Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for Dr. Jiajie Hou
Dr. Jiajie Hou from the Interface Science Department of the Fritz Haber Institute has been awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for her research project “oCEMBER2mc” that aims to investigate strategies for converting captured carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals.
The young researcher Dr. Jiajie Hou is currently working as a postdoc in the “Dynamics at Electrocatalytic Interfaces” group of Dr. Arno Bergmann in the Interface Science Department led by Director Beatriz Roldán Cuenya at the Fritz Haber Institute. With her project on CO2 capture she succeeded in the highly prestigious competition for a renowned Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, a significant achievement for the young scientist.
In her new project, Dr. Hou will investigate new strategies for converting liquid captured carbon dioxide into valuable multicarbon products using membrane electrolyzers. By systematically tuning the catalyst structure, electrolyte composition, and electrolyzer configuration, the work seeks to understand how these design parameters shape the local electrochemical environment where the catalytic reactions occur. By applying operando Raman spectroscopy together with in situ synchrotron X-ray methods, Dr. Hou will directly monitor catalyst restructuring as well as interfacial descriptors such as local pH, surface-bound intermediates, and understand ionic transportation under realistic working conditions. Correlating these operando insights with measurements of the catalytic performance will provide a mechanistic picture of how the electrochemical microenvironment evolves and governs reaction pathways. Ultimately, this project aims to establish general principles linking electrolyzer architecture to interfacial phenomena in membrane-based electrochemical systems. The insights gained are expected to contribute broadly to the fundamental understanding of electrocatalytic interfaces and guide the rational design of next-generation carbon conversion technologies.
Dr. Hou obtained her PhD at Tsinghua University in 2024, where she investigated reaction mechanisms in copper-based carbon conversion under high-pressure conditions, using custom-designed electrochemical reactors and in situ spectroscopic techniques to probe catalytic interfaces.
The Fritz Haber Institute warmly congratulates Dr. Hou on this remarkable step in her career. We wish her all the best for her research project and are looking forward to the exciting science planned.
About the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), which are part of the European Framework Program for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020,” aim to promote the careers of young international scientists in all disciplines. They were named after Marie Skłodowska Curie, who won the Nobel Prize twice, in Chemistry and Physics. The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding young researchers to support their careers and foster excellence in research. In the tough competition, outstanding researchers of any nationality and from all scientific disciplines who have been working in research for up to 8 years after completing their doctorate are eligible to apply.
