Congrats to Léonard Olivotto on submitting his PhD thesis to both Grenoble and Swansea University. Big milestone! Time to relax now before the viva in July.
Kühnel Lab
Energase project kick-off
From left to right: Moritz Kühnel, Hajo Kries, Michael Stier, Fabrizio Casilli, Ewan McQueen, Johannes Kästner
We kicked off our ENERGASE project with a workshop at the University of Stuttgart’s Institut of Technical Biochemistry with our collaborators from the Kries and Kästner groups. In this project, we aim to jointly develop a de novo enzyme to produce green hydrogen through a non-natural mechanism. To do that, we are combining theory, synthetic biologyand nanotechnology. This blue-sky project is funded by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung and their CZS Wildcard programme for high-risk-high-reward ideas.
Welcome Thomas and Antonia
Thomas Albani joins the Kühnel Lab as from University of Milano-Bicocca as an intern funded by the an Eramsus+ mobility programme. Thomas will work on flow photochemistry for his Chemistry Master’s project.
Antonia Lämmle-Berkhan joins us as research intern as part of her Environmental Protection & Agricultural Food Production Master’s degree at Uni Hohenheim. She will work on biohybrid waste upgrading in collaboration with Christine Cavazza and Julien Pérard at CEA Grenoble.
Welcome Ewan
Ewan McQueen joins the Kühnel Lab as a postdoc funded by the Carl-Zeiss-Foundation. Ewan obtained his PhD in Seb Sprick’s lab at the University of Strathclyde, where he developed organc photocatalysts for hydrogen production and CO2 reduction. Ewan will work on the ENERGASE project, in which we are developing a metal-free enzyme for hydrogen production in collaboration with the groups of Hajo Kries and Johannes Kästner at University of Stuttgart.
Season’s Greetings from the Kühnel Lab 🎄✨
To wrap up the year, the Kühnel Lab came together for a Christmas potluck dinner. The group did an amazing job decorating our lovely grey seminar room with a colourful mix of of chemistry and Xmas themes. The weather was a little too sunny for Xmas, but the decorations and the food more than made up for it.
We were also really happy to be joined by some of our group alumni for a catch-up over a glass of mulled wine. Thanks to everyone for a great evening and a hugely successful year for the group!
The Kühnel Lab wishes you a merry and peaceful holiday season and a Happy New Year 2026!
Front row: Zaid, Nils
Welcome Michail
Dr. Michail Papadakis joins the Kühnel Lab as a DAAD ERA Green Hydrogen Fellow from Université Aix Marseille in France. Michail obtained his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Maylis Orio studying thiosemicarbazone-based complexes as HER co-catalysts. In his postdoctoral work, he will devlop novel hybrid photocatalysts for hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction.
Welcome João
Dr. João Felipe Stival joins the Kühnel Lab as a DAAD ERA Green Hydrogen Fellow from Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil. João obtained his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Shirley Nakagaki in Curitiba on metal oxide-based photocatalysis. In his postdoctoral work, he will devlop novel hybrid photocatalysts for the photoreforming of waste.
Welcome Atekelte
Atekelte Kassa joins the Kühnel Lab from Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. He holds a dual master’s in Materials Science and Energy Science & Engineering from TU Darmstadt and will embark on a PhD project in the field of intensified photocatalysis.
Welcome Fiona
Fiona Parth joins the Kühnel Lab from Leibniz Universität Hannover. She holds a master’s in Life Science and will embark on a PhD project in the field of semiartificial photosythesis.
Paper in Dalton Trans
Read Maite’s paper on MOF-based photocatalysts that was part of a bigger collaboration with the University of the Basque Country and Oulu University. In this paper, we investigate hydrogels based on disordered MOFs and study how different ways of platinum incorporation affect their performance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (link to paper).
Kühnel Lab 