People

Stefan A. Freunberger

MSc Vienna University of Technology, 2003

PhD ETH Zurich, 2007

postdoc: University of St Andrews, 2008 – 2012

PI: Graz University of Technology, 2012 – 2020

Assistant Professor: IST Austria, 2020 –

ORCID , Researchgate , google scholar , publons

Stefan Freunberger obtained his PhD in Chemistry from ETH Zürich and was post doc at the University of St Andrews, working on many aspects of Li-O2 chemistry. He has been PI at TU Graz and is since 2020 Assistant Professor at IST Austria, with research interests embracing energy-storage materials, including alkaline-ion and metal-O2 and metal-S batteries, electrolytes, and in situ techniques. His research has been recognized by the Srinivasan Young Investigator Award of The Electrochemical Society, the invited visiting professorship La Chaire Total de la Fondation Balard, elected membership of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Tajima Prize 2018 of the International Society of Electrochemistry, the Krainer Memorial Award 2020 , and an ERC Starting Grant.


Contact Info

Stefan A. Freunberger
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Am Campus 1
3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
Tel.: +43 (0) 2243 9000 2169
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For postdoc positions refer to open positions below or apply with an unsolicited application by sending a single pdf document containing your cover letter, CV, publication list, and contact information of 2 to 3 references to Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!. Additional information can be found here and here

Additional information for PhD positions can be found here

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Postdoctoral Researcher - Singlet oxygen in electrocatalysis
Postdoctoral Researcher - Metal-sulphur electrochemistry
PhD Student - Singlet oxygen in electrocatalysis
PhD Student - Metal-sulphur electrochemistry
PhD Student - Singlet oxygen in battery chemistry

Julia Valentin

B.Sc. , TU Wien, Austria, 2023

Julia is working on energy storage with bulk liquid redox materials.


Iryna Stepanenko

M.Sc., Nizhyn State University, Ukraine, 1996

Ph.D., Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Kiev, Ukraine, 2004

Iryna was a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of University of Vienna. Her research was focused on the synthesis of anticancer osmium(II, III, IV)azole, organoruthenium/osmium compounds with the biologically active ligands, metal (Cu(II), etc) complexes of thiosemicarbazones. Now her interest lies in energy storage with bulk liquid redox materials.

Neethu Christudas Dargily

B.Sc.-M.Sc., Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)-Pune, India, 2017

Ph.D, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)-Pune, India, 2024

Neethu obtained her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, India, where her thesis focused on the development of hydrogen-based batteries. Currently, her research interests are centered on the role of singlet oxygen in electrocatalysis.


Po-Hua Su

M.Sc., Ulm University, Germany, 2019

Ph.D., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, 2024

Po-Hua obtained his PhD from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where his research centered on the electrochemical performance of redox-active organic materials. At ISTA, his work focuses on investigating the electrochemistry of oxygen in intercalation metal oxides.


John R. Hoffman

B.Sc., University of Toledo, USA, 2016

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, USA, 2021

John obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. His research focused on membrane separations and adsorptive materials, studied via the modification of porous polymeric materials through rapid functionalization reactions. His work at ISTA utilizes these skills to examine contact electrification of ionomer films to further understand the fundamental phenomena behind the triboelectric effect.


Rajesh B. Jethwa

M.Sc, University of Cambridge, UK, 2017

Ph.D., University of Cambridge, UK, 2022

Rajesh obtained his MSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge where his doctoral thesis focused on the investigation of quinoidal compounds for use as redox flow battery electrolytes. His interests lie in organic redox active materials for battery materials.

Soumyadip Mondal

M.Sc. in Applied Chemistry, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, India, 2020

Soumyadip’s research is focused on charge transfer mechanisms in redox materials.


Bhargavi Pant

M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Warangal, India, 2020

Bhargavi’s research is focused on the Study of oxygen electrochemistry involved in Li-air and Li-rich transition metal layered materials.


Angelina Castro Trujillo

M.Sc. in Materials science (MESC + Erasmus Mundus programm), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, 2022

Angelina is working on energy storage with bulk liquid redox materials.


Arantzazu Letona Elizburu

M.Sc. in New Materials, University of the Basque Country, Spain, 2021

Arantzazu’s research is focused on studying the catalytic activity and electrochemistry of graphene/nucleotide and carbon-based materials for sodium-air batteries. Currently, she is at ISTA to analyze the efficiency of her materials in oxygen reduction and evolution reactions by in-situ techniques.

Moumita Mondal

M.Sc. in Chemistry, Presidency University, Kolkata, India, 2020

Moumita's research focuses on designing small molecule-based chemoreceptors. Currently, she works on singlet oxygen detection by learning to design NIR probes at ISTA.

Saad Ali – Intern summer 2024 (now UPJV, France)

Samarpita Chanda – Intern summer 2024 (now UPJV, France)

Xintian Wang – Intern summer 2024 (now University of Oxford, UK)

Aureline Callard – Intern spring 2024 (now ECPM, France)

Clothilde Doucet – Intern spring 2024 (now ESPCI-Paris PSL, France)

Sven Jovanović – visiting postdoc spring 2024 (now Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)

Florian Ortis – Intern winter 2023 (now Pieber lab, IST Austria)

Fernando Nodal – Intern winter 2023 (now Klajn lab, IST Austria)

Agathe Billon – Intern summer 2023 (now Mines ParisTech, France)

Ethan Olivier – Intern summer 2023 (now Columbia University, USA)

Fernando Solorio Soto – Intern summer 2023 (now University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Aiswarya Rayaroth Puthiyaveettil – Intern winter 2022 (now Ibáñez Lab, IST Austria)

Sai Pranav Vanam – Intern autumn/winter 2022 (now Exide Energy Solutions, India)

Stefan Stadlbauer – postdoc (now Protovation company, Austria)

Thi Khanh Huyen Nguyen – Intern summer 2022 (now University of Texas, USA)

Hannah Okesade – Intern summer 2022 (now Imperial College London, UK)

Maciej Ejsmont – Intern summer 2022 (now Tesla company, Germany)

Jonathan Demaimay – Intern summer 2022 (now CIMAP, France)

Emmanuel Onyeka Ezeoba – Intern

Mariarosaria Tuccillo – visiting Ph.D. student summer 2022 (now Sapienza University, Rome)

Zahid Manzoor Bhat – Ph.D.,postdoc

Lorena Layana – Intern (now Vicoso lab, IST Austria)

Martin Napetschnig – Intern (now TU Graz)

Konstantin Weber – Intern (now ETH Zürich)

Christine Fiedler – Intern (now Ibáñez Lab, IST Austria)

Seungho Lee – Intern (now Ibáñez Lab, IST Austria)

Christian Prehal – postdoc (now Marie Curie Fellow, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)

Yann Petit – Ph.D. (now ASB, France)

Aleksej Samojlov – Ph.D.

Eléonore Mourad – postdoc (now ASB, France)

Daniel Mijailovic – Ph.D. (now University of Belgrade, Serbia)

Christian Leypold – Ph.D., postdoc

Alen Vizintin – postdoc (now National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Nika Mahne – Ph.D. (now austria micro systems)

Lukas Schafzahl – M.Sc. & Ph.D. (now austria micro systems)

Bettina Schafzahl – Ph.D. (now austria micro systems)

Anjana Raj – M.Sc. (now IISER Pune, India)

Anita Leitgeb – postdoc (now Mayer-Melnhof)

Sandra Grumm – M.Sc. (now austria micro systems)

Tobias Mueller – M.Sc. (now austria micro systems)