Prize Winner 2013

Dr. Katharina Diller (left) and Dr. Karine Fernanda dos Santos (right) together with Prof. Mathias Richter from the Society of Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin during bestowal of the 2013 Ernst-Eckhard-Koch-Prize on December 5, 2013 in Berlin-Adlershof. Picture: HZB / M. Setzpfand.

The 2013 Ernst-Eckhard-Koch-Prize granted by the Society of Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has been bestowed upon Dr. Katharina Diller for her doctoral thesis ‘Free-base and metalated porphyrins on metal surfaces - a systematic X-ray spectroscopy and density functional theory investigation’ and Dr. Karine Fernanda dos Santos for her doctoral thesis ‘Structural and functional studies of the spliceosomal RNP remodelling enzyme Brr2’.

Katharina Diller was born in 1985. She received her Diploma in Physics at TU München in 2010. For her doctoral work, she joined the chair ‘Molecular Nanoscience and Chemical Physics of Interfaces’ at TU München of Prof. Johannes V. Barth who also supervised her thesis. Finished in 2013, the work has already generated considerable impact and refers to a combined experimental and theoretical XPS and NEXAFS study on metallo-organic hybrid systems and interfaces with applications in nano- and optoelectronics. Most of the experiments were performed at BESSY II.

Karine dos Santos was born in 1984 in Brazil. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology at the Campinas State University in 2005 and her Master of Science in Microbiology at the São Paulo State University in 2010. For her doctoral work, she came to Germany to join the group of Prof. Markus C. Wahl at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen who also supervised her thesis at the Göttingen University. Finished in 2012, the already highly recognized work refers to the structure and the dynamics of a complex enzyme for the protein biosynthesis with impact on medical research. The diffraction experiments were performed at BESSY II and PETRA III.