Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in Jena
Prof. Hatice Mutlu conducts research at HIPOLE Jena on polymerization processes for energy materials. © HIPOLE
This week, Hatice Mutlu met with Bernd Rech, the scientific director at HZB in Berlin-Adlershof. © HZB/F. Krawatzek
Prof. 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.
Since 15 June 2026, Mutlu has strengthened research on sustainable polymer materials through a joint appointment with Friedrich Schiller University Jena. She develops resource-efficient polymerisation methods and innovative synthesis strategies for energy and high-performance materials. Her other research interests include light-driven synthesis, sulfur-containing polymers and concepts for a circular materials economy. Her expertise complements HIPOLE’s research on polymer materials for batteries, photovoltaics and other energy conversion and storage applications.
Mutlu studied chemistry in Istanbul and completed her doctorate on sustainable polymer platform chemicals. Following research positions at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), she was appointed to a junior professorship at the Université de Haute-Alsace in 2022. In 2025, she became a W3 Professor at RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau and Research Director at the Leibniz Institute for Composite Materials. In June 2026, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and HIPOLE Jena jointly appointed her Professor of Sustainable Polymer Chemistry.
- 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.
- Marcel Risch has been appointed Professor at the Freie Universität BerlinMarcel Risch was appointed to a W2-S professorship in the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2026. His research group has been transformed into the department 'Mechanisms of Sustainable Electrocatalysis'. Risch investigates the fundamental mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions and, on this basis, develops knowledge- and data-driven strategies to improve electrocatalysts for the sustainable production of hydrogen, fuels and chemicals.