I model how molecules react at a catalyst — atom by atom, in energies — and I know how to make the result readable.
Density functional theory: finding out what a molecule does at a catalyst when the experiment can't see it.
Catalytic mechanisms of indium-oxide clusters for methanol synthesis
bachelor thesis · university of innsbruck · 2026
Turning captured CO2 back into methanol needs a catalyst that can take apart a very stable molecule. Indium oxide does it — but the mechanism happens too fast and too small to watch, so it has to be computed.
I ran DFT calculations on In2O3 clusters to map where CO2 and H2 bind, which bonds break first, and what each step costs in energy. Those barriers are what decide whether a catalyst is useful or merely interesting.
Alongside the degree I took extra courses in physical chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry. The master's continues in this direction, and a doctorate is where I want it to lead.
University of Vienna
Worked on abTEM, the open-source package for simulating electron microscopy images, implementing VASP as a source of electrostatic potentials. Benchmarked the pipeline on hBN, SrTiO3 and MoS2 — a layered 2D material, a perovskite and a transition-metal dichalcogenide, chosen because they scatter very differently.
Innio Jenbacher
Analysed and documented software processes across engineering and product development, so steps people were running informally were written down and could be reviewed.
University of Innsbruck
Hands-on work in an experimental group: building up measurements and seeing how physical concepts survive contact with real apparatus.
Austrian Red Cross
Maintaining donor databases and talking to first-time donors — six years of keeping records exact and explaining a procedure to people who are nervous about it.
Formula Student team, Innsbruck
Built aerodynamic components for the team's car — fluid dynamics as something you laminate, mount, and then watch get tested at speed.
Strength classes
Leading a weekly strength class, which is mostly an exercise in explaining one thing clearly and adapting it to whoever is in the room that day.
Two toolsets that rarely turn up on the same CV, which is rather the point.
A constant-current circuit designed in LTspice and soldered by hand, built to run a 450nm laser diode without letting it destroy itself.