"DAS OFFENE WISSENSLABOR" is the major communication campaign of the Berlin University Alliance, which aims to make research at the excellent science location Berlin visible, tangible and understandable for a broad public. It draws attention to Berlin's flourishing research landscape with its three universities, university medicine, numerous non-university research institutions and, last but not least, seven clusters of excellence. It is also intended to inspire enthusiasm for research and encourage people on the street to make contact with researchers in the - alleged - ivory tower.
This fall, the campaign will highlight the work of Berlin's clusters of excellence. At the end of October, the focus will be on UniSysCat with a social media campaign. Under the heading “UNISYSCAT: CATALYST OF A GREEN WORLD”, the main research areas of UniSysCat are outlined on the campaign website. It's about the search for new catalysts for the energy transition. Or the question of how the chemistry of the future can be designed: green, resource-saving and optimized for material cycles.
UniSysCat's research becomes particularly concrete in one example: the production and conversion of hydrogen with the help of the enzyme hydrogenase. This tiny molecule found in bacteria is of great interest for modern hydrogen technology. Several UniSysCat research groups are working on it. In the interview “Enzymes for the energy transition”, UniSysCat researchers Dr. Marius Horch (FU Berlin), Dr. Oliver Lenz (TU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Maria Andrea Mroginski (TU Berlin) and Dr. Andrea Schmidt (Charité Berlin) provide insights into their interdisciplinary collaboration and explain how their basic research is opening up new possibilities for the chemistry of the future.
Maria-Andrea Mroginski*: Each and every one of us brings their own special skills and experience to the project. We are each highly specialized, which is the only way that cutting-edge research is possible today.
Marius Horch*: So only as a team can we really answer your questions accurately.
Andrea Schmidt*: I would also generally have a bad feeling if one of us wasn't involved in the interview. It's also about team spirit, so to speak.
Oliver Lenz*: That's true. We come from three different institutions, but we are all members of UniSysCat. In principle, we represent the spirit of the Berlin University Alliance: close research alliances in which affiliation with an institution is no longer the main focus ...
Marius Horch*: ... but rather the best possible, most effective collaboration in an “open knowledge laboratory”. We need this efficiency and interdisciplinarity because the problems we are dealing with are extremely complex.
As one of the seven Berlin Clusters of Excellence, we are delighted to be part of the Berlin University Alliance. It is great to do research in Berlin as a center of science. Here we are taking on one of the great challenges of our time: we are shaping the chemistry of tomorrow!
* Statements by the scientists are taken from the interview: www.berlin-university-alliance.de/wissenslabor/stories/interview-unisyscat/index.html