KlarText Prize for Science Communication goes to Dr Hanna Trzesniowski
Dr Hanna Trzesniowski was honoured with the KlarText Prize for Science Communication © Annette Mueck/Klaus Tschira Stiftung
Dr Hanna Trzesniowski, who completed her doctoral thesis at HZB in 2024, was awarded the Klaus Tschira Prize.
Chemist Dr Hanna Trzesniowski, an alumna of Technische Universität Berlin and the Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin, has been awarded the prestigious KlarText Prize for Science Communication by the Klaus Tschira Foundation. 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.
- Shedding light on insulators: how light pulses unfreeze electronsMetal oxides are abundant in nature and central to technologies such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Yet, many suffer from poor electrical conduction, caused by strong repulsion between electrons in neighboring metal atoms. Researchers at HZB and partner institutions have shown that light pulses can temporarily weaken these repulsive forces, lowering the energy required for electrons mobility, inducing a metal-like behavior. This discovery offers a new way to manipulate material properties with light, with high potential to more efficient light-based devices.
- Welcome: Apprenticeships begin for 16 young people at HZBOn 1 September, 16 young people began their apprenticeship, dual study programme or voluntary year at HZB. A welcome event, initial insights into the world of research and a communication seminar marked the start of this new phase in their lives.
- Saskia Vormfelde appointed new Administrative Director at HZBSaskia Vormfelde begins her term of office as Administrative Director at HZB on 1 September. She is moving from Freiburg ISE to Berlin.