معرفی
Dr. Olga Safonova is a Senior Scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, affiliated with the Operando Spectroscopy Group spanning the Energy and Environment and Photon Science Divisions. She earned her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Lomonosov Moscow State University, focusing on semiconductor oxide gas sensors. Her career includes postdoctoral work and a staff scientist role at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), where she specialized in heterogeneous catalysis using synchrotron techniques.
Her research centers on heterogeneous catalysis, particularly redox mechanisms at metal-oxide interfaces, CO₂/CO hydrogenation, and nanoparticle reactivity. She pioneers time-resolved operando X-ray absorption/emission spectroscopy (XAS/XES) to probe atomic-scale catalytic processes under realistic conditions. Key projects include leading the SNSF Sinergia initiative on CO₂-to-C-C bond conversion and the EU Horizon 2020 CATCHY project for cluster-based CO₂ hydrogenation catalysts.
She teaches courses at ETH Zurich (Cook and Look: Watching Functional Materials in Situ) and the University of Bern (Operando Methods in Sustainable Chemistry and Catalysis). She supervises PhD students and contributes to scientific committees, including the International X-ray Absorption Society Executive Board and ESRF proposal reviews.
Instrumental achievements include developing high-pressure capillary reactors for synchrotron studies and transient spectroscopy methods to distinguish active vs. spectator species in catalysts. Her work has advanced understanding of oxygen activation at Pt-CeO₂ interfaces and selectivity tuning in bimetallic systems.
