Beatriz Roldán Cuenya selected for the prestigious Jacobus van ‘t Hoff Award Lectureship

The Director of the Interface Science Department at the Fritz Haber Institute, Prof. Dr. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, has been selected for the renowned Jacobus van ‘t Hoff Award Lectureship at Delft University of Technology. She delivered her lecture on September 28 in Delft, the Netherlands.

Foto: © Roy Borghouts

The Process & Product Technology Institute and the e‑Refinery Institute of Delft University of Technology invited Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, Director of the Interface Science Department at the Fritz Haber Institute, to deliver this year’s Jacobus van ‘t Hoff Lecture. The prestigious lecture is named after Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, the first Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1901 who earned a degree in chemical engineering at TU Delft in 1871 and ended his carreer in Berlin (1896–1911). In recognition of his scientific work as one of the founding fathers of physical chemistry, TU Delft annually invites distinguished international speakers for this award lecture to present their research to a wide chemical and process engineering audience in the Netherlands and abroad. Prior illustrious awardees include Prof. Frances Arnold (2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, CALTECH), Prof. Avelino Corma (UPV-CSIC) and Prof. Klavs F.Jensen (MIT).

“We are all deeply inspired by Prof. Roldán Cuenya’s groundbreaking research on nanostructured electrocatalysts and structure–reactivity relationships, as well as her proactive vision for translating fundamental material insights into engineering principles. Her expertise in energy conversion technologies, particularly in advancing CO₂ electrolysers, underscores the critical role her work plays in addressing global sustainability challenges.” – as the selection committee at TU Delft describes. “By pioneering innovative approaches to optimize catalytic performance and efficiency, she is driving forward both, the fundamentals and their practical implementation.”

© Roy Borghouts

At TU Delft, a large ecosystem has emerged – centered on the Process & Product Technology Institute and the e‑Refinery Institute – for research into scalable technologies for applications in energy, materials, water, and health. The selection committee invited Prof. Roldán Cuenya in order to learn from her expertise and perspective on the interplay between materials design and the fundamentals of electrochemical synthesis.

The selection of Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya for the prestigious Jacobus van ‘t Hoff award Lectureship is a great recognition of her scientific achievements and the importance of her research fields and thus an honor for the Fritz Haber Institute as a whole.