Best Innovator Award 2023 for Artem Musiienko
Dr. Artem Musiienko received the MCAA Best Innovator Award for his invention of the CLIMAT-Method of characterising semiconductors at the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) in Milano, Italy, March 2024.
© MCAA
Dr. 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).
Musiienko has developed a new method to comprehensively characterise semiconductors using a single measurement process: The "Constant Light-Induced Magneto-Transport (CLIMAT)" is based on the Hall effect and allows to record 14 different parameters of transport properties of negative and positive charge carriers. The European Patent office has already approved the method's patent (EP23173681), and Artem is currently negotiating with a company to license the technique.
“The CLIMAT method is a disruptive and innovative technique that has the potential to become the gold standard in material characterization”, emphasizes Prof. Antonio Abate. The MCAA Best Innovator Award amounts to 1.500 euros and an award statuette.
- MXene for energy storage: More versatile than expectedMXene materials are promising candidates for a new energy storage technology. However, the processes by which the charge storage takes place were not yet fully understood. A team at HZB has examined, for the first time, individual MXene flakes to explore these processes in detail. Using the in situ Scanning transmission X-ray microscope 'MYSTIIC' at BESSY II, the scientists mapped the chemical states of Titanium atoms on the MXene flake surfaces. The results revealed two distinct redox reactions, depending on the electrolyte. This lays the groundwork for understanding charge transfer processes at the nanoscale and provides a basis for future research aimed at optimising pseudocapacitive energy storage devices.
- 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).
- A record year for our living lab for building-integrated PVIn 2025, our solar facade in Berlin-Adlershof generated more electricity than in any of the previous four years of operation.