Rhine Round Table 2026

Materials for Sustainable Energy Transition

11-12 June 2026

Institute of Inorganic and Materialc Chemistry, University of Cologne

Institute for Frontier Materials on Earth and in Space, German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Contact: rhine-round-table(at)uni-koeln(dot)de

Topics

Sustainable processing of functional ceramic materials

Additive manufacturing
3D printing,
Recycling/upcycling
Life cycle assessment & Materials circularity

Advanced ceramic materials for energy conversion and storage systems

Batteries
Capacitors/supercapacitors,
Photovoltaics
Fuel cells
Thermoelectrics

Tandem approaches for energy conversion

PV-EC devices and systems for green hydrogen
Thermoelectrics and solar hybrids
Piezoelectrics and nanogenerators

AI and ML approaches in materials discovery

Modelling and simulations
Materials/process informatics
AI-driven design & analyses

Tentative Programme

Thursday, 11 June 2026

Venue: German Aerospace Center (DLR) Cologne

08:30	Pickup at hotel and transfer to DLR
09:30	Registration at DLR
10:00	Session 1: Advanced Ceramics, Processing and Materials Design
11:15	Break
11:45	Session 2: Functional Materials, Thin Films and Sensor Technologiesscribus
13:00	Lunch
14:00	Session 3: Electrochemical Energy Technologies, Catalysis and Circular Materials
15:15	Break
16:00	Visit of LUNA Analog Facility at DLR
18:00	Networking Dinner at Eltzhof

Friday, 12 June 2026

Venue: University of Cologne (UoC)

09:00	Pickup at hotel and transfer to UoC
09:30	Session 4: Solar Fuels, Thermochemical Conversion and Electrocatalysis
11:00	Break
11:30	Session 5: Perovskites, Photovoltaics and Data-Driven Materials Discovery
12:45	Lunch
13:45	Session 6: Thermoelectrics and Advanced Electron Microscopy
14:45	Break
15:00	Workshop: “From Lab to Leadership”

Program

Thursday, 11. June 2026

Session 1	Advanced Ceramics, Processing and Materials Design
10:00	Monica Ferraris (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) – Joining and Integration Issues of CMCs for Extreme Environments
10:15	Ravi Kumar N V (IIT Madras, India) – Development of high-performance ceramics for hypersonics & drone technologies
10:30	Eduardo Rodriguez (University of Limoges, France) – Extrusion-based additive manufacturing of polymer-derived ceramic supports for water splitting applications
10:45	Emanuel Ionescu (TU Wien, Austria) – Structural disorder and compositional complexity as design tools for next-gen materials
11:00	Gunnar Westin (Uppsala University, Sweden) – Solution based processing of Ångström-level engineered materials

Session 2	Functional Materials, Thin Films and Sensor Technologies
11:45	Oomman Varghese (University of Houston, USA) – Exploring the Distinct Properties of Low Dimensional Materials for Energy Applications
12:00	Ayan Roy Chaudhuri (IIT Kharagpur, India) – Tuning Defect Landscapes in Functional Materials for Energy-Efficient Electronic Applications
12:15	Do-Heyoung Kim (Chonnam National University, South Korea) – The Evolving Role of Atomic Layer Deposition: Beyond Semiconductor Scaling
12:30	Kamlendra Awasthi (MNIT Jaipur, India) – Polymer Nanocomposite Films for Gas Separation and Sensing Applications
12:45	Alessandro Martucci (University of Padova, Italy) – Are optical sensors the most promising technology for hydrogen detection in natural gas?

Session 3	Electrochemical Energy Technologies, Catalysis and Circular Materials
14:00	Daniel Chua (National University of Singapore) – Creating Robust PEM fuel cells for next generation applications
14:15	Shibabrata Basak (FZ Jülich, Germany) – Visualizing electrochemical processes using in-situ electron microscopy approach
14:30	Ratheesh Ravendran (C-MET Hyderabad, India) – Environmentally benign e-waste recycling technologies towards resource efficiency and circular economy
14:45	Goezde Alkan (DLR, Germany) – Utilization of secondary raw materials in thermal energy storage applications
15:00	Anuj Kumar (GLA University, India) – Nanoengineered Iron Phthalocyanine Architectures for Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis

Friday, 12. June 2026

Session 4	Solar Fuels, Thermochemical Conversion and Electrocatalysis
09:30	Nathalie Monnerie (DLR, Germany) – Solar Fuels: Overview of solar thermochemical cycles
09:45	Martin Roeb (DLR, Germany) – Materials and Components for Solar Thermochemical Fuel and Chemicals Production
10:00	Animesh Ojha (MNNIT Allahabad, India) – Novel Materials for Solar Energy Harvesting and Energy Storage
10:15	Theresa Andreu (University of Barcelona, Spain) – Electrodeposition as a versatile tool for fabrication of electrocatalysts for CO₂ electroreduction and glycerol oxidation
10:30	Bjorn Joos (Hasselt University, Belgium) – Wet-chemical synthesis of photo-active materials for water splitting and CO₂ reduction

Session 5	Perovskites, Photovoltaics and Data-Driven Materials Discovery
11:30	Maning Liu (Lund University, Sweden) – Emerging Halide Perovskites for Advanced Solar Energy-Converting Applications
11:45	Janardan Dagar (HZB, Germany) – Slot-die coated perovskite solar cells
12:00	Senol Öz (Perolink GmbH) – Green chemistry for the perovskite era
12:15	Daniel Koch (DLR, Germany) – From First Principles to Machine Learning: Accelerating Materials Discovery for Thermochemical Cycles
12:30	Silke Christiansen (Fraunhofer IKTS, Germany) – From Multimodal Analytics to Predictive Materials Intelligence: Scale-Bridging Characterization for Modelling, Simulation and Performance Optimization in Batteries and Solar Cells

Session 6	Thermoelectrics and Advanced Electron Microscopy
13:45	Muhammad S. Toprak (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) – Rapid large-scale synthesis and performance boosting of hybrid thermoelectric materials
14:00	Eleonara Isotta (University of Trento, Italy) – High-resolution transport imaging and local microstructure control for advanced thermoelectric applications
14:15	Ravishankar Narayanan (IISc Begnaluru, India) – Nanostructuring for Energy Applications – Insights using Electron Microscopy
14:30	Amir Tavabi (FZ Jülich, Germany) – Frontiers in electron microscopy for advanced materials and quantum devices

Downloads

Flyer Rhine Round Table 2026 pdf

Venues

Karte nicht geladen

Thursday, 11 June 2026
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University of Cologne, Institute of Inorganic and Materialc Chemistry
Friday, 12 June 2026
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German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute for Frontier Materials on Earth and in Space

How to reach us

by foot

Google Maps

by car or taxi

Car

Address: Institut für Anorganische und Materialchemie; Greinstrasse 6; 50939 Köln

Navigation Links:Google Maps; OpenStreetMap

Taxi

The Taxi Central Cologne can be reached either by phone +49 221 2882 or online TAXI RUF Köln

UBER

Uber is also available in Cologne.

by public transport

Stops

Line 9: Stop Universität (University)
Line 18: Stop Eifelwall or Weißhausstraße

Further information on time tables and pricing is available at the Cologne public transport authority Kölner Verkehrsbetriebe

by train

Possible train stations

Köln Hauptbahnhof (HBf) / Cologne Main Train Station: Long distance trains, Regional trains, Local trains (S-Bahn), Subway (U-Bahn, Line 18)
Köln Messe/Deutz / Cologne Trade Fair: Long distance trains, Regional trains, Local trains (S-Bahn), Subway (U-Bahn, Linie 9)
Köln Süd / Cologne South: Regional trains, Local trains (S-Bahn)

Further information on time tables ans pricing is available at German Railway Deutsche Bahn or the regional transport authority Verkehrsverbund Rhein Sieg (VRS)

by plane

Airports (max. 1h distance from City of Cologne)