Tuesday, 22 October 2019
ICN2 doctoral student Nils Wittemeier honoured for his Master's research
A Springorum Medal was awarded by the RWTH Aachen University to Nils Wittemeier for his Master's thesis developed in collaboration with Dr Zeila Zanolli, of the ICN2 Theory and Simulation Group.
Nils Wittemeier, a PREBIST PhD student in the ICN2 Theory and Simulation Group, has been recently awarded the Springorum Medal by the RWTH Aachen University for his Master's thesis on electronic and transport properties of multi-wall carbon nanotubes. His work was supervised by Dr Riccardo Mazzarello, from the RWTH Aachen University, and Dr Zeila Zanolli, senior researcher at the ICN2. It was also developed in collaboration with Prof. Philippe Lambin and Prof. Luc Henrard, of the University of Namur (Belgium), and Prof. Matthieu Verstraete, of the University of Liege (Belgium).
Nils performed simulations to help understand from a theoretical standpoint the results of some experiments on multi-wall carbon nanotubes, which had revealed a negative differential conductance. He performed first-principle calculations and set up a tight-binding model. His simulations reproduce general transport properties of carbon nanotubes but do not show any negative differential conductance, indicating that this phenomenon has not a purely electronic nature.
The Springorum Medal is named after Friedrich Springorum, co-founder of the Society of Friends of the Aachen University, as an expression of gratitude for his work for the Society and the University itself. This honour is awarded every year to the best graduates of each faculty.