Aliaksandr Bandarenka appointed as assistant professor for “Physics of energy conversion and storage”

2014-05-16 – News from the Physik-Department

Professor Bandarenka has been appointed as assistant professor for physics of energy conversion and storage. He holds the first TUM Faculty Tenure Track position at the Physik-Department.

Professor Aliaksandr Bandarenka

The group is newly established to address a wide range of fundamental problems in the fields of energy conversion and storage. The research topics include the design and the implementation of electrocatalysis employing functional materials as well as investigations towards a better understanding of electrified interfaces. The material design is based on a bottom-up approach, using input from electrochemical surface science and starting from model surfaces. This expertise will then be used to up-scale the technology for real-world applications like fuel cells, electrolysers and other energy conversion and storage devices.

Academic Career and Research Areas

Professor Bandarenka attended Belarusian State University (BSU), Minsk, the leading academic institution of Belarus. He earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry in 2002 and his PhD in 2005 working under the supervision of Dr. G.A. Ragoisha. His PhD work was focused on the development of new methodologies for in situ characterisation of electrified solid / liquid interfaces. After completing his PhD he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In this role he worked with Professor H.J.M. Bouwmeester and Professor B.A. Boukamp on the development of new proton conducting electrolytes for fuel cell applications. In 2008 he moved to the Technical University of Denmark where he worked with Professor I. Chorkendorff and Professor J. Norskov on electrocatalysis for energy conversion. In 2010 he became a group leader for “Adsorption and Electrocatalysis” at the Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES) at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. The research of his group focused on both electrocatalysis and the development of elucidative methods for the investigation of electrified interfaces.

In recognition of his research in this field, he was awarded the Hans-Jürgen Engell Prize of the International Society of Electrochemistry in 2013.

Editing

Dr. Johannes Wiedersich