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.
- 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.
- BESSY II: How intrinsic oxygen shortens the lifespan of solid-state batteriesAlthough solid-state batteries (SSBs) demonstrate high performance and are intrinsically safe, their capacity currently declines rapidly. A team from the TU Wien, Humboldt-University Berlin and HZB has now analysed a TiS₂|Li₃YCl₆ solid-state half-cell in operando at BESSY II using a special sample environment that allows for non-destructive investigation under real operating conditions. Data obtained by combination of soft and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS and HAXPES) revealed a new degradation mechanism that had not previously been identified in solid-state batteries. They have gained some surprising insights, particularly regarding the harmful role played by intrinsic oxygen. This study provides valuable information for improving design and handling of such batteries.
- Spintronics at BESSY II: Real-time analysis of magnetic bilayer systemsSpintronic devices enable data processing with significantly lower energy consumption. They are based on the interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers. Now, a team from Freie Universität Berlin, HZB and Uppsala University has succeeded in tracking, for each layer separately, how the magnetic order changes after a short laser pulse has excited the system. They were also able to identify the main cause of the loss of antiferromagnetic order in the oxide layer: the excitation is transported from the hot electrons in the ferromagnetic metal to the spins in the antiferromagnet.