Liane Benning (GFZ) talks about „The Birth and Life Cycle of a Nanoparticle: or how to make crystals from ions”

20 years Helmholtz Association – a series of lectures shows the variety of the research field

The Helmholtz Association is turning 20 – and will be celebrating this anniversary with a series of lectures held locally at each of its centres. On 5 November, the HZB in Wannsee will receive a visit from Prof. Liane Benning. She is a geochemist at the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ and will be speaking about nanoparticles. She will show us why understanding the reactions taking place on the Earth’s surface is important for protecting the Earth. For Liane Benning, synchrotron radiation is also an indispensable tool for deciphering the secrets of our planet.

Here you can find the summary of her talk: Many of Earth's surface rocks are made up of minerals that form through complex chemical reactions between ions in solution. Using state-of-the-art methods Liane Benning can now follow such chemical reactions over time and at high spatial resolution. In this talk she will show you how, for example, beautiful giant gypsum crystals that are important for industry form or how minute biominerals that build many of our mountains form from simple ions in solution. She will also show why understanding such processes at the atomic level is important for the sustainable future of our planet.

Liane G. Benning has been researching at the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ 2014, in the department Interface Geochemistry. Prior to this, she was Professor of Experimental Biogeochemistry at the University of Leeds, UK. From 1998 to 2001, she researched at Penn State University, USA.

For one of her current projects, Liane Benning is using the UK Synchrotron Radiation Facility - DIAMOND and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.

When: Thursday, 5th November 2015, 2 p.m.
Where: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, LMC, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109  Berlin, HZB Lecture hall

Notice for guests: Please note that you will need to present your personal ID at the gate to be admitted.

We are happy to inform you that we will provide you with a shuttle from Adlershof to Wannsee and return. If you like to use this shuttle for one-way, return or both, then please send an e-mail by 29th October 2015 at the very latest to jennifer.bierbaum@helmholtz-berlin.de.
The shuttle from Adlershof will leave at 1 pm and return at 4 pm.