Junior researcher from Leibniz IPHT Gets Renowned Award for Photochemistry

“The excellent results on photo-induced electron transfer dynamics in artificial photosynthetic systems, which Yusen Luo has been researching, give reason to rethink traditional approaches”, says Prof. Benjamin Dietzek from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, in whose research department “Functional Interfaces” at Leibniz IPHT the young scientist has prepared her doctorate. By means of time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy, Yusen Luo has provided new approaches for assessing the photophysics of structurally simple photo centers based on RuII-terpyridine complexes. “This enables new synthetic strategies for controlling electronic coupling in intramolecular donor/acceptor systems,” says Benjamin Dietzek. Yusen Luo has published her results in numerous renowned scientific journals.

After successfully completing her doctorate at Leibniz IPHT and the University of Jena, Yusen Luo is now working as a post-doc at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Erlangen. She is already the second scientist from Leibniz IPHT’s research department Functional Interfaces to be awarded the Albert Weller Prize. It was previously awarded to Maria Waechtler, who is now head of the research group “Quantum Confined Nanostructures” at Leibniz IPHT.

The Albert Weller Prize will be awarded by the GDCh together with the German Bunsen Society on September 14, 2020 at the digital 27th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry. This year, the award is shared by two young researchers — both from institutes belonging to the Leibniz Association: With Yusen Luo, it is awarded to Michael Kathan from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. He wrote his dissertation in the group of Prof. Stefan Hecht from RWTH Aachen and the Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials (Leibniz-DWI).

The GDCh Photochemistry Division and the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry usually award the Albert Weller Prize every two years for an outstanding dissertation in the field of photochemistry/spectroscopy.