Affiliation: University of Kassel
Keywords: Nanomaterials- colloids – 2D materials – liquid exfoliation – functionalization – spectroscopy
Full profile: Claudia has received her Ph.D with honors in 2011 from the University of Erlangen, Germany. From 2011-2012, she supported the Erlangen Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials” as deputy executive director and scientific coordinator. After receiving a fellowship grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2012, she moved to Jonathan Coleman’s group at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland where she began her research activities on the production, processing and functionalization of 2D nanomaterials in the liquid phase. In 2015, Claudia returned to Germany and joined Heidelberg University at the Chair of Applied Physical Chemistry. In 2016, she was awarded with the prestigious Emmy Noether funding from the German Research Foundation (~1.3Mio Euros) to establish her independent research group at Heidelberg University. During this time, she won several awards for junior researchers (Hengstberger Award, Lautenschläger Award, ETH Young Materials Scientist Award). In October 2021, Claudia was appointed Chair Professor of Physical Chemistry of Nanomaterials at Kassel University, Germany.
Claudia’s research combines aspects of colloid science, surface chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry and condensed matter physics. She has made substantial contributions to the development of exfoliation and characterization of 2D materials in the liquid phase, which will be of crucial importance for long-term practical applications. The exfoliation and workup protocols she has developed, as well as the simple characterization methods for spectroscopic determination of flake size or the quantitative description of possible degradation of the materials are not only used by researchers worldwide, but also contribute significantly to the understanding of this increasingly important manufacturing process. Particular emphasis is given to studying unexplored, novel 2D materials. Her work thus provides a permanent supply of interesting nanomaterials that have largely not yet been investigated
Claudia is a true believer that networking is key to tackle interdisciplinary problems and has a broad collaborative network within Europe. To foster collaborations, establish new ones and support and encourage young researchers, Claudia is extremely active in participating at conferences, workshops and symposia. Over the past 5 years, she has presented ~45 invited talks at international conferences and departmental seminars. Claudia has also been very involved as reviewer of articles for a range of journals (including Nature, Nature Chem., Nature Commun., Angew. Chem., J. Am. Chem. Soc., ACS Nano) or grant proposals (ERC Starting, Consolidator, Synergy Grants, EC FET-Open, German research foundation, Humboldt foundation). In 2022, she became liaison office of the German research foundation (DFG) at Kassel University and Chairwoman of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) at Kassel University.