Emiliano is Professor of Experimental Physics and Energy Conversion at the Faculty of Physics, LMU Munich, where he leads the Nanomaterials for Energy group. He is also a visiting researcher at the Materials Department of Imperial College London (UK).
His research bridges chemistry and physics, focusing on novel nanomaterials and techniques for energy conversion and sustainability. He has published over 180 scientific articles, one book, co-founded two spin-offs and holds four patents in these areas.
Emiliano studied chemistry at Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina. He has received multiple European Commission awards, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Imperial College London and ERC Grants for his CATALIGHT and SURFLIGHT projects at LMU. In 2021, he was named Emerging Investigator in Materials Science by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and since 2022, he has been consistently ranked among the top 2% most cited researchers worldwide. Since 2025, Emiliano has been appointed by the ERC Scientific Council from the European Commission to serve as a panel member for the evaluation of ERC Starting Grants. In June 2025, Emiliano served as Chair of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Plasmonically Powered Processes 2025.
Emiliano serves on the Executive Board of the DFG-funded Cluster of Excellence e-conversion 2.0, where he is also a Principal Investigator and a research area coordinator. Funded at approximately €40 million, e-conversion investigates energy conversion processes at interfaces – where light, charges, and matter interact – laying the foundations for future energy technologies. He also serves on the scientific board of the Center for NanoScience (CeNS) since 2020, is a member of the Bavarian initiative for Solar Technologies (SolTech), the Young Academy of Europe (YAE) and the American Chemical Society (ACS). Emiliano is an International Consultant of the Academic Committee of the Carbon Neutrality Research Center at Shanghai University, China. In 2024, he was elected the first external Associate Researcher at TUM’s Catalysis Research Center (CRC-TUM), and in 2025, he joined the Solar Batteries Center (TUM-MPI).
Emiliano currently serves as CSO of INSyT Tech., a spin-off from his group specializing in advanced microscopy for energy research. He co-edited the first book on Plasmonic Catalysis (Wiley, 2021) and serves on the editorial boards of ACS Nano, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Photonics Nexus, and eScience. He has also guest-edited special issues in ACS Photonics and Communications Chemistry.
Associated Researchers and Postdocs
Evangelina Pensa
Eva is designing materials at the atomic-scale for energy conversion, including metal clusters and 2D materials. She works in collaboration with Prof. Alex Urban.
contact: e.pensa@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.011
Olivier Henrotte
Olivier is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow (MSCA) working on surface spectroscopy and microscopy of plasmonic and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) catalysts as well as other materials for energy conversion and storage.
contact: O.Henrotte@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.011
Xiaofeng Zhou
Xiaofeng is a Humboldt research fellow working on emerging plasmonic effects for carbon capture and utilization.
contact: Xiaofeng.Zhou@lmu.de
D03.007
HANG ZHANG
RISHI VERMA
Rishi is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow whose research focuses on in situ imaging of plasmonic catalytic processes, with the aim of advancing new solar-driven energy processes and materials.
ANUBHAB ACHARYA
FATEME KIANI
PhD students
FRANZ GRÖBMEYER
Franz is working on the integration of electrochemistry and interferometric scattering for nanoscale catalysis.
contact: Franz.Groebmeyer@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.007
CHENGHAO FAN
Chenghao is currently working on bottom-up synthesis of chiral and plasmonic-catalytic nanoparticles as well as simulations, modelling and molecular calculations.
contact: Chenghao.Fan@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.005
DIYA XIE
Diya is an LMU-CSC fellow working on earth-abundant metamaterials for solar fuels production.
contact: Diya.Xie@campus.lmu.de
D03.005
EDOARDO MARIANI
Edoardo is a PhD fellow from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes working on plasmonic materials for solar fuels production and energy storage in Li batteries.
contact: Edoardo.Mariani@campus.lmu.de
D03.007
VICTOR FERNANDEZ-GONZALEZ
Victor has been awarded with an ANID-DAAD Fellowship to perform his PhD with us and he is working on interferometric scattering for sustainability.
contact: v.fernandez@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.007
JIANYU LI
Jianyu is working on sulfide-inspired plasmonic catalysis. He has been awarded with an LMU-CSC doctoral fellowship.
KLARA DOEMER
Klara is working on imaging nanoscale processes for sustainability and green energy solutions.
JOHANNES KUNZE
Johannes investigates plasmonic effects with semiconductor quantum dots and he is co-supervised by Prof. Jochen Feldmann.
Masters students
ROBIN HUGGLE
Robin, as part of his Master’s thesis, is implementing and evaluating stabilization techniques for our microscopes.
contact: R.Huggle@campus.lmu.de
D03.005
Dennis Siebert
Dennis is working on photothermal microscopy of plasmonic systems for energy conversion.
contact: D.Siebert@campus.lmu.de
D03.007
Maximilian Leser
Max, as part of his Master’s thesis, is exploring the application of optical operando microscopy to various energy materials.
contact: m.leser@campus.lmu.de
D03.005
Student assistants
ÁNGEL MANUEL GÁLVEZ LÍMACO
As a student assistant, Angel is involved in developing software for automated control of our systems.
ANGELES NORIEGA
As a student assistant, Angeles is involved in synthesizing functional photoactive core-shell nanoparticles
iNSyT Technologies
iNSyT Technologies, a spinoff from our group at the NanoInstitute – LMU Munich, develops disruptive non-invasive microscopy solutions specifically designed for modern materials science. iNSyT’s in-operando nano-imaging technology enables real-time visualization of ultrafast dynamic nanoscale processes without interference. With unmatched precision, iNSyT empowers scientists and industries to accelerate innovations and maximize the performance of next-generation materials.
Dr MOHSEN BELADI
Founder and CEO
CHRISTOPH GRUBER
Founder and COO
Dr SIMONE EZENDAM
Founder and CTO
JAN ENGLERT
Founder and CCO
Visitors
GASPAR FERREYRA VAGGIONE
Gaspar is visiting from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (UNC), Argentina. He has been awarded with a DAAD ERA Fellowship for Green Hydrogen. He will be working on perovskite-based photocatalysts for green hydrogen production, in collaboration with Prof. A. Urban
XIAOXIA CHEN
Xiaoxia is visiting us for 2 years in the framework of the LMU-CSC program and she is working on biomass-derived catalysts.
ANGELOS XOMALIS
Angelos is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He is visiting us as part of a mentoring program from his university and to collaborate on polarization-sensitive SERS.
LEONARDO CARVALHO SOARES
Leonardo is joining us from University on Campinas, Brazil and he will be working on new nanomaterials for photoelectrochemical energy production and conversion.
ENRICO PARON
Enrico is visiting us from the University of Padova, Italy under the Erasmus program and working on spectroscopic characterization of new catalytic materials and interfaces.
XIANHONG CHEN
Xianhong is visiting from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to support the development and characterization of aqueous-based battery materials.
Administrative and technical support
Denise Wedemeyer
Denise Wedemeyer provides us with administrative and secretarial support.
contact: D.Wedemeyer@physik.uni-muenchen.de
+49 89 2180 83901, D03.008
Reinhold Rath
supports our clean room and general lab facilities, and is also in charge of safety.
contact: Reinhold.Rath@physik.uni-muenchen.de
+49 89 2180 83909, D03.010
Previous members of the group:
• Matias Herran, Fritz Haber Institute, Germany
• Simone Ezendam, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• Sebastian Langer, Oerlikon, Liechtenstein
• Seryio Saris, MIT, USA
• Seunghoon Lee, Dong-A University, Korea
• Julian Gargiulo, UNSAM, Argentina
• Ana Sousa-Castillo, University of Vigo, Spain
• Thomas Brick, Haseltine Lake LLP, UK
• Jonas Tittel, LMU Munich, Germany
• Harriet Walker, HSBC, UK
• Maximilian Maier, Helmholtz Institute, Germany
• Florian Goschin, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• Lin Nan, LMU Munich/IIT Milan
• Daniel Glass, Illumina, UK
• Moritz Tritschler, EPFL, Switzerland
• Sebastian Trautschold, TUM, Germany