Since its initiation in 2011, the prestigious Clara Immerwahr Award has attracted numerous high-quality applications from excellent female scientists at the early stage of their careers. This year's Clara Immerwahr Award goes to Dr. Charlotte Vogt from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology for her outstanding achievements in catalysis research. Very warm congratulations! The award is intended to promote the study of catalysis during a research stay at UniSysCat with the aim of establishing close cooperation with UniSysCat working groups.
Since 2021, Dr. Charlotte Vogt has been working as an assistant professor at the Technion Institute of Technology. Her group focuses on catalysis "for fuels of the future". They aim at developing new tools for fundamental understanding of catalytic reactions – specifically, catalysts at work. To this end, her team combines sophisticated spectroscopic techniques with data analysis through e.g. multivariate analyses and deep learning. "Our biggest aim is to make a change in the way we study and understand catalysis, in order to have that information at hand to design catalysts that we need to solve some of the great hurdles society faces", as Dr. Charlotte Vogt describes in her application for the Clara Immerwahr Award.
Charlotte Vogt was born in Utrecht in 1991, and raised both there, and in Houston, Texas. After she obtained her Bachelor in Chemistry, she commenced her Masters in Science (Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis) and Business Management all at Utrecht University with Highest Distinctions. She commenced her doctoral degree in the group of Prof. Dr. Bert Weckhuysen in 2015. Her doctoral dissertation focused on fundamental concepts in catalysis, with a strong focus on the conversion of CO2 to useful materials. In April 2020, Charlotte obtained her PhD degree with highest distinctions, and in May of 2020, she commenced her Post-Doctoral research working as an autonomous Niels Stensen Fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. During the 10 months of Corona pandemic that followed, she worked with Dr. Baran Eren, and Prof. Elad Gross on spectroscopy of electrocatalytic CO2 conversion, both homogeneous and heterogeneous. In March of 2021 at the age of 29, she started her own research group at the Technion Institute for Technology.
We are looking forward to an exciting and collaborative research exchange with Dr. Charlotte Vogt in the spirit of the Clara Immerwahr Award. All awardees have been role models to future female scientists and as such have inspired young women and girls to pursue a career in this field.
Goodbye to Ulla Wollenberger and Welcome Petra Wendler as a new member of the selection comittee!
In summer 2021, the long-standing member Ulla Wollenberger finally left the Clara Immerwahr award selection committee. UniSysCat would like to take this opportunity to thank Ulla Wollenberger for her long-standing commitment to the selection committee. She has made a great contribution to the support of young female scientists! Petra Wendler from the University of Potsdam took her place and was promptly elected to the chair of the committee. We at UniSysCat are very pleased that Petra Wendler will now take over the chairmanship of the committee. Together with our new chair, we are looking forward to the coming years with great Clara Immerwahr Award applications, exciting selection rounds and great award ceremonies!