Bessel Awardee Tanja Cuk at the Institute
The Fritz Haber Institute is very pleased to welcome Prof. Tanja Cuk from the University of Colorado Boulder for a research stay at the institute as part of her Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. The internationally renowned spectroscopist will be hosted by the departments of Prof. Beatriz Roldan Cuenya and Prof. Martin Wolf from August to December 2025.
Prof. Cuk is well known for her outstanding research in the field of ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Her group in Boulder investigates the fundamental principles of catalytic reactions on surfaces with the aim of controlling them for energy conversion and chemical synthesis. To do this, they employ multiple time-resolved optical spectroscopy methods and collaborate with theorists on the experimental observables.
Prof. Cuk has made important contributions to elucidating electrocatalytic reaction mechanisms. Her research paves the way for storing energy from renewable sources, such as in the form of hydrogen, alcohols, or fuels. During her stay at the Fritz Haber Institute, she intends to combine ultrafast spectroscopy of operando reactions with infrared and x-ray surface probes of the electrode/electrolyte interface.
Tanja Cuk earned her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 2007, studying angle resolved photoemission and Raman spectroscopy of inorganic superconductors under Professor Zhi Xun Shen. She then completed a Miller Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley in 2010 under the direction of Dr. Heinz Frei in heterogeneous catalysis. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, Faculty Fellow at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), and an Associate Director of the Center for Electrochemical Dynamics at Surfaces (CEDARS).
We wish Prof. Tanja Cuk all the best for her research stay and much success with the planned experiments. Collaborating with internationally recognized leading researchers is not only an honor for the institute, but also paves the way for the further development of its own research.
About the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award
The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award is granted annually by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to 20 internationally recognized researchers from abroad. The award is endowed with 60,000 euros and the awardees are invited to a research stay of up to one year at a German research institution where they will collaborate on a research project with specialist colleagues. The award is named after the German astronomer and mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784–1846) and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
About the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is renowned for its commitment to promoting international scientific cooperation. Established in 1860, the foundation has played a fundamental role in connecting researchers worldwide and supporting academic exchange.
In 2023, the foundation maintained an interdisciplinary network of over 30,000 Humboldtians across 140 countries, with 61 Nobel laureates. Between 2018 and 2022, it sponsored 4,690 research stays in Germany at universities and 1,790 at non-university research institutions. In the latest Humboldt Rankings from 2023, Max Planck institutes lead the list of non-university research institutions, with the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin at the forefront. From 2016 to 2022, the Fritz Haber Institute hosted 68 researchers, making it the leading host of Humboldt researchers in Berlin, following the major universities (FU, HU, TU).
