Dr. Jakub Drnec

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France

About

The question he asks for is: "How can we sustainably exploit available energy resources with minimum environmental impact?” It is more than clear that the succesfull answer involves new materials for energy generation, conversion and storage. He uses high energy X-ray beams to probe such materials in their working environment in order to better understand their functioning and structure-activity relationships. This requires pushing the current advanced experimental techniques to the limits and developing new experimental approaches.

His current projects involve the development of data analysis routines, operando investigations of fuel cells, studies of formation of catalyticaly active bimetallic alloys, fundamental studies of degradation of Pt catalysts and development of graphene based heterostructures for catalysis and spintronics. He also enjoys crossing the borders to solve interdisciplinary problems.