Scientific Background

Carola Kryschi began her scientific carrier in 1987 with a postdoctoral stay at Stanford University/USA (1987) where she achieved expertise on ultrafast laser spectroscopy techniques. Starting 1988 as assistant lecturer and continuing after postdoctoral lecture qualification (1993) as assistant professor at the Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Dusseldorf she focussed her research activities on studies of ultrafast excited-states relaxation dynamics, tautomerization reactions and phase transitions in molecular crystals and thin polymer films using ps resolving transient grating and photon echo spectroscopy.

In cooperation with Prof. H.-D. Martin (University of Düsseldorf) and Prof. H.-P. Trommsdorff (UJF Grenoble) she successfully carried out a research project on optical switches in liquid and solid phase which are based on photochromic dithienylethene compounds. Another cooperation project with H.-D. Martin. Since 2000 she is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. In cooperation with Evonik Industries AG she developed a patented two-step procedure enabling for the first time the fabrication of surface stabilized, oxide-free luminescent silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) with sizes adjustable between 2 and 3 nm and well defined, as antenna acting surface structures. The patent procedure is based on controlled HF etching of natively oxidized SiQDs and employs subsequently passivating with vinylpyridine or vinylthiophene ligands via thermal hydrosilylation.

Actually she cooperates with colleagues from diverse medical departments: of Anatomy (Prof. Dr. W. Neuhuber, Prof. Dr. A. Brehmer), Pharmacology and Toxicology (Prof. Dr. Jörg König, Prof. Dr. M. F. Fromm), Section of Experimental Oncology and Nanomedicine (SEON) (Prof. Dr. C. Alexiou) to develop multitherapeutic magnetoplasmonic Janus nanoparticles and luminescent nanostructures for targeted cancer therapies.

Selected Awards

1989 Benningsen-Foerder (NRW) Award