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
19:00Dinner 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 – 9:10Opening Remarks & Welcome (Norbert Koch & Wei Chen)
Session 1Session Chair: Stefan Hecht
9:10 – 9:40Wei Chen: “Interface Engineering for 2D materials and electrocatalysis”
9:40 – 10:10Norbert Koch: “Electronic properties of interfaces made with perovskites, 2D semiconductors, and molecular agents”
10:10 – 10:40Chunyan Chi: “Pi-Structures with Different Shapes and Sizes: Synthesis, Electronic Properties, and Applications”
10:40 – 11:10Coffee Break
Session 2Session Chair: Norbert Koch
11:10 – 11:40Saskia Fischer: “Transport properties of low-dimensional charge carrier systems”
11:40 – 12:10Xinwei Li: “Light induced metastable spin-orbital order in Ca2RuO4
12:10 – 12:40Hannah Nerl: “Probing phonons and excitons in 2D materials and their heterostructures in the electron microscope”
12:40 – 13:40Lunch Break
13:40 – 14:45Lab tour at CSMB
Session 3Session Chair: Nicola Pinna
14:45 – 15:15Jiong Lu: “Atomic precision quantum nanoscience”
15:15 – 15:45Kannan Balasubramanian: “Exploring the Graphene-Liquid-Interface using Field-Effect, Electrochemistry and Plasmon Resonance”
15:45 – 16:15Coffee Break
16:15 – 16:45Alexey Berdyugin: “Coulomb screening of superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene”
19:00Dinner 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 4Session Chair: Sylke Blumstengel
9:00 – 9:30Stefan Hecht: “Illuminating Materials, Devices and Manufacturing with Photoswitches”
9:30 – 10:00Yunyan Qiu: “Precision polymer synthesis”
10:00 – 10:30Goki Eda: “Quantum defects in 2D materials for novel photonics”
10:30 – 11:00Coffee Break
Session 5Session Chair: Norbert Koch
11:00 – 11:30Emil List-Kratochvil: “2D semiconductor based electronic devices”
11:30 – 12:00Sylke Blumstengel: “Weak and strong coupling in heterostructures with 2D semiconductors”
12:00 – 13:15Lunch Break
13:15 – 13:45Nicola Pinna: “Novel Materials Chemistry for Energy Applications”
13:45 – 14:15Jens Martin: “Towards ‘2D goes 3D’: layer transfer of 2D-vdW and twisted perovskites”
14:15 – 14:30Coffee Break
Session 6Session Chair: Emil List-Kratochvil
14:30 – 15:00Lennart Reb: “On perovskite solar cells”
15:00 – 15:30Somin Park: “Nanoscale surface chemistry for high-temperature stable perovskite solar cells”
15:30 – 15:45Coffee Break
Session 7Session Chair: Emil List-Kratochvil
15:45 – 16:15Kallol Ray: “Inorganic Reaction mechanism and Spectroscopy”
16:15 – 16:45Ignacio Gonzalez: “Hybrid materials: Still challenging for ab initio theory”
16:45 – 17:15Xiaogang Liu:  “Recent Advances in Nanoscintillators: Transforming X-ray Imaging and Beyond”
17:15 – 17:30Closing remarks (Norbert Koch & Wei Chen)
19:00Dinner 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
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