Ph.D. Student in Australia

Hannah Roth, Ph.D. student in the team of Professor Wessling, travelled to the other side of the world and is currently a visiting fellow at the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne in Australia. For the next few months, she will be working on testing membranes for water desalination processes in the laboratories of Professor Sandra Kentish, head of the school of chemical and biomedical engineering. The membranes, which were developed in Aachen, are being evaluated for their application potential in membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI).

“After multiple stays abroad during high school, university and for internships in the USA, Spain and Taiwan, I knew that if the opportunity for another stay abroad arises I would be thrilled to take it,” says Hannah Roth. Now she is a visiting fellow at the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne in Australia. In June she is returning to Aachen after four months of running experiments in the laboratories of Professor Sandra Kentish, head of the school of chemical and biomedical engineering.

Hannah started her Ph. D. work at DWI in 2014 and is supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Wessling. Novel membrane materials and manufacturing techniques are her research focus. At DWI, Hannah and her colleagues developed a special coating for ion exchange membranes which helps in water desalination applications. A part of the group of Professor Sandra Kentish at the University of Melbourne researches electrically driven membrane processes in water desalination and dairy applications.

Professor Wessling and Professor Kentish have known each other for many years and proposed a collaboration between DWI and the University of Melbourne. “At the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes 2017 in San Francisco, I was able to meet Sandra in person and to discuss our future research project,” Hannah explains. Professor Kentish suggested her as a visiting fellow and the Melbourne School of Engineering provided her with a travel scholarship.

The laboratory of the Kentish group is equipped with a setup for membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI). Hannah tests the membranes developed in Aachen and evaluates their potential for the application in this field. “Previously, I have focused on the fabrication technique of the membranes. Here in Australia, I am able to expand my knowledge on the MCDI process,” Hannah comments.

The university environment in Melbourne is very international. 15 researchers with 8 different nationalities are working in the group of Professor Kentish. Melbourne itself is a melting pot of diverse cultures as well. “I enjoy trying all the different authentic cuisines that come with this cultural variety,” says Hannah. She also gets along well with the Aussies, as the Australians like to refer to themselves. “The Aussies are very friendly, open-minded and balanced which is reflected in the much-heard phrase ‘No worries!’.  After Melbourne has been rated the world’s most livable city for many times, I can now confirm that it is definitely the most livable city I have lived in so far,” Hannah concludes.