Laura HerzFRS FInstP FRSC | |
---|---|
Laura Herz in 2024 | |
Born | Laura Maria Herz |
Education | School Sisters of Notre Dame |
Alma mater | University of Bonn University of Cambridge (PhD) |
Awards | Nevill Mott Medal and Prize (2018) Faraday Medal and Prize (2024) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Condensed matter physics semiconductors Ultrafast spectroscopy Photovoltaics Conjugated polymers |
Institutions | University of Oxford University of Cambridge |
Thesis | Aggregation effects in conjugated polymer films studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy (2002) |
Website | www-herz |
Laura Maria Herz FRS FInstP FRSC is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford. She works on femtosecond spectroscopy for the analysis of semiconductor materials.
Early life and education
Herz studied physics at the University of Bonn and graduated in 1999. She worked for two years as an exchange student at University of New South Wales. She joined the University of Cambridge for her doctoral studies, earning a PhD in 2002. Here she worked on exciton and polaron dynamics in organic semiconductors.
Research and career
After her PhD, Herz was appointed a postdoctoral research fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, in 2001. She was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Advanced Research Fellowship in 2006 and an EPSRC Open Fellowship in 2024. Herz joined the Department of Physics, University of Oxford as new faculty in 2003 and became a full professor in 2010.
Herz is an expert in perovskite semiconductors. She has researched the origins of the high charge-carrier mobilities in perovskite materials. She demonstrated that their high efficiency in solar cells was due to long charge-carrier diffusion lengths and non-Langevin recombination. She identified that perovskite light emission is broad and can be used in Ultrafast lasers. She recognised that the origin of this broadening is Fröhlich coupling to longitudinal optical phonons.
Herz is also interested in self-assembly and nanoscale effects. She works on Biomimetics light harvesting structures made of porphyrin nanorings to explore delocalised excited states.
She appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show In Our Time in 2015.
In 2024, Herz was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society.
Her short citation reads:
Laura Herz is distinguished for her study of light-harvesting and energy-conversion pathways in emerging semiconductors. Her research has pushed boundaries across interdisciplinary themes including light-matter interactions, charge-carrier dynamics, molecular self-assembly, biomimetic systems and nanoscience. Her work has been central to guiding materials synthesis, chemical engineering and advancing technology for renewable energy conversion.
Awards and honours
Her awards and honours include:
- 2024 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
- 2024 Institute of Physics Faraday Medal and Prize
- 2024 Fellow of the Materials Research Society
- 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division mid-career Award
- 2018 Institute of Physics Nevill Mott Medal and Prize
- 2018 Oxford University Student Union Outstanding Graduate Supervisor
- 2018 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Friedrich-Wilhelm-Bessel Award
References
- ^ Laura Herz publications indexed by Google Scholar
- ^ "CV – Laura M Herz". www-herz.physics.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- "Public Seminar Laura Herz – 31 March 2016". School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- Herz, Laura Maria (2002). Aggregation effects in conjugated polymer films studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894595356. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.620191.
- Silva, Carlos; Russell, David M.; Dhoot, Anoop S.; Herz, Laura M.; Daniel, Clément; Greenham, Neil C.; Arias, Ana C.; Setayesh, Sepas; Müllen, Klaus (2002). "Exciton and polaron dynamics in a step-ladder polymeric semiconductor: the influence of interchain order". Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 14 (42): 9803. Bibcode:2002JPCM...14.9803S. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/14/42/302. ISSN 0953-8984. S2CID 53595995.
- "KAUST Solar Center Research Conference 2016". ksc.kaust.edu.sa. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M. (10 December 2015). "Hybrid Perovskites for Photovoltaics: Charge-Carrier Recombination, Diffusion, and Radiative Efficiencies". Accounts of Chemical Research. 49 (1): 146–154. doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00411. ISSN 0001-4842. PMID 26653572.
- Herz, Laura M. (8 June 2017). "Charge-Carrier Mobilities in Metal Halide Perovskites: Fundamental Mechanisms and Limits". ACS Energy Letters. 2 (7): 1539–1548. doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00276. ISSN 2380-8195.
- UNSWSPREE (4 April 2016), UNSW SPREE 201603-31 Laura Herz – Charge-Carrier Diffusion in Hybrid Metal Halide Perovskites, retrieved 17 September 2018
- Stranks, Samuel D.; Eperon, Giles E.; Grancini, Giulia; Menelaou, Christopher; Alcocer, Marcelo J. P.; Leijtens, Tomas; Herz, Laura M.; Petrozza, Annamaria; Snaith, Henry J. (2013). "Electron-Hole Diffusion Lengths Exceeding 1 Micrometer in an Organometal Trihalide Perovskite Absorber". Science. 342 (6156): 341–344. Bibcode:2013Sci...342..341S. doi:10.1126/science.1243982. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 24136964. S2CID 10314803.
- Eperon, Giles E.; Stranks, Samuel D.; Menelaou, Christopher; Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M.; Snaith, Henry J. (2014). "Formamidinium lead trihalide: a broadly tunable perovskite for efficient planar heterojunction solar cells". Energy & Environmental Science. 7 (3): 982. doi:10.1039/C3EE43822H. ISSN 1754-5692. S2CID 53576983.
- Wright, Adam D.; Verdi, Carla; Milot, Rebecca L.; Eperon, Giles E.; Pérez-Osorio, Miguel A.; Snaith, Henry J.; Giustino, Feliciano; Johnston, Michael B.; Herz, Laura M. (26 May 2016). "Electron–phonon coupling in hybrid lead halide perovskites". Nature Communications. 7: 11755. Bibcode:2016NatCo...711755W. doi:10.1038/ncomms11755. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4894981. PMID 27225329.
- "Speakers - IUPAC 2018". IUPAC 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- Parkinson, Patrick; Kamonsutthipaijit, Nuntaporn; Anderson, Harry L.; Herz, Laura M. (17 May 2016). "Size-Independent Energy Transfer in Biomimetic Nanoring Complexes". ACS Nano. 10 (6): 5933–5940. doi:10.1021/acsnano.6b01265. ISSN 1936-0851. PMC 4928140. PMID 27176553.
- Gong, Juliane Q.; Favereau, Ludovic; Anderson, Harry L.; Herz, Laura M. (8 January 2016). "Breaking the Symmetry in Molecular Nanorings". The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. 7 (2): 332–338. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b02617. ISSN 1948-7185. PMC 4745607. PMID 26735906.
- Rousseaux, Sophie A. L.; Gong, Juliane Q.; Haver, Renée; Odell, Barbara; Claridge, Tim D. W.; Herz, Laura M.; Anderson, Harry L. (25 September 2015). "Self-Assembly of Russian Doll Concentric Porphyrin Nanorings". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 137 (39): 12713–12718. Bibcode:2015JAChS.13712713R. doi:10.1021/jacs.5b07956. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 4655919. PMID 26378660.
- Hoffmann, Markus; Kärnbratt, Joakim; Chang, Ming-Hua; Herz, Laura M.; Albinsson, Bo; Anderson, Harry L. (23 June 2008). "Enhanced π Conjugation around a Porphyrin Nanoring". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 47 (27): 4993–4996. doi:10.1002/anie.200801188. ISSN 1433-7851. PMID 18506860.
- "Michael Faraday, In Our Time – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- "Fellow Detail Page, Royal Society".
- "New Fellows Announcement 2024".
- Physics, Institute of. "Michael Faraday Medal and Prize recipients". www.iop.org. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- "List of MRS Fellows".
- "2022 Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division mid-career Award". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- Physics, Institute of. "2018 Nevill Mott Medal and Prize". www.iop.org. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- "Success for MPLS staff in Oxford University Student Union teaching awards — Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences Division". www.mpls.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
- "Prof. Dr. Laura Maria Herz - Profile - Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- Living people
- 21st-century German physicists
- 21st-century German women scientists
- Academics of the University of Oxford
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- German women physicists
- University of Bonn alumni
- Fellows of University College, Oxford
- Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
- Fellows of the Royal Society