Chemist Jonas Warneke has received a high award. In recognition of his above-average scientific achievements, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is supporting him with a Feodor Lynen research scholarship. The scholarship is named after the German Nobel laureate for biochemistry. Early next year, postdoc Warneke will use the scholarship to finance his move from the University of Bremen to the renowned “Pacific Northwest National Laboratory” (PNNL) in Richland, Washington State, USA. In addition to financing a two-year stay in Richland, the Feodor Lynen scholarship funds a further year during which he can prepare his future research career.

Research topic: Soft landing of ions
The 28-year-old studied at the University of Bremen, where this year he completed his doctoral dissertation as a member of the research group led by Professor Petra Swiderek in the Faculty of Biology/Chemistry. His research project is ion soft landing. This describes a special technique used to prepare material surfaces, whereby gas molecules are first prepared in a mass spectrometer and then landed intact. A major challenge is how to precision control the molecules’ state of charge once they are landed. The project proposal Jonas Warneke submitted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation describes a new method of controlling the ions state of charge which he now wants to test at PNNL. The objective is to determine with precision the important physical and chemical properties of surfaces. If it is possible that through this technique of controlling the catalytic activity of molecules – that means their accelerating effect on chemical reactions – the effect can be maintained after the molecules are bound to a surface, it could open up new applications in medicine, environmental engineering, and materials research.

Taking Bremen competencies with him
Warneke’s research project builds on his earlier research with mass spectrometry and molecule spectroscopy, and the insights gained in surface analysis in the course of writing his PhD thesis. He will be able to put these Bremen competences to good use while working in cooperation with his new US-American colleagues in Richland. His hosts at PNNL are Julia Laskin, a leading researcher in the field of ion soft landing, and the theoretical chemist Sotiris Xantheas, holder of many Humboldt Foundation awards.

For more information, please contact:
University of Bremen
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
Institute for Applied and Physical Chemistry
Dr. Jonas Warneke / Prof. Dr. Petra Swiderek
Phone: +49 421 218-63200
j.warneke@uni-bremen.de
swiderek@uni-bremen.de

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