Termine
Next status meeting in Berlin: January 29 - 30, 2024
The next Status Meeting of the SPP2080 will take place from 29.01.2024, starting 12.30 p.m. to 30.01.2024, ending at 4.00 p.m. It will be held at the Harnack House of the Max Plank Society in Berlin. Subsequently, special programs are planned for the PhD candidates and the Early Career Researchers (ECR). All rooms are reserved as a contingent reservation until November 28, 2023 but it may happen that all are reserved earlier - for further information please contact us.
PhD Summer School of the SPP2080 in Frankfurt a. Main: September 20 - 22, 2023
From 20th to 22nd of September2023, the doctoral candidates and early Post-Docs of the SPP2080, met in the NAAM conference Hotel in Frankfurt Main. Frankfurt was the first choice of the participants as the chemical industry was the focus of this third SPP PhD school in the second funding period.
The first day started with a talk given by Hans-Georg Weinig from GDCh and Christian Lange from VAA. Both gave insights into the situation for a career outside academia for doctoral candidates in natural sciences. Not only did they provide facts and statistics on this topic, but also gave advises what to look for when approaching companies for an employment. In the evening, the group of 19 young researchers headed into the Frankfurt city center for dinner.
The second day started with a trip to industrial parc Höchst. A 90 minutes guided bus tour through the parc was provided by Infraserv, the operating company of the site. The participants could see the dimensions of the plant’s infrastructure, as well as the 50 kilometers of pipes for gases and chemicals running through the parc and connecting all kinds of chemical production sites. After a relaxing lunch in the old town of Höchst, the SPP 2080 researchers were invited by the company Siemens, also located in the industrial parc. Topic of the presentations and lively discussions between the host and the doctoral candidates /PostDocs were strategies for higher levels of sustainability for chemical companies. The group later on headed to an apple wine tasting, exploring the background of the pressed beverage traditional for this region. On the last day of the event, Alumni were invited to give insights into their recent research or their pathway into chemical industry. After answering the many questions, both current and former SPP2080 PhD candidates and PostDocs headed to a restaurant in city for a joined lunch together. After the traditional German dishes, ideas for future SPP events were discussed and planned. Therefore, the PhD school ended looking forward to more scientific excursions in the frame of SPP events in the next year.

EUROPACAT in Prague, September 2023
The EUROPACAT 2023 in Prague was an excellent conference with more than 1500 participants, also for meeting within the SPP2080. We are happy to report that the Special Session during EuropaCat2023 in Prague dedicated to SPP2080 titled: “Catalysts and reactors under dynamic conditions for energy storage and conversion” was very well attended and very successful. The 2-day session was filled with excellent talks from all over Europe and even abroad. Contributions from SPP2080 were numerous and many exciting new results were presented also at the poster session. Thanks to the organizers, and to everyone who supported, participated and contributed to make this special session a success.

Status meeting Erlangen, March 2023
The SPP2080 status meeting for 2023 was held at the south campus in Erlangen on March 6th and 7th, with over 70 participants in attendance. In fact, all consortia were present, and so the talks drew a large audience. Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt and Tanja Franken gave a brief welcome presentation, with Franken serving as the host for this meeting. Evgenii Kondratenko opened the scientific talks, focusing on the hydrogenation of CO2, which has gained momentum in recent months due to the potential for creating sustainable and green fuels. Following the successful opening, many exciting talks with vivid discussions on methanation, methanol synthesis and related topics. As for all topics within the SPP2080, a strong focus lied on the behavior of the catalysts under dynamic conditions, the investigation of the systems by advanced characterization methods and the utilization of these data for the preparation of improved catalyst materials.
The highlight of the first day was an invited talk by Karl Mayrhofer, whose research complements that of several consortia within the priority program. He discussed a high-throughput setup for investigating catalysts for electrochemical reactions, including oxygen evolution reactions. Mayrhofer also demonstrated how electrochemistry can be applied to the synthesis of organic molecules and uncover new production routes. After a successful first day, in the evening, participants gathered in the historic center of Erlangen for dinner at Alter Simpl to continue the discussions.
The second day focused on several consortia presenting their work related to electrochemistry. Topics included catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction for PEM electrolyzers and solid oxide fuel cells, as well as recent results on the behavior of electrochemical CO2 reduction catalysts under dynamic conditions. The highlight of the second day was a talk by Elena Savinova from Strasbourg University, who presented different applications of operando techniques on electrochemical systems. Similar to Mayrhofer, Savinova is not directly involved in the priority program, but her research holds significant relevance for the SPP. Therefore, it is not surprising that her presentation generated a high level of interest.
The scientific sessions were punctuated by small breaks and poster sessions, which provided opportunities for scientific discussions and establishing new collaborations. Students from Tanja Franken’s research group helped to refresh the participants with coffee, cold drinks, finger food, and cakes. Poster awards were given to Muzaffar Maksumov, Hannah Türk and Eric Liberra.
In the final session of the status meeting, participants discussed further projects and ways to improve collaboration within the SPP2080. They also focused on equal opportunity, family friendliness, and diversity. Following the main meeting, separate sessions were held for early career researchers and PhD candidates. A leadership course was held for early career researchers, led by Conor John "CJ" Fitzsimons, which covered conflict resolution and communication improvement.
Within sessions of “students-teach-students”, the PhD candidates and Postdocs from all consortia of the SPP2080 presented their research and scientific approaches. This initiated a lot of fruitful discussions and exchanges, also throughout coffee and lunch breaks. An award for the best presentation was given to Patricia König. Together with the early career researchers, the group of 21 PhD candidates attended a talk of the Nature communications team manager Dr. Prateek Dongare speaking about his view on publishing in high-impact journals. This talk was followed by an open podium discussion with the guests Prof. Dr. Martin Hartmann, Prof. Dr. Tobias Unruh and Prof. Dr. Michael Engel from FAU Erlangen about important aspects of successful publishing. Many thanks to their contribution to the discussion about important aspects of successful publishing. As a social event, the PhD candidates gathered in teams to succeed shred hunts in Erlangen city. The SPP2080 school was able to support and strengthen the network between the young scientists.
We extend our thanks to Tanja Franken and all others involved in organizing the meeting, as well as all members of the SPP2080 for their valuable scientific progress since the last status meeting. We look forward to seeing everyone (latest) again at the next status meeting in Berlin!
SPP2080 Status meeting 2024
The Status meeting of the SPP2080 will take place on the 29th and the 30th of January at the Harnack house in Berlin. Subsequently, special programs are planned for the PhD scholars and the Early career scientists (ECR). The program for the ECR will take place on the 30th, directly after the main meeting, and the 31st of January. The program for the PhD students will take place on the 30th, 31st and 1st of March. Further information will follow by mail. If you already have question regarding this status meeting, we look forward to you questions which can be send to grunwaldt∂spp2080.org
SPP2080 Status meeting 2023
The Status meeting of the SPP2080 will take place on the 6th and the 7th of March in Erlangen. Subsequently, special programs are planned for the PhD scholars and the Early career scientists (ECR). The program for the ECR will take place on the 7th, directly after the main meeting, and the 8th. The program for the PhD students will take place on the 7th, 8th and 9th of March. For detailed information, we refer to all the mails the members of the SPP2080 received or will receive shortly before the meeting, or we look forward to you questions which can be send to grunwaldt∂spp2080.org
New Scholarship, apply by March 2023
To promote and support female scientists in Germany, we are happy that we can again announce the SPP 2080 “DynaKat” Early Career Research Scholarships for Female Scientists. Please note that not only female scientist within the SPP2080, but also outside of the SPP2080 are eligible to apply! Deadline for applications is Sunday, the 12th of March 2023. Applications should be sent to grunwaldt∂spp2080.org (applications to other Email addresses will not be considered).
September 21-23, 2022: SPP20280 Summer School in Berlin.
This summer school features lectures on scientific writing and publishing. An introduction course about Python and a short seminar on Data Management are included in the program as well as on-site visits of different facilities and laboratories.
Highlight 27.04.2022
We congratulate Prof. Dr. Roger Gläser as Prorector at the University of Leipzig – press release (link)
31.05.2022 to 01.06.2022 Status Meeting of the SPP2080 with talks and posters, on-site in Karlsruhe, dinner on 30.05.2022 and start at 9.00 h on 31.05. The event runs until 15.30 h on 01.06.2022. The location is Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Registration deadline: April 4, 2022 (please reserve hotels well in advance)
16.03.2022, On-line Kick-Off Meeting, 14.00 h, Zoom-Conference with overview and poster session in wonder.me with posters by all consortia
09.01.2022 to 13.01.2022, 758. WE-Heraeus-Seminar "From Wind and Solar Energy to Chemical Energy Storage: Understanding and Engineering Catalysis under Dynamic Conditions" (Link to Homepage), accepted applicants should register (Deadline December 12,2021) as per individual e-mail.