KlarText Prize for Hanna Trzesniowski
Dr Hanna Trzesniowski was honoured with the KlarText Prize for Science Communication © Annette Mueck/Klaus Tschira Stiftung
The chemist has been awarded the prestigious KlarText Prize for Science Communication by the Klaus Tschira Foundation.
Hanna is an alumna of Technische Universität Berlin and the Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin. She impressed the jury with her article ‘Small windows, big insights’ and made her research into sustainable hydrogen production understandable to a wide audience.
Every year, the KlarText Prize honours young researchers who present their excellent doctoral thesis to a non-scientific audience in the form of a generally understandable article or a vivid infographic. In 2025, around 200 doctoral candidates from the fields of biology, chemistry, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience and physics applied for the award. A total of eight scientists were honoured. The award is endowed with 7,500 euros each.
The award ceremony will take place on 13 November 2025 in Heidelberg. From this date, the award-winning articles will be available in the knowledge magazine ‘KlarText’.
Development of new catalysts
Scientists use so-called operando spectroscopy methods to observe materials directly during their work - as if they were curiously looking through a small window. In her dissertation entitled ‘Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies of Ni-based oxygen evolution catalysts in alkaline media’, Dr Hanna Trzesniowski investigated nickel-iron catalysts for water splitting, a key process for sustainable hydrogen production. Using X-rays at the synchrotron source BESSY II, she was able to show that sodium ions penetrate the catalyst layers and stabilise their structure. As a result, the catalysts work more efficiently. Her findings will help to develop new catalysts that can produce hydrogen even more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Hanna Trzesniowski, born in Graz in 1994, studied chemistry at the University of Vienna and moved to TU Berlin for her doctorate in 2020. She was supervised by Prof. Dr Peter Strasser at the Department of Electrocatalysis / Materials at TU Berlin and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). Hanna Trzesniowski completed her dissertation in 2024. She currently lives and works in the USA.
- 3D magnetic field experiment at BESSY II takes spintronics a step further(Fe0.63Ni0.3Pd0.07)3P or FNPP is a magnetic material that exhibits complex magnetic structures even at room temperature. This makes the material of interest for spintronics, a field that could enable data processing with significantly lower energy consumption. One potential application is novel magnetic memory devices. However, generating and modifying the desired structures in a controlled manner remains a challenge to date. A new study led by HZB has now taken a step forward in this regard. They demonstrated at the worldwide unique VEKMAG-Station at BESSY II, that a tiny external B-field in the plane of the magnetic patterns is sufficient to change them.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. Dr Hatice Mutlu is the new professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications. On 17 August 2026, she visited the HZB campus in Berlin-Adlershof including the BESSY II lightsource and discussed future collaboration with researchers and the board of directors.
- Special prize by Jugend Forscht awarded to former school internShaoxuan Wang has won a special prize in the Jugend Forscht competition for her project ‘Smart Capsules – intelligent microcapsules for glucose-dependent insulin release’. She designed the project as a “special achievement” for her A-levels. To carry out the experimental work, Shaoxuan was able to spend a further two weeks in the laboratory at the HZB Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, where she had completed a school internship two years earlier.