New at the Department of Chemistry: Professor Tanja Franken

2024/10/16

A warm welcome: Tanja Franken has been a new professor at the Department of Chemistry since October. The 38-year-old scientist, whose field of research is technical chemistry/catalysis, completed her doctorate at RWTH Aachen University and was a post-doc at the Paul Scherrer Institute & ZHAW in Switzerland. Most recently, Franken was a junior professor for catalytic and electrocatalytic systems and processes at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. She describes the acquisition of an ERC Starting Grant there last year as her most important scientific milestone to date. We asked Professor Franken a few questions about her start at TU Darmstadt:

Why should students be interested in your topics? What makes them exciting?

My department, Technical Chemistry, deals with the large-scale and industrial implementation of chemical processes. With a view to the future sustainability of our society, technical chemistry plays a central role in maintaining our accustomed standard of living. In particular, the use of catalysts or the use of sustainable starting materials contribute to resource-saving and sustainable solutions. This is precisely the exciting thing about the fact that we are currently in a phase of upheaval and that technical chemistry is contributing directly to future solutions.

Interdisciplinarity is a top priority at TU Darmstadt. Where are there interfaces with other disciplines in your field of work?

Technical chemistry is highly interdisciplinary by nature. In order to safely transfer processes from the laboratory scale to the industrial scale, knowledge of chemistry, materials science, physics, thermodynamics, design theory, fluid dynamics and much more is required, depending on the issue at hand. This is why technical chemistry brings together natural scientists, engineers, materials scientists and, for the automation of processes, computer scientists.

The best balance to a stressful working day is …

… my family, music and trips to the mountains.