Research always means looking for new ways. However, some ways and ideas seem particularly unconventional. To realize them, scientists need some time out of the routine plus financial support. The Fischer Senior Fellowship program of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) paves the way for exactly this kind of projects. It addresses excellent international researchers who will work together with a TUM or LMU research group to realize a joint project. The fellows receive, among other things, a three-year scholarship, which should include a stay of at least nine months with the Munich partner. The Fischer Senior Fellowship is part of the extensive program of the TUM Institute of Advances Studies (IAS).
We are happy that this year two e-conversion members host Fischer Senior Fellows and that these teams will explore innovative topics in the field of energy conversion:
Prof. Naomi Halas
Prof. Naomi Halas, also from Rice University, starts a joint project with Prof. Jonathan Finley and his team from the Chair of Semiconductor Nanostructures and Quantum Systems at the Walter-Schottky-Institute, TUM. Naomi Halas holds professorships in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy. She is founding director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University and the director of the Smalley-Curl Institute.
Her research focuses on the design and fabrication of optically responsive nanostructures, nanophotonics and plasmonics. The common research project with the Finley group focuses on the development of 2D materials and their heterostructures, understanding of ultrafast electronic processes and developing routes toward nanoscale chemical reactors for solar energy conversion. The project will be performed in close collaboration with the groups of Maier, Cortés and Sharp.
Prof. Peter Nordlander
Prof. Peter Nordlander from Rice University (Houston, Texas) collaborates with the group of Prof. Stefan Maier, Chair in Hybrid Nanosystems at LMU München. Peter Nordlander is Wiess Chair of Natural Science and holds three professorships: Physics and Astronomy, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Nanoengineering.
His current research is on theoretical and computational modeling of plasmonics and nanophotonics phenomena. Together with the Maier, Cortés, Finley and Sharp groups, Peter Nordlander is going to explore the design and fundamental understanding of solar-to-chemical energy conversion with two-dimensional materials coupled to nanoscopic antennas.