Dr. Erik Karsten Schneider

As a lecturer at the MINT-Kolleg of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), I'm holding chemistry courses for students and students-to-be. Additionally, I actively contribute to the development of an online course in chemistry.

In addition to my duties as a former PhD student, I have conducted experiments using photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) as a PostDoc. PES, a gas-phase spectroscopic technique, can be used to gauge the energy-levels of excited state and the time constants of internal processes like IC and ISC. This can e.g. be used to gauge the applicability of a substance as an antenna for cancer therapy in which the sensibilisator interacts with light and O2 to form more reactive O2, which destroys the cancerous cells.

I did my PhD thesis (grade 1.0) in the working group of Prof. Manfred Kappes about the application of experimental and theoretical Ion Mobility Spectrometry as well as Mass spectrometry to study isomeric structures and structual changes of different species, like Porphyrines, ligand protected metal-clusters, dyes and metal complexes. These changes can be used to gauge the accuracy of theoretical IMS in structural determination of ionizible molecules.

At the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG, Institut für Funktionelle Grenzflächen) my supervisor was PD Dr. Lars Heinke. I supported him and his group in the coating of different materials with SURMOFs and the characterisation of them. For this, we used IR-spectroscopy, UV-Vis-spectroscopy and XRD. The IFG is an international institute with coworkers from e.g. China and India with whom I teamed up. So I could develop my communication and teamwork competencies and an understanding of foreign cultures.