People
Prof. Dr. Natalie Banerji
Natalie Banerji is currently a Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bern and leads the FemtoMat group. Her research interests include the study of organic and hybrid materials using ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, in view of solar cell and bioelectronic applications. She studied Chemistry at the University of Geneva and obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2009, under the supervision of Prof. Eric Vauthey. She then moved to the University of California in Santa Barbara (USA), to work on organic solar cells during a post-doctoral stay with Nobel Laureate Prof. Alan J. Heeger (2009-2011). In 2011, she started her independent research career in Switzerland at the Ecole Polytechnique Férérale de Lausanne (EPFL) with an Ambizione Fellowship by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She moved to the University of Fribourg in 2014, was subsequently nominated Associate Professor in 2015, and presided the Chemistry Department in Fribourg form 2016-2017. Click here for her full CV.
Contact: natalie.banerji@unibe.ch
Office 525
Dr. Julien Réhault
Julien joined the Femtomat group as a Postdoc in August 2017 and became Research Associate in June 2018. His research interests involve any kind of Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy ranging from the ultraviolet to the Terahertz. He is mainly involved in developing new tools for the field of Organic Bioelectronics, especially in the Terahertz.
Click here for his full CV.
Contact: julien.rehault@unibe.ch
Dr. Demetra Tsokkou
Demetra joined the FemtoMat group as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in February 2015. She studied Physics at the University of Cyprus and obtained her Ph.D. with Prof. Andreas Othonos in 2012.
Contact: dimitra.tsokkou@unibe.ch
Dr. Olivier Bardagot
Olivier started his Post Doctoral position in the FemtoMat group in 2020 to join the bio-electronics team in their investigations of accumulation mode Organic ElectroChemical Transistor (OECT) devices. From 2023 on, he participates at a 20% capacity while maintaining his own group. He obtained his PhD at the University Grenoble Alpes (France) with Dr. Renaud Demadrille in 2019 for his work on organic semiconductors for thermoelectric and photovoltaic applications.
His research can be found here.
Contact: olivier.bardagot@unibe.ch
Kaila Yallum
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree at Northeastern University in 2017, Kaila joined the FemtoMat group as a Masters student in 2018 and started as PhD student in September 2019. She uses multiple spectroscopic techniques to investigate charge generation in organic photovoltaic materials such as Transient Absorption, Electromodulated Differential Absorption, and Excitation Correlation Spectroscopy.
Contact: kaila.yallum@unibe.ch
Priscila Cavassin
Priscila joined the FemtoMat group as a Ph.D. student in December 2019. She obtained her Masters degree in Applied Physics at the University of Sao Paulo in 2019. Her research focuses on the SFG characterisation of organic bioelectronic devices.
Contact: priscila.cavassin@unibe.ch
Eva Röck
Eva graduated with a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Vienna in 2020, where she specialized in Electronic Properties of Materials and Spectroscopy. She joined the FemtoMat group as a PhD student to investigate doped organic semiconductors. Her current project focuses on charge transport in doped organic semiconductors using temperature dependent THz time domain spectroscopy.
Contact: eva.roeck@unibe.ch
Cedric Hoffmann
Cedric joined the FemtoMat group as a Ph.D. student in May 2021. He obtained his master’s degree in Chemistry at Technical University of Dresden in 2021, where he worked on organic semiconducting materials and organic electrochemical transistors.
Contact: cedric.hoffmann@unibe.ch
Isabelle Holzer
Isabelle joined the FemtoMat group in January 2021 as a Master student and started as a PhD student in March 2022. She currently investigates different semiconducting materials using multiple spectroscopic techniques such as THz spectroscopy, spectroelectrochemistry, Raman spectroscopy and Transient Absorption.
Contact: isabelle.holzer@unibe.ch
Kaishuai Zhang
Kaishuai joined the FemtoMat group in August 2022 as a PhD Student focused on spectroelectrochemistry of glycolated polymers and 2D materials.
Contact: kaishuai.zhang@unibe.ch
Christian Franz
Christian completed his BSc in Chemistry and Molecular Sciences at the
University of Bern in 2021. He joined the FemtoMat group in February 2022 for his Master’s project, which involves treatment effects on PEDOT:PSS.
Contact: christian.franz@unibe.ch
Basil Hunger
Basil started his Bachelor in Chemistry and Molecular Sciences at the
University of Bern in 2019. For the Bachelor project he joined FemtoMat group in February 2022 where he investigates the doping of P3HT with anion exchange.
Contact: basil.hunger@students.unibe.ch
Marco Finger
Marco joined the FemtoMat group in February 2021 as an undergraduate student in Chemistry at the University of Bern. His Bachelor project involves a fundamental investigation of Non-Fullerene Acceptors in various solvents.
Contact: marco.finger@students.unibe.ch
Former Group Members
Post Doctoral Researchers
- Dr. Gonzague Rebetez (2022)
- Dr. Gareth J. Moore (2022)
- Dr. Rishi Shivhare (2020-2022)
- Dr. Bruno Nicolau (2019-2020)
- Dr. Yufei Zhong (2017-2019)
- Dr. Muddassir Iqbal (2015-2016)
- Dr. Jan Bauer (2014-2017)
PhD Students
- Dr. Gonzague Rebetez (2018-2022)
- Dr. Gareth J. Moore (2017-2022)
- Dr. Philipp Krauspe (2016-2020)
- Dr. Nikolaos Droseros (2015-2020)
- Dr. Martina Causa’ (2014-2019)
- Dr. Lisa Peterhans (2014-2019)
- Dr. Mariateresa Scarongella (2012-2015)
Master Students
- Christian Franz (2022-2023)
- Tristan Blandenier (2022-2023)
- Lukas Gut (2021-2022)
- Isabelle Holzer (2021-2022)
- Frédéric Schneider (2019-2020)
- Jana Daepp (2019-2020)
- Kaila Yallum (2018-2019)
- Aleksandra Burlakova (2019)
- Arun Aby Paraecattil (2012-2013)
- Jenny Farquhar (2016-2017)
Bachelor Students
- Basil Hunger (2022)
- Marco Finger (2021)
- Iva Walz (2020)
- Joel Affolter (2019)
