Two Humboldt-Fellows join HZB
Humboldt-Fellow Kazuki Morita (left) joined the team of Antonio Abate to advance solar energy research. Qingping Wu (right) works on battery stability with Prof. Yan Lu within his Humboldt-Fellowship. Both will stay until mid 2026. © privat
In 2024, two young scientists joined HZB as Humboldt Fellows. Kazuki Morita joined Prof. Antonio Abate's group and brings his expertise in modelling and data analysis to solar energy research. Qingping Wu is an expert in battery research and works with Prof. Yan Lu on high energy density lithium metal batteries.
“I chose to come to HZB because of its outstanding reputation in materials and energy research and the opportunity to work with Prof. Yan Lu and her team on cutting-edge electrochemical storage technologies,” says Qingping Wu. A chemist by training, Wu completed his PhD in chemical engineering in 2021 and worked as an assistant professor at the Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology in China. He joined HZB in August 2024 and will stay until the end of July 2026. His research focuses on aging mechanisms and optimisation of electrode/electrolyte interfaces for high energy density lithium metal batteries.
Kazuki Morita earned his PhD from the Department of Materials, Imperial College London, UK, in 2022. He was a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, USA before joining the team of Prof. Antonio Abate with a Humboldt-Fellowship in May 2024 for the next two years. “I have been reading papers from HZB including ones from Antonio's since I was a PhD student. HZB is an ideal environment to pursue my research,” he says. He will study the stability of tin halide perovskites. “In particular, I will investigate the tin oxidation process using theory and simulations, which is my area of expertise. Prof. Antonio Abate primarily focuses mainly on experiments, so our expertise is complementary,” he says.
- AI agents deliver results – but do they reason scientifically?A research team co-led by Kevin Maik Jablonka from the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications Jena (HIPOLE Jena) and N. M. Anoop Krishnan from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi has developed Corral, a new benchmark for AI agents in science. The preprint “AI scientists produce results without reasoning scientifically” has been published on arXiv (https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.18805). The analysis shows that current systems can execute scientific workflows and deliver results; however, they often do not follow the basic principles of scientific testing and reasoning.
- Materials chemistry shapes the future of catalysisThe synthesis of materials can serve as a tool for developing smart, adaptive electrocatalysts. This rapidly evolving field of research involves in-situ analytics, data-driven discoveries and autonomous robotics. These new approaches could accelerate the discovery of long-lasting and efficient catalysts for future energy conversion and the decarbonisation of the chemical industry. A recent article by Dr Prashanth Menezes and his team in the renowned journal Angewandte Chemie provides an overview of this research.
- Cool vaccines in rural Kenya: solar solution has been awarded by UNIn May 2026, Tabitha Awuor Amollo is spending some weeks as a guest scientist at HZB, analysing perovskite thin films at BESSY II. The Kenyan physicist from Egerton University, Nairobi, was recently recognised for her achievements in research and teaching. For the development of a solar-powered refrigeration system for use in rural health centres, she has been awarded the 2026 Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)-Elsevier Foundation Award. An interview on exceptional projects and daily struggles of a scientist. Questions were asked by Antonia Rötger.