OPTICA FOUNDATION
Established in 2002, the Optica Foundation carries out charitable activities in support of the society’s student and early career communities. We cultivate the next generation of leaders and innovators as they navigate advanced degree programs and become active members of research, engineering and business worldwide. The foundation also works to secure the endowments for Optica’s awards and honors programs. The foundation is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) works on materials and technologies for a climate-neutral society, especially for energy supply and information technology. For this purpose, they use modern laboratories as well as BESSY II light source.

They are working on solutions for a climate-neutral society, especially for a CO2-neutral and secure energy supply: They are investigating next-generation solar cells, new types of batteries or catalytically active materials that enable the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy. In doing so, they thoroughly analyse the physical and chemical processes so that they can further develop these materials to reach our goals.

One research focus is the development of novel catalyst materials for the production of green hydrogen. For these purpose, they are developing the CatLab research platform.

The most important tool for their research is the BESSY II light source. A wide range of spectroscopic and microscopic instruments are available on about 40 beamlines to precisely analyse processes at the molecular and atomic level.