Laura Herz

Last updated

Laura Herz
FRS FInstP FRSC
Born
Laura Maria Herz

June 1974 (age 51)
Education School Sisters of Notre Dame
Alma mater University of Bonn
University of Cambridge (PhD)
Awards Nevill Mott Medal and Prize (2018)
Faraday Medal and Prize (2024)
Scientific career
Fields Condensed matter physics
semiconductors
Ultrafast spectroscopy
Photovoltaics
Conjugated polymers [1]
Institutions University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
Thesis Aggregation effects in conjugated polymer films studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy  (2002)
Website www-herz.physics.ox.ac.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Laura Maria Herz FRS FInstP FRSC (born June 1974) is a German physicist and academic, specialising in semiconductor materials and nanostructures. She is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. She works on femtosecond spectroscopy for the analysis of semiconductor materials. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Herz was born in June 1974. [2] She was educated at Erzbischöfliche Liebfrauenschule Bonn, an all-girls Catholic gymnasium. [2] She studied physics at the University of Bonn and graduated in 1999. [3] She worked for two years as an exchange student at University of New South Wales. [4] She joined the University of Cambridge for her doctoral studies, earning a PhD in 2002. [3] [5] Here she worked on exciton and polaron dynamics in organic semiconductors. [6]

Research and career

After her PhD, Herz was appointed a postdoctoral research fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, in 2001. [3] She was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Advanced Research Fellowship in 2006 [7] and an EPSRC Open Fellowship in 2024. Herz joined the Department of Physics, University of Oxford as a lecturer in 2003. [2] She was promoted to Reader in Physics in 2008 and appointed Professor of Physics in 2010. [3] [2]

Herz is an expert in perovskite semiconductors. [8] She has researched the origins of the high charge-carrier mobilities in perovskite materials. [9] She demonstrated that their high efficiency in solar cells was due to long charge-carrier diffusion lengths and non-Langevin recombination. [10] [11] She identified that perovskite light emission is broad and can be used in Ultrafast lasers. [12] She recognised that the origin of this broadening is Fröhlich coupling to longitudinal optical phonons. [13]

Herz is also interested in self-assembly and nanoscale effects. [14] She works on Biomimetics light harvesting structures made of porphyrin nanorings [15] [16] to explore delocalised excited states. [17] [18]

She appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show In Our Time in 2015. [19]

In 2024, Herz was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society. [20]

Her short citation reads:

Laura Herz is distinguished for her study of light-harvesting and energy-conversion pathways in emerging semiconductors. Her research has pushed boundaries across interdisciplinary themes including light-matter interactions, charge-carrier dynamics, molecular self-assembly, biomimetic systems and nanoscience. Her work has been central to guiding materials synthesis, chemical engineering and advancing technology for renewable energy conversion.

Awards and honours

Her awards and honours include:

References

  1. 1 2 Laura Herz publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Herz, Prof. Laura Maria, (born June 1974), Professor of Physics, University of Oxford, since 2010; Fellow, University College, Oxford, since 2017". Who's Who 2025 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "CV – Laura M Herz". www-herz.physics.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "Public Seminar Laura Herz – 31 March 2016". School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  5. ↑ Herz, Laura Maria (2002). Aggregation effects in conjugated polymer films studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC   894595356. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.620191.
  6. ↑ Silva, Carlos; Russell, David M.; Dhoot, Anoop S.; Herz, Laura M.; Daniel, Clément; Greenham, Neil C.; Arias, Ana C.; Setayesh, Sepas; Müllen, Klaus (2002). "Exciton and polaron dynamics in a step-ladder polymeric semiconductor: the influence of interchain order". Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 14 (42): 9803. Bibcode:2002JPCM...14.9803S. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/14/42/302. ISSN   0953-8984. S2CID   53595995.
  7. ↑ "KAUST Solar Center Research Conference 2016". ksc.kaust.edu.sa. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  8. ↑ Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M. (10 December 2015). "Hybrid Perovskites for Photovoltaics: Charge-Carrier Recombination, Diffusion, and Radiative Efficiencies". Accounts of Chemical Research. 49 (1): 146–154. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00411 . ISSN   0001-4842. PMID   26653572.
  9. ↑ Herz, Laura M. (8 June 2017). "Charge-Carrier Mobilities in Metal Halide Perovskites: Fundamental Mechanisms and Limits". ACS Energy Letters. 2 (7): 1539–1548. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00276 . ISSN   2380-8195.
  10. ↑ UNSWSPREE (4 April 2016), UNSW SPREE 201603-31 Laura Herz – Charge-Carrier Diffusion in Hybrid Metal Halide Perovskites , retrieved 17 September 2018
  11. ↑ Stranks, Samuel D.; Eperon, Giles E.; Grancini, Giulia; Menelaou, Christopher; Alcocer, Marcelo J. P.; Leijtens, Tomas; Herz, Laura M.; Petrozza, Annamaria; Snaith, Henry J. (2013). "Electron-Hole Diffusion Lengths Exceeding 1 Micrometer in an Organometal Trihalide Perovskite Absorber". Science. 342 (6156): 341–344. Bibcode:2013Sci...342..341S. doi:10.1126/science.1243982. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   24136964. S2CID   10314803.
  12. ↑ Eperon, Giles E.; Stranks, Samuel D.; Menelaou, Christopher; Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M.; Snaith, Henry J. (2014). "Formamidinium lead trihalide: a broadly tunable perovskite for efficient planar heterojunction solar cells". Energy & Environmental Science. 7 (3): 982. doi:10.1039/C3EE43822H. ISSN   1754-5692. S2CID   53576983.
  13. ↑ Wright, Adam D.; Verdi, Carla; Milot, Rebecca L.; Eperon, Giles E.; Pérez-Osorio, Miguel A.; Snaith, Henry J.; Giustino, Feliciano; Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M. (26 May 2016). "Electron–phonon coupling in hybrid lead halide perovskites". Nature Communications. 7 11755. Bibcode:2016NatCo...711755W. doi:10.1038/ncomms11755. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   4894981 . PMID   27225329.
  14. ↑ "Speakers - IUPAC 2018". IUPAC 2018. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  15. ↑ Parkinson, Patrick; Kamonsutthipaijit, Nuntaporn; Anderson, Harry L.; Herz, Laura M. (17 May 2016). "Size-Independent Energy Transfer in Biomimetic Nanoring Complexes". ACS Nano. 10 (6): 5933–5940. doi:10.1021/acsnano.6b01265. ISSN   1936-0851. PMC   4928140 . PMID   27176553.
  16. ↑ Gong, Juliane Q.; Favereau, Ludovic; Anderson, Harry L.; Herz, Laura M. (8 January 2016). "Breaking the Symmetry in Molecular Nanorings". The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. 7 (2): 332–338. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b02617. ISSN   1948-7185. PMC   4745607 . PMID   26735906.
  17. ↑ Rousseaux, Sophie A. L.; Gong, Juliane Q.; Haver, Renée; Odell, Barbara; Claridge, Tim D. W.; Herz, Laura M.; Anderson, Harry L. (25 September 2015). "Self-Assembly of Russian Doll Concentric Porphyrin Nanorings". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 137 (39): 12713–12718. Bibcode:2015JAChS.13712713R. doi:10.1021/jacs.5b07956. ISSN   0002-7863. PMC   4655919 . PMID   26378660.
  18. ↑ Hoffmann, Markus; Kärnbratt, Joakim; Chang, Ming-Hua; Herz, Laura M.; Albinsson, Bo; Anderson, Harry L. (23 June 2008). "Enhanced π Conjugation around a Porphyrin[6] Nanoring". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 47 (27): 4993–4996. doi:10.1002/anie.200801188. ISSN   1433-7851. PMID   18506860.
  19. ↑ "Michael Faraday, In Our Time – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  20. ↑ "Fellow Detail Page, Royal Society".
  21. ↑ "New Fellows Announcement 2024".
  22. ↑ Physics, Institute of. "Michael Faraday Medal and Prize recipients". www.iop.org. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  23. ↑ "List of MRS Fellows".
  24. ↑ "2022 Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division mid-career Award". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  25. ↑ Physics, Institute of. "2018 Nevill Mott Medal and Prize". www.iop.org. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  26. ↑ "Success for MPLS staff in Oxford University Student Union teaching awards — Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences Division". www.mpls.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  27. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Laura Maria Herz - Profile - Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
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