 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Cluster of Excellence Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) is an interdisciplinary research network funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the federal and state initiative called the Excellence Strategy of Germany, Exzellenzstrategie. [1] [2] The funding period runs from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2025.
Around 300 researchers from the Berlin and Potsdam areas work at UniSysCat, focusing on current issues in catalysis research. [3] UniSysCat is the follow-up project to the Cluster of Excellence Unifying Concepts in Catalysis (UniCat), which was funded from 2007 to 2018 as part of the federal and state excellence initiative of Germany, Exzellenzstrategie. [4]
UniSysCat focuses on research into catalytic reactions driven by biocatalysts, aiming to develop controllable reaction networks applicable to sustainable chemistry. The initiative builds upon previous research from its predecessor, UniCat, which was funded from 2007 to 2018. [5] [6] [7]
The network also aims to transfer the knowledge and results it has found for use by third-party organizations in the sustainable chemistry industry.
In 2011, the UniCat Cluster of Excellence and the chemical company BASF founded the joint laboratory BasCat (UniCat BASF JointLab), at Technische Universität Berlin. BasCat is dedicated to basic research in the field of heterogeneous catalysis.
The Chemical Invention Factory (CIF, John Warner Center for Start-ups in Green Chemistry) is a project initiated at TU Berlin that aims to encourage young scientists to become founders of their own start-ups. The Chemical Invention Factory supports research in the fields of green chemistry, materials, and nanotechnology. Plans for a new building include the presence of state-of-the-art laboratories where young scientists, accompanied by mentors, can research their own ideas with the goal of developing their results into a start-up ready for the market.
The INKULAB was a project to promote young entrepreneurs in chemistry. The project concluded in April 2020 after five years.
Spokespersons: Holger Dobbek (HU Berlin), Matthias Driess (TU Berlin), Arne Thomas (TU Berlin)
UniSysCat consists of around 60 research groups working in experimental methods and theoretical approaches in the fields of molecular and structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics, chemical synthesis, physical and theoretical chemistry, and physics. UniSysCat's research strategy is based on the previous work of the UniCat Cluster of Excellence (Unifying Concepts in Catalysis). [3]
Its research focuses on parameters that enable and control chemocatalytic and biocatalytic networks, and on how chemical and biological processes can be coupled to create catalytic systems with new functions. [8]
The Clara Immerwahr Award, launched in 2011 by the UniCat Cluster of Excellence, is an award to promote young women in catalysis research. The award is given annually to a young scientist from Germany or abroad in an early phase of her career (postdoc, young scientist) for her performance in catalysis research. It is associated with a financial grant of 15,000 euros for a research stay in a UniSysCat research group and is intended to establish close cooperation with UniSysCat working groups. [9]
The Clara Immerwahr Award is dedicated to Dr. Clara Immerwahr (1870-1915), who was the first woman in Germany to receive a doctorate in physical chemistry in 1900. [10]
A structural goal of UniSysCat is the sustainable promotion of young scientists. UniSysCat supports the so-called "EC2/BIG-NSE" doctoral program.
The term EC2/BIG-NSE is made up of the terms EC² (Einstein Center of Catalysis) and BIG-NSE (Berlin International Graduate School of Natural Sciences and Engineering). BIG-NSE was an international PhD program that was founded on May 29, 2007 at Technische Universität Berlin, and was part of the Cluster of Excellence UniCat. [11] [12] Since January 1st, 2019, the BIG-NSE doctoral program has been financed by the "Einstein Center of Catalysis" sponsored by the Einstein Foundation Berlin, prompting the renaming of the program to EC2/BIG-NSE. The mission of this doctoral program is to overcome the limits of classical disciplines in catalysis. [13]
Technische Universität Berlin is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first German university to adopt the name "Technische Universität".
The Technical University of Munich is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
TU Dresden, also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 32,389 students as of 2018.
The University of Bremen is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategies" of the Excellence Initiative launched by the Federal Government and the Federal States in 2012. The university was also successful in the categories "Graduate Schools" and "Clusters of Excellence" of the initiative.
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, or Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to "exceptional scientists and academics for their outstanding achievements in the field of research". Since 1986, up to ten prizes have been awarded annually to individuals or research groups working at a research institution in Germany or at a German research institution abroad. It is considered the most important research award in Germany.
The Clausthal University of Technology is an institute of technology in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany. The small public university is regularly ranked among the Top German universities in engineering by CHE University Rankings. More than 30% of students and 20% of academic staff come from abroad, making it one of the most international universities in Germany. The university is best known for the prominent corporate leaders among its former students.
Gerhard Ertl is a German physicist and a Professor emeritus at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany. Ertl's research laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, which has helped explain how fuel cells produce energy without pollution, how catalytic converters clean up car exhausts and even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
The Berlin Graduate School of Natural Sciences and Engineering (BIG-NSE) is part of the Cluster of Excellence "Unifying Concepts in Catalysis" (UniCat) founded in November 2007 by Technische Universität Berlin and five further institutions in the Berlin area within the framework of the German government‘s Excellence Initiative.
The International Graduate School in Molecular Medicine Ulm (IGradU) of Ulm University has been established in 2006 and has been a permanent structure of Ulm University since 2020. It promotes and supports graduate education and training in the field of biomedical research. There are two structured training programmes on offer: The International PhD Programme in Molecular Medicine Ulm for doctoral candidates in the natural sciences and the programme Experimental Medicine for doctoral candidates in human and dental medicine.
Dorothea Fiedler is a chemical biologist and also the first female director of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie in Berlin, Germany.
Sophie Carenco is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, working on nanochemistry at the Laboratory of Condensed Matter Chemistry of Paris. Her research focuses on novel synthetic routes of exotic nanomaterials for energy application such as CO2 capture.
The Berlin University Alliance is a consortium of three universities and one hospital in Berlin: the Free University of Berlin, the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Technische Universität Berlin, and the Charité – Berlin University of Medicine.
María Escudero-Escribano is a Spanish chemist. Her research considers the design of materials for catalysis, fuel cells and sustainable chemistry. She works at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) as an ICREA Research Professor since September 2022. Formerly she was director of the Nano-Electrochemical group at the University of Copenhagen.
Matthias Kraume is a German Chemical and Process Engineer and university professor. He is a professor of process engineering at Technische Universität Berlin and a member of the advisory board of Chemie Ingenieur Technik (CIT), the monthly journal of the Society of German Chemists (GDCh).
Matthias Scheffler is a German theoretical physicist whose research focuses on condensed matter theory, materials science, and artificial intelligence. He is particularly known for his contributions to density-functional theory and many-electron quantum mechanics and for his development of multiscale approaches. In the latter, he combines electronic-structure theory with thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, and also employs numerical methods from engineering. As summarized by his appeal "Get Real!" he introduced environmental factors into ab initio calculations. In recent years, he has increasingly focused on data-centric scientific concepts and methods and on the goal that materials-science data must become "Findable and Artificial Intelligence Ready".
Peter Strasser is a German chemist. He is the winner of the 2021 Faraday Medal.
Juri Rappsilber is a German chemist in the area of mass spectrometry and proteomics.
Arne Thomas is a German chemist who researches porous and nanostructured materials for catalytic applications.
Janina Kneipp is a German scientist who is Professor of Physical Chemistry Humboldt University of Berlin. Her research considers surface enhanced Raman scattering and plasmonic enhancement in multi-modal micro spectroscopy.
Ulrike I. Kramm is a German chemistry professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt. Her research considers the development and characterisation of metal catalysts for fuel cells, CO2 conversion and solar fuels.
