321 researchers from the EU and the UK have won the 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants. No less than two of these award-winning research projects are located at the Technische Universität Dresden: Physicist and electrical engineer Prof. Yana Vaynzof as well as psychologist and neuroscientist Prof. Philipp Kanske will each receive funding of around two million euros over a period of five years for their projects in the fields of materials engineering and psychology/neuroscience. With the Consolidator Grant, the European Research Council honors excellent, promising scientists who have 7 to 12 years’ experience after their PhDs and whose own independent research group is in the consolidation phase.

ENGINEERING PEROVSKITE MATERIALS FOR (OPTO)ELECTRONICS

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Yana Vaynzof is the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at TU Dresden and the Director of the Institute for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW). Her research interests focus on the development of novel semiconducting materials with particular focus on their integration into photovoltaic devices. She was already awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2017.

“Metal halide perovskites are a unique class of materials with extraordinary properties that are perfectly suited for application in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes” she explains. Together with her research group, Prof. Vaynzof has been investigating metal halide perovskites processed from solution over the last years, focusing on enhancing the efficiency and stability of perovskite photovoltaic devices.

The ERC-funded project, “PEROVAP – Engineering Metal Halide Perovskites by Vapour deposition” aims to develop novel methods to systematically manipulate the properties of thermally evaporated metal halide perovskites. “While solution processed perovskites have been intensively investigated in recent years, significantly less research was dedicated to their deposition by thermal evaporation – a solvent-free, scalable method of high industrial relevance,” explains Prof. Vaynzof and adds: “By developing novel engineering approaches for the vapour deposition of metal halide perovskites, we can facilitate their integration into a range of industrial applications, even beyond photovoltaics.”

“INTERACT” to uncover the neural basis of empathy and perspective taking

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Philipp Kanske is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at Technische Universität Dresden. He researches the emotional and cognitive processes that enable social behavior and their changes in mental disorders. With his ERC project „INTERACT - The interplay of neural networks enabling social interaction“, he now wants to investigate how the abilities to feel empathy and to take in the other person’s perspective are implemented in the brain. In particular, he will investigate how the neuronal networks that enable empathy and perspective taking work together in complex social interactions. To this end, he will further develop methods of social neuroscience and study subjects in social interaction in the MRI scanner. The goal of INTERACT is to develop a training program that is tailored to the individual's goals and needs and uses small exercises in empathy and perspective-taking to improve social interaction. "As a psychotherapist, I can directly experience how important empathy and perspective-taking are for good social relationships, especially in critical situations such as an argument with a partner. People with mental disorders in particular often have problems forming their social relationships in a way that is good for them. With INTERACT, I hope to contribute to a better understanding of how empathy and perspective-taking function psychologically and neuroscientifically, in order to be able to develop a targeted and tailored training program for people with difficulties in social interaction," explains Prof. Kanske.

Media inquiries:
Prof. Yana Vaynzof
Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies
Tel.: +49 351 463-42132

Prof. Philipp Kanske
Chair of Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience
Tel.: +49 351 463-42225
Email:

Written and edited by Nicole Gierig