International visits to Münster

Münster is not only visited because of the historical site of the peace treaty of Westphalia or because it is home to one of Germany’s currently most famous TV police commissioners, but also for scientific cooperation. Since the beginning of September, the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster has been hosting Prof. Michael Lerner as guest scientist.

“I’m a professor of Chemistry at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon, about 80 miles south of Portland.  Since September I’ve been visiting the MEET battery research center at WWU, and will stay for a couple of months, thanks to a fellowship from the Fulbright Scholar Program. It’s been easy to feel at home in Münster – perhaps because Münster is something like the German counterpart of Corvallis: a rainy university town in the northwest part of the country…

But I didn’t come to Münster just to see the wonderful sites and to feel at home. Prof. Martin Winter and the MEET are internationally renowned for research into the chemistry of energy storage. At OSU, my group explores the synthesis and structure of new graphite intercalation compounds (GICs), which are now used as anodes in lithium ion batteries and may have potential as new cathode materials. We’ve been following MEET’s recent success using some related chemistry to improve battery performance and to develop next gen battery chemistries. So, it was an obvious choice to contact Martin Winter about a cooperative visit. There seemed a great opportunity to evaluate our new GICs as cathode materials in real battery cells here and see if they could be useful in practical applications. Prof. Winter and Dr. Tobias Placke graciously agreed to help with the application and thus we secured the fellowship funding.

Apart from spending time in the MEET laboratories, I’ve also explored the city and experience Muenster as a great place to live. I’m pleased to report that we (adding my wife and daughter’s inputs) are really enjoying our time here and in other places we’ve visited while in Germany. I’ve learned that Muenster has won livability awards and it’s easy to see why. Our favorite scene has been downtown in the early evening, walking on streets with historic buildings and meeting friendly people. We’ll certainly miss it when we leave.”