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.
- Israel Ibukun Olaniyan receives the Helmholtz Doctoral Award 2026At Helmholtz, more than 8,000 doctoral candidates conduct research. Eleven of them have now been honored for their original and outstanding work, among them Dr Israel Ibukun Olaniyan from the HZB. His doctoral thesis "Ferroelectricity at the nanoscale in epitaxial BaTiO3 on silicon" in the group of Professor Catherine Dubourdieu represents a step towards a new nanoelectronics based on topological defects, that can potentially help to create an energy efficient information technology.
- Only at BESSY II worldwide: IR nanoscopy at very long THz wavelengthsThe team at the IRIS beamline at BESSY II has created a new experimental option: They achieved infrared nanoscopy with a spatial resolution of around 50 nm at very long THz wavelengths. This was possible thanks to a temporal pattern of light pulses known as the low-alpha operating mode at BESSY II. Worldwide, BESSY II is the only synchrotron light source at which users could perform nanoscopy in a single setup from 25 to 4000 cm-1, a unique opportunity for ultra-broadband characterisation of complex materials at the nanoscale in both the life sciences and materials sciences.
- Ultrafast demagnetisation - Thinner iron, stronger effectThe thinner an iron film, the more easily it can be demagnetised by a laser pulse. Researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen, working with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and other partners, have discovered why: the key lies in the magnetic order at the material's interfaces. In the long term, these findings could contribute to the development of new technologies for magnetic data storage. The results have been published in the scientific journal Advanced Science.