On September 1st and 2nd, the SolTech Student Board meeting took place in Munich, with this year’s hosting university being the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
The get-together kicked off with a visit to the Campus Grosshadern. The researchers at Prof. Thomas Bein group and Prof. Achim Hartschuh group welcomed the board into their labs, presenting their advances in field of energy conversion and storage as well as novel characterization techniques, such as microscopy and spectroscopy with high spatial and temporal resolution.
This was followed by a sunny lunch in the English Garden and a lab tour through the new LMU Nano-Institute given by members of the Prof. Jochen Feldman group. Dr. Quinten Akkerman gave an introduction to quantum dot synthesis demonstrating quantum confinement effects. Photocatalytic systems and characterization methods such as transient absorption spectroscopy and single molecule microscopy were presented. This eventful day was concluded with a dinner at the traditional “Wirtshaus Atzinger” accompanied by with scientific discussions.
On Friday Michael Beetz, a SolTech alumni, showed the board around the Infineon campus in Munich. After an introduction by Harald Lorenz, leader of the Failure Analysis branch in Munich, the board was given an insight into their labs, viewing state-of-the-art equipment and the excellent work they do to enable analysing structures on a chip at nanometric scale. It was great connecting with SolTech alumni, especially hearing how their PhD and experience within the SolTech initiative is related to the progress in their current positions.
To conclude, even though the research areas within the SolTech initiative are related, each of the approaches offered is novel and unique, which is what made these two days so enriching. Thanks again to the chairpersons of this year’s Student Board, Matthias Kestler and Florian Wolf, for organizing this wonderful event.
Elena Mack, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität