Jennifer Strunk

Prof. Dr. Jennifer Strunk (*1980) received her diploma (2004) and PhD degree (2008) in Industrial Chemistry from the Ruhr-University Bochum. After a postdoctoral stay at UC Berkeley with Alexis T. Bell (2008-2010), she became junior research group leader at Ruhr-University (2010-2014). She was independent group leader at the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion (2014-2016), and W2 professor at Leibniz Institute for Catalysis at the University of Rostock (2017-2023). In 2023, Prof. Strunk was appointed to the W3 professorship “Industrial Chemistry and Heterogeneous Catalysis” at Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Prof. Strunk conducts research in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. The goal is the activation of small stable molecules, such as the recycling of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into chemical production and the activation of nitrogen for the synthesis of basic chemicals. The research includes the design of well-defined single-site and single-atom (photo)catalysts for maximum atom efficiency. The focus is on understanding the light- and heat-driven physical and chemical elementary steps on the catalyst surface, to enable scaling up from the laboratory to industry.