We are very happy to be part of the world's first United Nations University Hub "Engineering to Face Climate Change" here at the Hamburg University of Technology. The partnership between TU Hamburg and UNU aims to develop sustainable technical solutions to tackle climate change. Through three research areas innovative strategies are being developed to better manage resources, inform the public, and train researchers worldwide. One of two clusters started within this cooperation, “Circular Technologies for Bio-based Materials”, led by Prof. Smirnova, will research innovative technologies for materials made from biomass, focusing on both the production of biomaterials and the circular economy. This work will be central to the corresponding Campus Lab “Circular Economy”. More information about the UNU Hub can be found here.

We are proud to present the launch of the world's largest pilot plant for the production of biopolymer aerogels here at the Institute of Thermal Separation Processes. This plant was developed and constructed in close cooperation with the aerogel-it GmbH (CEO Marc Fricke, Project Leader Alberto Bueno). It is part of the cluster "Beitrag der Aerogele zur Energieeffizienz-Erhöhung in der Industrie" supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

Kathrin Marina Eckert wins Best Oral Presentation at the 2nd International Seminar on Modelling and ML in Madrid for her CRC Smart Reactors talk on stimuli-responsive gels using COSMO-RS and MD.

We are happy to invite you to our next 7th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON AEROGELS, which will be held in Germany/Hamburg on 18.09. - 20.09. SEPTEMBER 2024 and invite you to submit an abstract therefore! Abstract submission is welcome in the time-period of 20. February 2024 till 30. March 2024 through the following link: https://www.tuhh.de/v8/links/7th-international-seminar-on-aerogels The program for oral presentations will be finished until 20. April and published on the website then. Last minute poster submissions will be still possible afterwards. My team and I are looking forward to meeting you in Hamburg and to discussing the latest achievements in the aerogel science and technology! Additionally we are glad to say that our conference will be in conjunction with the COST Event "4th International Conference on Aerogels for Biomedical and Environmental Applications", where we will have dedicated sessions.

Our fellow PhD student Dr. Imke Preibisch won the price for the best PhD hat at the TUHH in 2023. Congratulations!

We are happy to announce that Prof. Walter Chapman from the Rice University in Houston, Texas will visit the TUHH in March 2024 as part of the SMART Reactors Collaborative Research Center. We are looking forward to the visit and fruitful discussions about polymers and PC-SAFT.

We are happy to announce that Prof. Walter Chapman from the Rice University in Houston Texas joins the collaborative research center SMART Reactors at the TUHH. His group at Rice University will be modeling the polymer respond to different reaction conditions in order to understand and fully optimize responsive materials for smart reactors.

In urban areas, every centimeter is valuable. To renovate buildings, slim facade slim facade constructions are in demand. But exterior wall elements must not only but also have to meet other requirements, such as guaranteeing thermal and acoustic insulation and and sound insulation and be energy-efficient. In the EnOB_HLBhybrid project in cooperation with Prof. Smirnova, Dr. Zetzl and our PhD student Razan Altarabeen, research is being conducted into lightweight wood concrete, which could form the basis for such innovative facade elements. More information can be found here.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Irina Smirnova was officially re-elected for the office of Vice President Research at the Hamburg University of Technology. On the proposal of the TUHH President Andreas Timm-Giel, the members of the Academic Senate confirmed the head of the Institute of Thermal Process Engineering for a further three years. Irina Smirnova will thus begin her second term on September 1, 2023. More information can be found here.

The TandeWeixian-Fernweh team from Tsinghua University in Beijing has recently visited the TUHH during their trip through Europe.