TU Berlin appoints Renske van der Veen as professor
Dr. Renske van der Veen investigates catalytic processes at BESSY II, which are crucial for the production of green hydrogen, among other things. © M: Setzpfandt/HZB
For the past two years, Dr Renske van der Veen has led a research group in time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy at HZB. Her research focuses on catalytic processes that enable, for example, the production of green hydrogen. She has now been appointed to a S-W2 professorship at the Institute of Optics and Atomic Physics (IOAP) at the Technische Universität Berlin.
Dr Renske van der Veen specialises in ultrafast X-ray methods, which she uses at BESSY II to study the fast processes involved in catalysis. Van der Veen is also contributing her expertise to the scientific requirements profile for the successor X-ray source BESSY III.
Renske van der Veen studied at the ETH Zurich and completed her PhD at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She went on to do research at the California Institute of Technology, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and the University of Illinois, where she was also an assistant professor. She has received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Sofja Kovalevskaja Award and the Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering.
- Metallic nanocatalysts: what really happens during catalysisUsing a combination of spectromicroscopy at BESSY II and microscopic analyses at DESY's NanoLab, a team has gained new insights into the chemical behaviour of nanocatalysts during catalysis. The nanoparticles consisted of a platinum core with a rhodium shell. This configuration allows a better understanding of structural changes in, for example, rhodium-platinum catalysts for emission control. The results show that under typical catalytic conditions, some of the rhodium in the shell can diffuse into the interior of the nanoparticles. However, most of it remains on the surface and oxidises. This process is strongly dependent on the surface orientation of the nanoparticle facets.
- KlarText Prize for Hanna TrzesniowskiThe chemist has been awarded the prestigious KlarText Prize for Science Communication by the Klaus Tschira Foundation.
- Shedding light on insulators: how light pulses unfreeze electronsMetal oxides are abundant in nature and central to technologies such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Yet, many suffer from poor electrical conduction, caused by strong repulsion between electrons in neighboring metal atoms. Researchers at HZB and partner institutions have shown that light pulses can temporarily weaken these repulsive forces, lowering the energy required for electrons mobility, inducing a metal-like behavior. This discovery offers a new way to manipulate material properties with light, with high potential to more efficient light-based devices.