HZB-postdoc Feng Liang becomes associate Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University
Dr. Feng Liang has secured an associate professorship at the Green Hydrogen Innovation Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. He will start to build up his research team in June 2025. © HZB
Dr. Feng Liang has joined the HZB Institute Solar Fuels in 2021. Now, he has secured an associate professorship at the Green Hydrogen Innovation Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. He will start to build up his research team in June 2025.
Dr. Feng Liang has earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, in a joint training programme with RWTH Aachen. In October 2021, he joined the Institute Solar Fuels on a Helmholtz-Innovation Pool project. He is developing cutting-edge prototypes for water-splitting devices that can operate at higher than ambient pressures up to 8 bar.
The design of functioning prototypes demands skills from different disciplines, not only device engineering but as well a deep understanding of materials science and electrochemistry. “I learned most of the electrochemistry here from Fatwa Abdi and Roel van de Krol”, Liang says. “They were the best mentors I could ever imagine”.
Feng Liang has secured an associate professorship at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Xi'an Jiaotong University. He will leave HZB after helping his colleagues prepare for the "programme oriented funding" evaluation in May.
“From June 2025, I will start my own group in China, and I'm excited about the prospect of a close partnership with HZB in the future”, he says. Liang will continue his work on prototypes for water splitting. Roel van de Krol, director of the Institute for Solar Fuels, praised Feng Liang's achievement, saying: “It's wonderful to see that his work at HZB has led to an associate professorship; it's a great example of how HZB provides a supportive environment for early-career researchers to develop their careers”.
- A duo for BESSY III light sourceSince 1 March 2026, Renske van der Veen and Andreas Jankowiak have formed the leadership team of BESSY III. Together, they will drive forward HZB’s central project: the planning and realisation of BESSY III light source in Berlin-Adlershof. Here, they talk about their motivation, the next steps, and why BESSY III is a a cross-generational project.
- Humboldt-Fellow at HZB-Institute for Solar Fuels: Alexander R. UhlAlexander R. Uhl, UBC Okanagan School of Engineering in Kelowna, Canada, aims to develop with Roel van de Krol from the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels an efficient and inexpensive photoelectrolyser for producing hydrogen using sunlight. His stay is being funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
- 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.