Neutron Summer School for the study of hydrogen storage materials
Participants and mentors of this year’s Neutron Summer School.
An international group of students and scientists recently completed Margarita Russina’s second ever Neutron Summer School program. Just like last year, the Summer School took place in mid-September on the HZB’s Wannsee campus, offering participants a week filled with a broad spectrum of classes and activities, all on the topic of neutron scattering methods in the study of hydrogen storage materials.
A balanced mixture of lectures on hydrogen storage technology basics, practical laboratory lessons, and working with the HZB’s scientific measuring equipment afforded participants an in-depth glimpse into this area of applied research. A lecture on metal hydrides by guest scientist Arndt Remhof (Empa) from Switzerland was one of the program highlights while HZB’s own Daniel Többens, Dirk Wallacher, and Moritz Schlegel made sure participants received all the mentoring they needed.
Lectures and practical workshops are as much a part of the Summer School experience as is its international flair. The twelve students enrolled in this year’s program hailed from Greece, China, Estland, Russia, Germany, and many other countries. The Neutron Summer School has a very strong reputation among the international scientific community. Most students learned about the program by word-of-mouth from their supervisors – our international colleagues at various universities and research institutes.
Many of the participants were greatly impressed by the HZB’s state-of-the-art scientific equipment: "I was surprised about the very good scientific infrastructure at HZB. It is possible to apply very good theoretical knowledge here by using high technology”, says Alexander Skarvelas from Greece. On top of a solid infrastructure, it is also the intensive mentoring, which makes the Neutron Summer School program so attractive to students, adds Dr. Lilai Li from China: „They always tried to answer my questions. The support was pretty good, I learned a lot in this week”.
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- Marcel Risch has been appointed Professor at the Freie Universität BerlinMarcel Risch was appointed to a W2-S professorship in the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2026. His research group has been transformed into the department 'Mechanisms of Sustainable Electrocatalysis'. Risch investigates the fundamental mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions and, on this basis, develops knowledge- and data-driven strategies to improve electrocatalysts for the sustainable production of hydrogen, fuels and chemicals.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. 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.