Innovative batteries & fuel cells

Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff- Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)
Head of Material Synthesis Team & Deputy Head of Department ECM

Peter Axmann received his PhD from the Georg-August-University, Göttingen. With more than 20 years of experience in battery materials, he is working at ZSW (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg) in the field of materials research for electrochemical energy storage. He is responsible for the team Material Synthesis and Analysis and is Deputy Head of Department ECM. His research activities are materials development for lithium ion and sodium ion technology with a strong focus on particle design, structure-properties-relationships, development of synthesis routes for novel materials and scale-up into the 10 kg scale. In addition, we works on electrode and cell concepts for new technologies.

Head of Funded Projects - VARTA AG

Dr. Nicolas Bucher has joined the VARTA AG beginning of 2021 as Head of Funded Projects in order to lead the management of VARTA’s collaborative research and development activities. In this role he represents the coordinator of several projects funded by the EU Commission, the BMBF and the BMBK comprising topics of new material research, innovative process development and battery-cell design towards post-Lithium technologies. Moreover he represents the company in several industry associations as well as advisory committees and supports the research community in several occasions as invited steering board member. His career has covered a wide variety of different topics in academia and industry, including the development of graphite & C/Si-composite for rechargeable batteries (SGL Carbon SE, 2017-2021), synthesis and characterization of new electrolytes and cathode materials for Sodium- and Lithium-Ion Batteries (TUM CREATE Ltd., 2011-2016), up to the application of analytical techniques and procedures under pharmaceutical standards (Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co KG, 2002-2004). Dr. Nicolas Bucher studied organic chemistry and analytics at the University of Ulm and the EPFL. He gained a joint PhD from the Technical University of Munich and the Nanyang Technology University Singapore on Manganese-based Oxides for Sodium-ion Batteries and published in more than 25 international journal and conference papers. With his interdisciplinary background he embodies the attributes towards a holistic grasp on the complex topic of energy storage devices. has joined the VARTA AG beginning of 2021 as Head of Funded Projects in order to lead the management of VARTA’s collaborative research and development activities. In this role he represents the coordinator of several projects funded by the EU Commission, the BMBF and the BMBK comprising topics of new material research, innovative process development and battery-cell design towards post-Lithium technologies. Moreover he represents the company in several industry associations as well as advisory committees and supports the research community in several occasions as invited steering board member. His career has covered a wide variety of different topics in academia and industry, including the development of graphite & C/Si-composite for rechargeable batteries (SGL Carbon SE, 2017-2021), synthesis and characterization of new electrolytes and cathode materials for Sodium- and Lithium-Ion Batteries (TUM CREATE Ltd., 2011-2016), up to the application of analytical techniques and procedures under pharmaceutical standards (Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co KG, 2002-2004). Dr. Nicolas Bucher studied organic chemistry and analytics at the University of Ulm and the EPFL. He gained a joint PhD from the Technical University of Munich and the Nanyang Technology University Singapore on Manganese-based Oxides for Sodium-ion Batteries and published in more than 25 international journal and conference papers. With his interdisciplinary background he embodies the attributes towards a holistic grasp on the complex topic of energy storage devices.

Institute for Applied Materials – Energy Storage Systems (KIT, Germany)

Sonia Dsoke, since 2017, leads a multidisciplinary group at the Institute for Applied Materials – Energy Storage Systems (KIT, Germany). At the same time, she is the deputy director of the platform CELEST and one of the spokespersons for Research Unit A (electrode materials) in the Cluster of Excellence POLiS.

From 2012 to 2016, she was an independent young research group leader designing novel electrodes for Hydrid Battery-Supercapacitors at ZSW-Ulm (Germany). Previously, she worked as a researcher at FAAM (Italy) and at the University of Camerino (Italy), where she also obtained her PhD in the field of Li-ion batteries. Sonia Dsoke was honoured with the Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange Programm Grant (2017-2019, Ministry of Science and Culture, Baden-Württemberg) and a Young Investigator Group Grant (2012-2016, Federal Ministry of Education and Research) within the framework “Energy Storage Initiative”.

Her actual main research subjects are the development of novel advanced functional materials for supercapacitors, lithium and post-lithium ion batteries, with special focus on tackling challenges of novel battery concepts such as Na, K, Mg, Ca and Al batteries.

Chair of Technical Electrochemistry, Chemistry Department, Technical University of Munich

Hubert Gasteiger received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley (1993) and was postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1994–1995) and Ulm University (1996–1998). Subsequently, he led the development of catalysts and membrane electrode assemblies in the fuel cell program of GM/Opel in the US (1999-2007). After a one year Visiting Professorship at MIT with the group of Yang Shao-Horn, he became Full Professor in the Chemistry Department of the Technical University of Munich (2010). There he founded the Chair of Technical Electrochemistry, focusing on the development of materials, electrodes, and diagnostics for fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries.  He was editor of Wiley’s Handbook of Fuel Cells, holds 23 patents, and published 260 refereed articles. He is Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) and of the Electrochemical Society (ECS); he recently received the Vittorio de Nora (2020) and the Battery Division Research Award (2020) from the ECS.

REINZ-Dichtungs-GmbH, Application Engineer

After studying in the university of applied science in Wiesbaden, Rainer started as system development engineer for fuel cells. With a two-years’ experience he joined Dana Corporation in 2005 as development engineer for metallic bipolar plates.

He was driving the unique product evolution for many years and then took over the responsibility as an Application Engineer to develop products in coordination with the customer.

Lhyfe GmbH, Business Development

Volker Häckh recently joined Lhyfe, a producer of renewable hydrogen with its headquarters located in Nantes, France, in September of 2022. In his role as a consultant, he is driving business development in Germany, focusing on the sectors of mobility and industry. Simultaneously, Volker is the managing director of his business consulting firm vohatec GmbH.

Prior to that, Volker was holding several senior management positions at Linde AG, i.e. the management of global development, sales and marketing in Western Europe and the overall business of a German region.

After studying chemical engineering at KIT in Karlsruhe, he took part in various leadership training courses, including one at Duke University, USA.

Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH

After receiving his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from KIT, Stefan joined Rolls-Royce Power Systems (RRPS) in 2011. Here he held different roles and positions in the development of combustion engines. In 2021 Stefan joined the Power Lab of RRPS where the development of sustainable products is driven. Here he is responsible for the design of fuel cell solutions.

P3 Group
Technology Lead Hydrogen Economy

Lukas just recently relocated to P3’s Seoul office in a technology lead and project manager role to help building up a local team of dedicated consultants and to further strengthen P3’s Hydrogen competencies globally. He’s been with P3 as Senior Consultant since 2021, working on various projects in the fields of Hydrogen Economy – ranging from market assessments & strategies to cost analyses and technology reviews, for clients in automotive, aviation, rail, and public utility sectors.

Prior to that, Lukas had a role as R&D engineer working on modelling and simulation as well as control design for fuel cell powertrains in commercial vehicle application at IAV GmbH in Germany.

Lukas is holding an engineering degree of TU Dresden, Germany, specialized in Renewable Energy Systems.

Member of the Board and head of the Electrochemical Energy Technologies Division

Since October 2020 Professor Dr. Markus Hölzle is member of the ZSW Managing Board and Head of the Electrochemical Energy Technologies division in Ulm. He also holds a position as Professor for Energy Storage and Energy Conversion within the faculty of natural sciences at University of Ulm. ZSW at its Ulm site is working with around 200 employees on Lithium-ion Batteries, PEM fuel cells and Hydrogen. All topics are covered in a holistic approach ranging from materials and component development to full-size system integration and validation. Industry co-operations account for 50% of all projects.

Before joining ZSW, Prof. Dr. Markus Hölzle held several management positions in BASF in the field of chemical catalysts, fuel cells and battery materials. His office locations had been in Ludwigshafen, Houston (TX) and Tokyo. He received his doctorate in electrochemistry from University of Ulm in 1996.

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)

Head of department - Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics

Arnulf Latz is professor for Electrochemical Multiphysics Modeling at the University of Ulm, head of department for Computational Electrochemistry at the Institute for Engineering Thermodynamics (German Aerospace Center in Stuttgart) with nearly 40 PhD and postdoctoral researcher. He is principal investigator for Electrochemical Multiphysics Modeling at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy storage and member of the board of directors of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm. Arnulf Latz is also principal investigator in the cluster of excellence POLIS for the investigation of post lithium storage devices at the University of Ulm und the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He studied Physics at the Ludwigs-Maximilians University Munich and received his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics from the Technical University Munich in 1991. After 10 years in academic research in USA and Germany, he entered the field of applied research and was from 2002-2012 head of the group “Complex Fluids” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) in Kaiserslautern, before joining German Aerospace center and University of Ulm in 2012 as full professor for Electrochemical Multiphysics Modelling.  His main research interests are modeling and simulation of electrochemical storage and conversion technologies from the nanometer to the cell scale with a focus on rigorous, theory based non-equilibrium thermodynamics approaches and microstructure resolved simulations. The software BEST (Battery and electrochemistry simulation tools), which has been developed in his group at the Fraunhofer ITWM and is now being further developed in a cooperation between the German Aerospace center and the Fraunhofer ITWM was the first software being able to perform coupled transport and electrochemical reaction simulation in 3 D resolved tomography based microstructures.      

Professor at the Chemistry Department of the Sapienza University of Rome and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Since January 2023, Stefano Passerini is Professor at the Chemistry Department of the Sapienza University of Rome and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.  His research focuses on the basic understanding and development of materials for high-energy batteries and supercapacitors, with the goal to create sustainable energy storage systems from environmentally friendly and available materials and processes. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of ionic liquids and the development of sodium-ion batteries. Co-author of more than 700 scientific papers (Scopus H-Index: 110; > 44,000 citations), a few book chapters and several international patents, he has been awarded in 2012 the Research Award of the Electrochemical Society Battery Division. Since 2015 he is acting as Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Power Sources. He has been nominated Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry (2016) and the Electrochemical Society Inc (2020). Since 2019 he is a member of the Leopoldina German Academy of Science.

Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff- Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)
Leiterin des Fachgebiets Systemanalyse

Daimler Truck AG

-Geboren 1966 im Rheinland

-Abitur in Leverkusen

-Studium der Chemie in Köln und Mainz

-Promotion am Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung in Mainz bei K. Müllen

-1996-2000 bei der Hoechst AG/Aventis/Axiva GmbH In Frankfurt als Senior Scientist im Bereich Brennstoffzellen

-Seit 2000 bis 2021 bei der Daimler Ag im Bereich Forschung und Entwicklung von Brennstoffzellen und Batterien

- seit 09/2021 bei der Daimler Truck AG verantwortlich für das Thema Zellen

NOW GmbH, Co-head of division “hydrogen, alternative fuels and fuel cells”

• Since 2022-09: NOW, (provisional) co-head of division “hydrogen, alternative fuels and fuel cells”
• 2021 – 2022: NOW, hydrogen coordination office – coordination of the National Hydrogen Council
• 1998 – 2021: Flensburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce – finally deputy CEO and head of division “innovation, environment and energy”
• 1997: University of Passau – Diplom-Volkswirt
• Focus on industrial policy, subsidies in hydrogen sector, policy advisory

R&D Manager Germany at ACC - Automotive Cells

After completing his studies in Electrochemistry and Material Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Pennsylvania State University in 1998, Dr. Christoph Weber, started working as a development engineer for Ultracapacitors at Siemens Matsushita Components in Heidenheim, Germany. In 2007 he moved on to Freudenberg Performance Materials being responsible for Separator development for various chemistries in particular a new class of Lithium Ion battery separators which he lead into regular production. Since 2021 he is working at Automotive Cells Co. and he is now building up the R&D department adjacent to the new Gigafactory in Kaiserslautern.

Albemarle Germany GmbH

Ulrich Wietelmann studied chemistry at the TU Dortmund and LMU Munich, where he received his PhD with Prof. Heinrich Nöth on reactions of reactive boron nitrogen species.

In 1986, he joint Chemetall’s Lithium division as a manager of Marketing & Sales. In 1993 he took a position as head of R&D Lithium, where he established electrochemical laboratories in the year 2000.

He is now manager for application customer technical service within Albemarle’s Specialties GBU at Albemarle Germany GmbH in Frankfurt a.M.

ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG

Director Battery Technology

Bayerische Motorenwerke AG (BMW AG).
Battery-Cell-Competence-Center (BCCC) Munich.
Project leader for electrode- and cell-development

Bayerische Motorenwerke AG (BMW AG).
Battery-Cell-Competence-Center (BCCC) Munich.

Until 1994: Chemistry studies and doctoral thesis at Ulm.

1994–1995: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff-Forschung Ulm.

1995–1996: Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC).

1997–1998: GAIA Akkumulatorenwerke Nordhausen.

1998–2008: VARTA Ellwangen: Product-development of VARTA PoLiFlex® (Lithium-ion-polymer-cells for consumer applications).

2008–2013: Bosch group and Joint Venture SB LiMotive Germany.

Since 2013: Battery-Cell-Technology at BMW AG:
Project leader for electrode- and cell-development