Past Events

Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus
Professor Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus held a Chair of Physical Chemistry at Bielefeld University until 2017, where she remains as a Senior Professor since. She has studied chemistry in Bochum with a Ph.D. thesis in atmospheric chemistry and performed her habilitation in engineering in Stuttgart. Research periods and honorary professorships brought her to several continents. She served in multiple academic functions, including the German Council for Science and the Humanities, the Senates of DFG and the Helmholtz Association, and the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She was the President of the International Combustion Institute, an umbrella organization of 35 national societies, and of the German Bunsengesellschaft for Physical Chemistry. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus received multiple awards. She was honored with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic and is a member of six academies, including the Chinese and European Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, and acatech. In addition to her research on diagnostics and chemistry of high-temperature processes, she is also a pioneer of science activities for children and young adults.
International Women's Day
Date: 8th March 2023

Source: Philipp Arnoldt/TU Braunschweig
Angela Ittel
Professor Dr. Angela Ittel has been the president of the Technical University of Braunschweig since July 2021. Prior to this, she served as full-time Vice President of Technische Universität Berlin, Germany since 2014, and was responsible for the departments of Internationalization and Teacher Education. Dr. Ittel received her doctorate (PhD) at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA. She became a predoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, the Technische Universität Chemnitz, and the Freie Universität Berlin before she was appointed Professor of Educational Psychology at TU Berlin in 2008. Her research areas include career orientation and the development of young people’s interests, especially in STEM subjects. She was an editor of international journals and continues to work as an expert reviewer. Moreover, she is an active expert in the topics of interdisciplinary research, equal opportunities and diversity.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Date: 10th February 2023

Chongwen Zhou
Dr. Zhou obtained her Ph.D. from the School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, China in 2009. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate from 2009 to 2015 at the Combustion Chemistry Centre, School of Chemistry, National University of Ireland, Galway. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Zhou served as a Professor at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. Having returned to Galway at the beginning of 2022, she is now a lecturer at the School of Chemistry.
Her research areas include Combustion Chemistry Modeling, Chemical Kinetic Model Development as well as Ab Initio Calculations of the Reaction Mechanisms.
The combustion chemistry of ammonia and ammonia/hydrogen: A comprehensive modeling study
Date: 11th November 2022

Photographer: Sven Marquardt (Teamfoto Marquardt) / Competentia Münsterland
Cornelia Denz
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Denz was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the Technische Universität Darmstadt and worked on optical neural network and optical data storage. In 1993, Prof. Denz became head of the Photorefractive Group at TU Darmstadt. She moved to the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität of Münster in 2001, where she led the chair of experimental physics and gender in physics as the director of the Institute of Applied Physics. Her main research topics are nonlinear photonics and fostering girls in STEM. She founded the Centre for Nonlinear Science (CeNoS) at WWU Münster and the hands-on lab MExlab for school kids and students.
Prof. Cornelia Denz became the first woman president of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundestanstalt (PTB) as of May 1, 2022.
Gender research and physics (and chemistry): How does this fit together?
Date: 7th April 2022

Liisa K. Rihko-Struckmann
Dr. Rihko-Struckmann was born in Maaria (Turku), Finland and recieved her PhD degree in department of chemical engineering Helsinki University of Technology (today Aalto University), Finland in 1997. Since 2001, she is head of sustainable production systems team and laboratory manager in the process systems engineering group at Max Planck Institute of Dynamics for Complex Technical Systems, Germany. Her current research interests include catalysis, reaction engineering and modelling of chemical and energy conversion systems, CO2 utilisation and recycle, chemical storage of renewable energy, biomass conversion to fuels and electricity, chemical and fuel production with photosynthetic organisms (algal biomass), sustainability assessment (LCA), chemical recycle of polymers, process systems engineering.
My Career in Science
Date: 7th April 2022

Siri Harboe-Minwegen
Dr. Harboe-Minwegen received her Ph.D. degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2018. During her Ph.D.’s research, she focused on the investigation of the rheological and microstructural properties of semi-solid aluminium-copper during isothermal shear. Following, she worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-1 Material Synthesis and Processing, Forschungszentrum Jülich, on development of materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and investigations of material processing and performance. Since 2021, she works as a project manager in OWI Science for Fuels gGmbH, An-Institute der RWTH Aachen.
Working as a woman with Engineering Science in Germany
Date: 7th April 2022

Xing Chao
Dr. Chao received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology at Tsinghua University, and her Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 2013. She has also received the Engineer Degree of France (Diplôme d’Ingénieur) through a two-year double-degree exchange program at École Centrale de Paris. While her Master’s research was focused on solid-state lasers, her Ph.D. thesis work was concentrated on laser absorption spectroscopy and its application in combustion gas diagnostics. After achieving her doctoral degree (2013-2015), she worked as the chief scientist at Oxigraf, Inc. in Mountain View, California, which is a pioneer and specialized company for spectroscopic instrumentation particularly for medical, industrial and aerospace applications. Dr. Chao has been working as an assistant/associate professor at the Center for Combustion Energy and the Department of Energy and Power Engineering at Tsinghua University since Dec. 2015. Her current research interests include various optical and spectroscopic techniques, instrumentation for combustion diagnostics, and laser-based sensor systems.
When Scientists choose Motherhood
Date: 7th April 2022

Charu Sharma
Ms. Sharma has more than 10 years multi-cultural experience in the energy & petrochemical industry with a qualification in Civil Engineering. She has worked as an assistant general manager in Sembcrop Energy India Limited since 2018 to undertake key roles in different projects such as Site feasibility study, operations maintenance, process optimization & implementation, digitization, team training & development. Before that time, Charu understood industry challenges and gained progressive experience by working in different companies including Amplus Solar (2017-2018) as a team-lead of Solar Project Delivery, ACME Cleantech Solutions Pvt. Limited (2016-2017) as an assistant manager, Siemens as an executive engineer (2014-2016), Simon India Limited (2012-2014) and KEC International Limited (2011-2012).
Date: 7th April 2022