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 Departments of Tianjin University (China) and 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 150 scientific articles, one book, co-founded two spin-offs and holds four patents in these areas.
Emiliano studied chemistry at the National University of 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 ranked among the top 2% most cited researchers worldwide.
Emiliano is Principal Investigator in the German excellence cluster e-conversion and co-coordinator of its graduate program. He 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). 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.
contact: Emiliano.Cortes@lmu.de, +49 89 2180 83902, D03.009
Senior Research Fellows
Hans Fischer Senior Fellows
Sustainable photocatalysis using plasmons and 2D materials
Recent research by the Rice team has introduced a new paradigm for the efficient capture and conversion of light to chemical energy, via the antenna-reactor concept. Our focus group will explore the full parameter space in terms of materials for antenna-reactor complexes, by combining plasmonic and dielectric materials as antennas and 2D materials as reactors. The latter have great potential for energy conversion due to their high surface-volume ratio, possibility of incorporation of defects, molecular capture capabilities, as well optoelectronic tuning.
Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Hosts: Prof. E. Cortes (LMU), Prof. J. Finley (TUM) ,Prof. I. Sharp (TUM)
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
ANDREI STEFANCU
Andrei is a Humboldt research fellow working on enhanced spectroscopies, machine learning and metamaterials for energy conversion.
contact: andrei.stefancu@physik.uni-muenchen.deD03.011
Rambabu Yalavarthi
Rambabu is a Marie-Curie research fellow, and his research is focused on the atomic scale level engineering and detection of oxygen vacancies for energy conversion using plasmonic and photonic substrates.
contact: R.Yalavarthi@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.007
Olivier Henrotte
Olivier works on near-field microscopy approaches to understand mechanisms behind plasmonic and photonic catalysis as well as other energy conversion routes.
contact: O.Henrotte@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.007
Wenjie Tian
Wenjie has a “Discovery Early Career Research” Fellowship from the Australian Research Council and the University of Adelaide to work on solar electrocatalysis with hybrid nanomaterials.
contact: Wenjie.Tian@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.007
Xiaofeng Zhou
Xiaofeng is a Humboldt research fellow working on emerging plasmonic effects for carbon capture and utilization.
YICUI KANG
Yicui is working on the LMU-Cambridge strategic partnership program on plasmonics for hydrogen production and plastics photo-reforming in collaboration with the groups of Dr. B. de Nijs (Cambridge Physics) and Prof. E. Reisner (Cambridge Chemistry).
contact: kang.yicui@campus.lmu.de
D03.005
HANG ZHANG
PhD students
CHRISTOPH GRUBER
Christoph investigates novel applications of optical techniques for operando studies on nanomaterials for energy conversion.
contact: Ch.Gruber@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.012
LI ZHU
Li is supported by the LMU-CSC Scholarship to develop highly efficient catalyst for plasmonic electrocatalytic CO2 reduction, including experiments and DFT calculations.
contact: zhu.li@physik.uni-muenchen.de
D03.005
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.
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.
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.
Masters students
Klara Dömer
Onur Cakir
Onur is working on novel optical solutions for tracing chemical reactivity at the nanoscale.
ROBIN HUGGLE
Robin, as part of his Master’s thesis, is implementing and evaluating stabilization techniques for our microscopes.
Bachelor students
ALEX WASCHUTH
Alex is working on the production and analysis of MoS2 flakes for catalytic applications.
ANGEL RAMOS
Angel is working on the production and analysis of MoS2 flakes for catalytic applications.
Student assistants
PAULINA BLEUEL
As a student assistant, Paulina is involved in analysis routines and software for microscopy data.
ÁNGEL MANUEL GÁLVEZ LÍMACO
As a student assistant, Angel is involved in developing software for automated control of our systems.
iNSyT Technologies
iNSyT Technologies, a spinoff from the NanoInstitute at 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
OLIVER BRIX
Founder and CTO
Dr SIMONE EZENDAM
Software lead and CIO
Visitors
KATIA-EMIKO GUIMA
Katia is visiting us from Campinas University, Brazil, as part of the DAAD-CAPES program and she is working on mechanistic understanding of plasmonic electrocatalytic systems with FTIR.
VICTOR YOITI YUKUHIRO
Victor is visiting us from Campinas University, Brazil, as part of the DAAD-CAPES program and he is working on advancing biomass transformation with plasmonic materials.
YE-HUA WANG
Ye-Hua is a PhD student at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, China and he is a LMU-CSC fellow in our group working on Ni-based catalysts.
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
Administrative and technical support (LS Hybrid Nanosystems)
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