received his Ph.D. in Physics from Technische Universität München in 1999. From 2003 to 2019, he was Professor of Theoretical Chemical Physics and Electrochemical Materials Science at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Between 2003 and 2013, he held a cross-appointment to the fuel cell institute of Canada’s National Research Council in Vancouver, BC, where he shaped a program in physical modeling of fuel cells.

In May 2019, he was appointed as Professor at RWTH Aachen University and Director at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK) in Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, heading the Institute Section for Theory and Computation of Energy Materials (IEK-13). His research employs a wide spectrum of methods in physical theory and computation, to approach a diverse range of scientific challenges, from fundamental to applied topics. He contributes to: modeling transport phenomena at interfaces and in nanopores, theory and computation of electrocatalytic phenomena, studying selforganization in electrochemical materials, statistical physics of heterogeneous media, porous electrode theory, and modeling and diagnostics of electrochemical devices.

Prof. Eikerling has supervised > 70 highly qualified personnel, including 30 PhD students as well as 30 postdoctoral fellows and research associates. He has published over 170 journal articles (h-index 49 on google scholar), 8 book chapters and 1 textbook. In 2017, he was awarded the Alexander Kuznetsov Prize for Theoretical Electrochemistry of the International Society of Electrochemistry for his work in modeling polymer electrolyte fuel cells. He has directed or (co-)organized > 20 conferences, workshops and symposia and has served the electrochemical community in various roles (a.o., as topical editor of Electrocatalysis, SNG; editorial board member of Scientific Reports, SNG; chair of the Physical Electrochemistry division of ISE).

Since May 2020, Prof. Anna K. Mechler is Professor for Electrochemical Reaction Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, as a member of the Aachener Verfahrenstechnik (AVT). She is also leading a research group at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-9) in Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Anna K. Mechler obtained her PhD in Electrochemistry in 2014 from Ruhr-University Bochum, for research conducted at the Max-Planck-Institute for Iron Research in the group of Karl J.J. Mayrhofer. Her PhD research focused on the combinatorial screening of fuel cell catalysts using the scanning flow cell. Following the completion of her PhD, she joined the group of Frédéric Jaouen at University Montpellier as a Postdoc to develop hybrid catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. In 2016, she became a research scientist and subsequently group leader for “Electrocatalysis” at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr.

Her current research focuses on the development of PEM fuel cell catalysts as well as the improvement of low-temperature electrolysis technologies. She is especially interested in bridging the gap from fundamental studies in electrocatalysis to the incorporation of new materials and electrodes into fully functional electrolyzers and fuel cells.

Anna K. Mechler coordinates the BMBF-funded project “PrometH2eus” with 26 partners, as part of the flagship project “H2Giga”, an initiative that drives the large-scale deployment of electrolyzers in Germany. As a member of the steering committee of the “Hydrogencluster” at RWTH Aachen, she recently co-organized the 1^st Aachen Hydrogen Colloquium.