Strengthening Collaborative Research:
The NUS-HU Bilateral Workshop

Jan. 6-10, 2025
Foyer, CSMB Research Building
Last week, we had the privilege of hosting the NUS-HU Bilateral Workshop at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), held from January 6–10, 2025, in the Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) Research Building. This event marked another milestone in our strategic partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS), one of the world’s leading research universities and a pioneer in interdisciplinary, practice-oriented education, research, and innovation.
The collaboration between HU and NUS dates back to 2010 through student exchange programs. Since 2018, this partnership has grown under the Berlin University Alliance, focusing on advancing innovative research in key thematic areas. The partnership with the Adlershof campus has a long history, highlighted by significant initiatives such as the HU Kosmos Summer Universities in 2011, which was a joint effort with NUS and Chiba U, and in 2014, in collaboration with NUS and Princeton U.
Building on this strong foundation, a HU delegation visited Singapore late last year to prepare for this week-long workshop. The event featured 21 presentations on material sciences, delivered by researchers Adlershof, alongside nine researchers from NUS.
In addition to the academic discussions during the day, the evenings provided opportunities for informal networking. Both sides expressed interest in further strengthening the collaboration. Initial working groups have been established and will continue to meet in the coming weeks to define key topics and develop joint initiatives.
Looking ahead, a HU delegation is scheduled to visit Singapore in summer 2025 to continue building on this partnership and explore new areas for collaboration.
We would like to thank all participants for their contributions to this workshop and look forward to continuing our work together.
ARRIVAL | |
Arrival and Check-in at Dorint-Adlershof | |
19:00 | Dinner at Dorint-Adlershof Address: Rudower Chaussee 15, 12489 Berlin (Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps) |
WORKSHOP DAY 1 | |
Venue: | CSMB Forschungsbau, Zum Großen Windkanal 2, 12489 Berlin |
9:00 – 9:10 | Opening Remarks & Welcome (Norbert Koch & Wei Chen) |
Session 1 | Session Chair: Stefan Hecht |
9:10 – 9:40 | Wei Chen: “Interface Engineering for 2D materials and electrocatalysis” |
9:40 – 10:10 | Norbert Koch: “Electronic properties of interfaces made with perovskites, 2D semiconductors, and molecular agents” |
10:10 – 10:40 | Chunyan Chi: “Pi-Structures with Different Shapes and Sizes: Synthesis, Electronic Properties, and Applications” |
10:40 – 11:10 | Coffee Break |
Session 2 | Session Chair: Norbert Koch |
11:10 – 11:40 | Saskia Fischer: “Transport properties of low-dimensional charge carrier systems” |
11:40 – 12:10 | Xinwei Li: “Light induced metastable spin-orbital order in Ca2RuO4“ |
12:10 – 12:40 | Hannah Nerl: “Probing phonons and excitons in 2D materials and their heterostructures in the electron microscope” |
12:40 – 13:40 | Lunch Break |
13:40 – 14:45 | Lab tour at CSMB |
Session 3 | Session Chair: Nicola Pinna |
14:45 – 15:15 | Jiong Lu: “Atomic precision quantum nanoscience” |
15:15 – 15:45 | Kannan Balasubramanian: “Exploring the Graphene-Liquid-Interface using Field-Effect, Electrochemistry and Plasmon Resonance” |
15:45 – 16:15 | Coffee Break |
16:15 – 16:45 | Alexey Berdyugin: “Coulomb screening of superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene” |
19:00 | Dinner at Restaurant Krokodil Address: Gartenstraße 46-48, 12557 Berlin (Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps) |
WORKSHOP DAY 2 | |
Venue: | CSMB Forschungsbau, Zum Großen Windkanal 2, 12489 Berlin |
Session 4 | Session Chair: Sylke Blumstengel |
9:00 – 9:30 | Stefan Hecht: “Illuminating Materials, Devices and Manufacturing with Photoswitches” |
9:30 – 10:00 | Yunyan Qiu: “Precision polymer synthesis” |
10:00 – 10:30 | Goki Eda: “Quantum defects in 2D materials for novel photonics” |
10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee Break |
Session 5 | Session Chair: Norbert Koch |
11:00 – 11:30 | Emil List-Kratochvil: “2D semiconductor based electronic devices” |
11:30 – 12:00 | Sylke Blumstengel: “Weak and strong coupling in heterostructures with 2D semiconductors” |
12:00 – 13:15 | Lunch Break |
13:15 – 13:45 | Nicola Pinna: “Novel Materials Chemistry for Energy Applications” |
13:45 – 14:15 | Jens Martin: “Towards ‘2D goes 3D’: layer transfer of 2D-vdW and twisted perovskites” |
14:15 – 14:30 | Coffee Break |
Session 6 | Session Chair: Emil List-Kratochvil |
14:30 – 15:00 | Lennart Reb: “On perovskite solar cells” |
15:00 – 15:30 | Somin Park: “Nanoscale surface chemistry for high-temperature stable perovskite solar cells” |
15:30 – 15:45 | Coffee Break |
Session 7 | Session Chair: Emil List-Kratochvil |
15:45 – 16:15 | Kallol Ray: “Inorganic Reaction mechanism and Spectroscopy” |
16:15 – 16:45 | Ignacio Gonzalez: “Hybrid materials: Still challenging for ab initio theory” |
16:45 – 17:15 | Xiaogang Liu: “Recent Advances in Nanoscintillators: Transforming X-ray Imaging and Beyond” |
17:15 – 17:30 | Closing remarks (Norbert Koch & Wei Chen) |
19:00 | Dinner at Restaurant “Pino” Address: Rheingaustraße 14, 12161 Berlin (Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps) |
INDIVIDUAL DISCUSSIONS AND WRAP-UP | |
Venue: | CSMB Forschungsbau, Zum Großen Windkanal 2, 12489 Berlin |
9:00 – 12:00 | Time for individual discussions |
12:00 – 13:00 | Plenary meeting to discuss the next steps |
13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break |
14:00 – 16:00 | Tour at BESSY II |
19:00 | Dinner at restaurant “Greekfood Olympia” Address: Rudower Chaussee 5a, 12489 Berlin (Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps) |
DEPARTURE |