Every year, a small team at HZB organises the International Summer Students Programme. This summer, 13 young people came from Kenya, Colombia, Serbia and other countries. At the final conference, all students presented their projects with flash talks and posters. The best poster and the most intriguing blog post were elected – a difficult process, since the quality was really very good.Read More →
Dr. Tabitha A. Amollo is a researcher and lecturer at Egerton University in Njoro in Kenya. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research interests focus on developing cutting-edge nanomaterials for energy conversion devices including graphene nanomaterials. She published a number of articles in reputable journals. At Egerton University, she is the head of a young team to explore dye-sensitive solar cells, she is a chairperson of the Physics Department, and she coordinates the undergraduate program and gives lectures to undergraduates and postgraduate physics students. Here in Germany, there are not many women in physics. How is itRead More →
In April, Nancy Ochiba was a guest at HZB in Berlin doing research on nanoparticles. “I made good use of the time,” says the young chemist from Nairobi, Kenya. First she took part in the Photon School for young scientists, then she joined the lab at the Institute for Solar Fuels as a guest researcher. “Here I can benefit from technology that is not available to me at the Kenya University of Technology. For example, I have now examined my samples under a scanning electron microscope.” Research for a better future Nancy is in the first year of her PhD. What motivates her? She wantsRead More →
Dr Ulrich Schade has been with BESSY II from the beginning and has built up and further developed the IRIS beamline. A wide variety of materials are studied there with infrared or terahertz radiation, from biological cells to superconductors to archaeological finds. Today, he will talk with us about respect, diversity, and a good life in a collaborative environment. What is particularly important to you when it comes to diversity? In my environment, i.e. in research, this is not really a problem. I am very open about it and have never seen diversity as negative: Everyone has the same rights. But of course, discrimination happensRead More →
Physicist Dr Nomi Sorgenfrei develops methods and instruments for research with X-ray light at BESSY II at HZB and investigates catalytically active thin films herself. A conversation about privileges, diversity at work, and intersectional forms of discrimination. What is particularly important to you when it comes to diversity? The appreciation of all people with their different backgrounds, whether cultural, religious or gender. We all just want to have a good life and contribute to society. And it is very good when people with different perspectives contribute. At what points in your work does diversity play a role? Very practically in the daily encounter with peopleRead More →
Academic retreats are serious business. They are not only about professional exchange on scientific questions, but also about overarching goals and strategies. It can be worthwhile to add new formats such as a World Café to the traditional retreat programme. The CatLab team tried this out.Read More →
Laura Canil discovered her passion for visual science communication while working on her PhD at HZB. First, she illustrated her own results, then those of her colleagues. Now, she is ready to work for other scientific teams. An interview with Laura about her career choice as a freelance scientific illustrator.Read More →
Ideally, when research teams submit a particularly important paper, they share it with the comms team. Then it is usually my turn to take over and write a science highlight. It’s a short, highly simplified text, optimised for quick and easy reading. Publications of 30 or more pages are condensed into one page, leaving out a lot, however the motivation and relevance of the research should come across clearly. Of course, our science news also end up on many other websites and platforms, additionally we distribute them through different channels and ensure dissemination. It is difficult to determine exactly how often they are accessed there.Read More →
A group of 14 volunteers gathered one week on Zoom. From morning coffee until late in the night, they tackled intricate problems and worked out great solutions based on machine learning for digital twins of batteries or for predicting cracks in materials. “This year, we had the most successful hackathon so far, it was incredible,” says HZB data scientist Gregor Hartmann, who initiated the Hackathon. Many problems in research require a deep understanding of the material as well state of the art knowledge in methods of artificial intelligence. “You need this very close collaboration between the domain scientists and the data scientists, says Gregor Hartmann,Read More →
After two years of interruption due to the Corona pandemic, HZB finally hosted summer students again this summer. They came from Pakistan, Colombia, Spain, USA, and Korea. A look behind the scenes of the International Summer Student Programme – ISSP.Read More →