Dr. Michelle Browne receives Daimler and Benz Foundation Fellowship
Michelle Browne heads a Helmholtz Young Investigators Group on electrocatalysis at HZB and is now a fellow of the Daimler and Benz Foundation. © HZB/ K. Fuchs
Michelle Browne heads a Helmholtz Young Investigators Group on electrocatalysis at HZB. She has now been selected as a fellow of the Daimler and Benz Foundation. She will receive 40,000 euros over the next two years and, in addition, access to an excellent research network.
With her research, she wants to contribute to the development of better catalysts for the production of green hydrogen. To increase the percentage of green H2 produced by water splitting compared to the production of grey H2 by steam reformation, it is necessary to improve the efficiency associated with low temperature membrane water splitting technologies (e.g. Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM)).
One way to improve the efficiency is to replace the current state-of the art catalysts with materials that are more active and stable which will result in a drastic paradigm shift in green H2 production. This project will focus on tailoring MXene and metal oxide catalyst layers to produce Green H2 in AEM devices.
Michelle Browne is currently the head of the Helmholtz Young Investigator Electrocatalysis: Synthesis to Device group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. She holds a Ph.D in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). She has received prestigious fellowships and awards for her research, including, the Curious Minds Research Award, L’Oreal UNESCO Rising Talent UK & Ireland Fellowship, International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) Elsevier Prize for Applied Electrochemistry award and the Clara Immerwahr Award from UniSysCat.
With this programme, the Daimler and Benz Foundation sets out to reinforce the autonomy of the next generation of academics and to support the careers of committed young academics after earning their doctorates.
- Understanding physics – with your own handsDirk Lohmann has been head of the school laboratory at HZB's Wannsee site since summer 2024. In this interview, he explains what matters most to him: encouraging young people to explore natural phenomena with their own hands.
- Green hydrogen: MXene boosts the effectiveness of catalystsMXenes are adept at hosting catalytically active particles. This property can be exploited to create more potent catalyst materials that significantly accelerate and enhance the oxygen evolution reaction, which is one of the bottlenecks in the production of green hydrogen via electrolysis using solar or wind power. A detailed study by an international team led by HZB chemist Michelle Browne shows the potential of these new materials for future large-scale applications. The study is published in Advanced Functional Materials.
- Industrial Research Fellow at HZB: More time for discussionsThe South African chemist Denzil Moodley is the first Industrial Research Fellow at HZB. He is playing a leading role in the CARE-O-SENE project. The Fellowship program aims to further accelerate the development of an efficient catalyst for a sustainable aviation fuel. An interview about the CARE-O-SENE project and why it is so important for scientists from industry and public research to work together.