Meet our Early Career Advisory Board Members who work on interfaces in catalysis and surface engineering
We announced our inaugural Early Career Advisory Board for RSC Applied Interfaces in September 2025. In this series of blog posts, we will be shining a spotlight on our new Early Career Advisory Board members and introducing them to you!
This week we are delighted to introduce Julien Lorenz, Matteo Monai and Jie Ju as members of our inaugural Early Career Advisory Board.
Julian Lorenz, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, Oldenburg
ORCID: 0000-0002-9936-7667
Julian Lorenz is a research associate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics and deputy team leader of a research group in Oldenburg, Germany. Dr Lorenz received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, where he also completed his PhD in collaboration with the DLR institute on new electrochemical in situ techniques based on scanning electrochemical microscopy to investigate reactive sites on transition metal oxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. Afterwards, he continued as research associate at the DLR institute and became deputy team leader. In this role, he independently supervises students and leads various research projects.
Dr Lorenz has expertise in materials development for various electrocatalytic reactions in energy conversion technologies, in electrode engineering for fuel cell and water electrolysis, and in scanning probe techniques. His research interests include the characterization of electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution and reduction reaction, the evaluation for alkaline water electrolysis and fuel cell technologies as well as catalyst development for the nitrogen reduction reaction in electrochemical ammonia synthesis. The development of materials for the ammonia oxidation reaction is also being researched.
“Interfacial processes are at the heart of a wide range of electrochemical processes. Their investigation and the optimisation of interfaces in real electrochemical devices enable the development of energy conversion technologies and thus the solution of societal challenges. I look forward to contributing to the RSC Applied Interfaces area of expertise to highlight this research and the further development of the journal.”
Read Julien’s work published in RSC Applied Interfaces here!
Matteo Monai, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
ORCID: 0000-0001-6945-4391
Matteo Monai is an Assistant Professor in the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis research group at Utrecht University since 2021. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Trieste (Italy) in 2017. He was a visiting student at UPenn (USA) in 2016, and a postdoc at Utrecht University (2017-2021). Matteo has received the Robert Karl Grasselli Award (2020), the Eni Young Researcher of the Year Award (2019) and the Adolfo Parmaliana Award (2017), for his research in heterogeneous catalysis. As an assistant professor at Utrecht University, he aims to understand how to develop better catalysts by tweaking their structure both directly and using external stimuli, with a focus on nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts for small molecules activation (e.g. CO2 hydrogenation, dry methane reforming).
“I am excited to share great science, support fellow scientists, and help shape a journal that listens to its community.”
Jie Ju, Henan University, China
ORCID: 0000-0001-8931-3270
Prof. Dr. Jie Ju received her B.S. degree from Jilin University and Ph.D. degree from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She finished her postdoctoral training in Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Tufts University. She is currently a full professor at Henan University, China. Her research focuses on materials for water-energy nexus, encompassing the development of novel mechanisms for creating liquid super-absorbing and superspreading materials, solar desalination, evaporative heat dissipation, evaporative electricity generation, and zero-energy fog harvesting.
“I am truly honored to be appointed to the Early Career Advisory Board of RSC Applied Interfaces. Drawing on my research expertise in dynamic liquid superwettability at interfaces, I am eager to contribute to the journal’s goal of highlighting innovative work spanning surface engineering, materials design, and applications involving wettability phenomena.”
Please join us in welcoming our new Early Career Advisory Board members to the journal community! See our full line-up of Early Career Advisory Board members here, and if you’re interested in the field of catalytic interfaces, explore our collection of articles here. For recent updates in the field of catalytic interfaces, explore some of our recent publications:
Framework-stabilized metal nanostructures for next-generation photocatalysis
Dual-function catalysis: linking photo- and electrocatalytic behavior in In2O3/TiO2 composites
Electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol: role of thorium (Th) doping in MoSe2
Constructing an efficient NiCu single-atom alloy towards acetylene semi-hydrogenation
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RSC Applied Interfaces is a dedicated, interdisciplinary reference journal for cutting-edge research on the applications of surfaces and interfaces. In addition to the applied focus, work considered for publication in RSC Applied Interfaces is expected to be highly original and of top quality. The journal seeks to report major scientific advances beyond the state of the art, at the cutting edge of this interdisciplinary field. |