HZB expert appointed chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Barcelona Research Centre
Prof. Dr. Susan Schorr © CCEM
Prof. Dr. Susan Schorr has been appointed to the newly established Scientific Advisory Board of the Barcelona Research Centre in Multiscale Science and Engineering and elected as its chair.
The Barcelona Research Centre in Multiscale Science and Engineering (CCEM) is part of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. It is one of the world's leading centres for materials science, particularly in the fields of micro- and nanotechnology, nanotechnology and biomaterials. In 2024, the CCEM received the ‘Excelencia María de Maeztu’ accreditation of excellence. It promotes internationally renowned research institutes that contribute significantly to the further development of Spain as a centre of science and technology.
The CCEM's Scientific Advisory Board comprises a total of seven experienced scientists from Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.
Susan Schorr heads the ‘Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials’ (SE-ASD) department at the Helmholtz Centre Berlin and is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Free University of Berlin. With her team at HZB, she researches fundamental structure-property relationships of materials for energy conversion, including novel materials for solar cells.
HZB expertise in advisory boards, committees and scientific commissions
Twenty-five scientists from HZB are currently involved in scientific advisory boards, supervisory boards or similar advisory bodies. There, they contribute their recognized expertise and critical assessments, which help to ensure well-founded decisions.
- Nanosilver as an electrocatalyst for CO₂ reductionVia electrolysis, CO2 can be reduced to CO, a raw material for further chemical products such as fuels. Within the GreenQuest Project, an internation team led by HZB chemist Prashanth Menezes has now systematically investigated catalyst layers made of silver nanoparticles, varying both the size of the particles and their density. The best yield was achieved with nanoparticles with diameters of around 10 nm, which were loosely distributed. Furthermore, they demonstrated how the economic efficiency of the electrochemical cell can be enhanced by integrating an additional chemical reaction at the anode, enabling the simultaneous production of a valuable formic acid, hydrogen, and CO in one device.
- Spin waves inside a nano-oscillator imaged for the first timeFor the first time, researchers have directly imaged the magnetisation dynamics inside a spin Hall nano-oscillator — a nanoscale device that converts direct current into tunable microwave signals and is a promising building block for energy-efficient wireless communication and brain-inspired computing. A Swedish–German team led by the University of Gothenburg and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) achieved this using time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy at the MAXYMUS instrument at BESSY II. The results, now published in Advanced Materials, reveal spin-wave features that had escaped previous, indirect measurement techniques.
- Joint power instead of duplicate structures:Berlin’s research community is further advancing its research excellence by establishing a high-performance, cross-institutional infrastructure for data and AI. With a joint agreement signed on 18 September 2026, the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) are paving the way for a joint data science and AI centre in Berlin-Dahlem and Adlershof.