Hello,

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and welcome to my personal website! I’m a physical chemist currently working at the European Synchrotron Radiation facility in Grenoble, France as a beamline scientist.

The question I ask is:” How can we sustainably exploit available energy resources with minimum environmental impact?” It is more than clear that the  succesfull answer involves  new materials for energy generation, conversion and storage.  I use high energy X-ray beams to probe such materials in their working environment  in order to better understand their functioning and  structure-activity relationships. This requires pushing the current advanced experimental techniques to the limits and developing new experimental approaches.

My current projects involve the development of data analysis routines, operando investigations of fuel cells, studies of formation of catalyticaly active bimetallic alloys, fundamental studies of degradation of Pt catalysts and development of graphene based heterostructures for catalysis and spintronics. I also enjoy crossing the borders to solve interdisciplinary problems.

Scientific Interest

  • Electrochemistry
  • Fuel Cells
  • Batteries
  • Electrocatalysis
  • Surface Science
  • Heterogeneous catalysis
  • Fundamental Science on Model Systems
  • Device Science
  • Graphene
  • X-ray Techniques

Technical Specialties

  • X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy techniques (XRD, SXRD, GISAX, GIWAXS, WAXS, SAXS, PDF, XRR, HAXPES, EXAFS, XANES, Coherent Imaging, Real space diffraction imaging)
  • Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) characterization and preparation techniques (XPS, ARXPS, AES, UPS, TDS, LEED, SIMS, Kelvin probe, magnetron sputtering)
  • Electrochemical methods (CV, EIS, Chronoamperometry, RDE)
  • Magnetic measurements of thin layers (SMOKE)
  • UHV instruments, vacuum technology and physics
  • Development of data analysis procedures and data acquisition software (Python, C++, Visual Basic, Origin).

Research Positions

  • 20202018

    Beamline Responsible

    ID03 - Surface diffraction beamline, ESRF, Grenoble, France

  • 20202018

    Beamline Responsible

    ID03 - Surface diffraction beamline, ESRF, Grenoble, France

  • present2015

    Beamline Scientist

    ID31 - High energy beamline, ESRF, Grenoble, France

  • 20152014

    Junior Scientist

    ID03 - Surface diffraction beamline, ESRF, Grenoble, France

  • 20142011

    PostDoc

    ID03 - Surface diffraction beamline, ESRF, Grenoble, France

Teaching positions

  • 20142014

    Invited lecturer

    Charles University, Physics Department, Prague, Czech Republic

  • 20102010

    Chemistry Instructor

    Camosun College, Victoria BC, Canada

  • 20102004

    Teaching assistant

    University of Victoria, Chemistry Department, Victoria BC, Canada

Education and training

  • PhD 2010

    Physical Chemistry

    University of Victoria, Victoria BC, Canada

  • MSc. 2003

    Surface Physics

    Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Other positions

  • present2019

    ESRF member of LEAPS (League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources ) coordination board.

    ESRF, Grenoble,France

  • present2016

    Chemistry Bridge Coordinator

    ESRF, Grenoble, France