Jana Zaumseil Receives ERC Consolidator Grant

Material scientist Jana Zaumseil has received a highly endowed ERC Consolidator Grant for excellent young researchers from the European Research Council (ERC). The funds will be used to support a research project in the field of carbon-based nanomaterials. The overall aim of the project is the tailored modification and application of this new class of semiconductors. The ERC will provide approximately two million euros in funding for a five-year period. Jana Zaumseil is a professor at the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Executive Director of the Centre for Advanced Materials of Heidelberg University. She was awarded with an ERC Starting Grant in 2012.

Dr Zaumseil’s research focuses on nanomaterials, that is, materials whose properties are primarily determined by their size on the nanometre scale. "We work mainly with carbon nanotubes but also other carbon-based semiconductors," she explains. With her research group "Nanomaterials for Optoelectronics", Dr Zaumseil is working on using these materials to conduct electrical current as well as generate light.

The funded project, "TRIFECTs - Trions and sp3-Defects in Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes for Optoelectronics", aims to systematically manipulate the properties of nanomaterials by introducing charges and specific defects. "We are particularly interested in generating light in the near-infrared range, which has a slightly longer wavelength than the human eye can perceive. This wavelength range is important for telecommunication, such as in optical data transmission," explains Prof. Zaumseil. In this regard

Jana Zaumseil (b. 1977) studied Chemistry at the University of Leipzig. After a one-year research internship at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill (USA), she obtained her doctorate in Physics from the University of Cambridge (Great Britain). She spent a couple of years pursuing postdoctoral research in the USA before joining the faculty of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2009. Dr Zaumseil has been Chair for Applied Physical Chemistry at Heidelberg University since 2014 and is currently leading the Centre for Advanced Materials.

The Consolidator Grant is given to promising researchers whose own independent research group is in the consolidation phase. Scientific excellence is the main criterion.