Dr. Baran Eren awarded Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship
The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society is delighted to announce that Dr. Baran Eren has been awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. This esteemed fellowship will support Dr. Eren's research endeavors over the next one and a half years, commencing in October 2025. Since January 2025, Dr. Eren has been a guest in the Physical Chemistry Department, collaborating with Dr. Hendrik Bluhm and Prof. Dr. Martin Wolf.
Dr. Eren, currently a Senior Scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, brings a wealth of expertise in surface science. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics of Condensed Matter from the University of Basel, Switzerland, an M.Sc. in Micro- and Nanosystems from ETH Zurich, and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Boğaziçi University, Turkey. His research appointments have taken him from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US to his current role at the Fritz Haber Institute.
Dr. Eren's work is deeply inspired by the pioneering efforts of renowned surface scientists like Gerhard Ertl, a Nobel Prize laureate from FHI, and Gabor Somorjai, his former supervisor. His group is dedicated to exploring the atomic, chemical, and electronic structures of surfaces, moving beyond traditional ultra-high vacuum conditions to study surfaces under realistic ambient environments. This approach is crucial for understanding surface behaviors influenced by kinetic constraints and thermodynamic shifts.
While Dr. Eren's group primarily investigates solid-gas and solid-liquid interfaces, his time at the Fritz Haber Institute will allow him to delve into the study of liquid-gas interfaces, further broadening his research scope.
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).
