Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik

The 2026 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit will bring together materials researchers from around the world for a week of cross-disciplinary collaboration and scientific exchange. Taking place in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, from April 26–May 1, 2026, the conference is one of the leading global events in materials science. PDI’s Roman Engel-Herbert and Joao Marcelo Lopes are among the invited speakers, and Nadire Nayir serves as one of the symposium organizers.

Congratulations to Serkan Sirt, who successfully defended his dissertation, “Signatures of Coulomb Screening in the Quantum Hall Effect" in September at Freie Universität Berlin. Serkan's PhD was supervised at PDI by Stefan Ludwig.

PDI is excited to announce an open call for the 2026 RISE Professional program, offered by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). PDI has been hosting students within this framework for many years, providing summer research internships for Master's and PhD students from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland. Through the program, participants receive the opportunity to engage in research-oriented projects aligned with their academic backgrounds.

A team of scientists led by PDI has cracked open the “black box” of precursor chemistry, revealing—for the first time—the hidden reaction pathways of a key compound used in the growth of complex oxides. Their predictive framework shifts synthesis from trial and error to a controllable, transparent process, paving the way for faster, more precise, and cost-effective manufacturing of advanced thin films.