientific director
- Representatives of the scientific departments: Klaus Habicht, Atoosa Meseck, Roel van de Krol, Renske van der Veen
- On early career researchers support: Nicole Schmid (Graduate Center), Christoph Scherfer (Postdoc Office), Cécile Dufloux (HZB Stab, young investigator groups)
- On Information Technology: Ants Finke (department head IT)
- On Technology Transfer and Innovation: Paul Harten (department head GF-TTI)
- An external member from industry (planned)
- Key technology for a future without fossil fuelsIn June and July 2025, catalyst researcher Nico Fischer spent some time at HZB. It was his sabbatical, he was relieved of his duties as Director of the Catalysis Institute in Cape Town for several months and was able to focus on research only. His institute is collaborating with HZB on two projects that aim to develop environmentally friendly alternatives using innovative catalyst technologies. The questions were asked by Antonia Rötger, HZB.
- 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.
- Sodium-ion batteries: New storage mechanism for cathode materialsLi-ion and Na-ion batteries operate through a process called intercalation, where ions are stored and exchanged between two chemically different electrodes. In contrast, co-intercalation, a process in which both ions and solvent molecules are stored simultaneously, has traditionally been considered undesirable due to its tendency to cause rapid battery failure. Against this traditional view, an international research team led by Philipp Adelhelm has now demonstrated that co-intercalation can be a reversible and fast process for cathode materials in Na-ion batteries. The approach of jointly storing ions and solvents in cathode materials provides a new handle for designing batteries with high efficiency and fast charging capabilities. The results are published in Nature Materials.