Silke Behrens

Prof. Dr. Silke Behrens serves as a Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where she leads the Nanostructured Materials research group at the Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT). She has maintained continuous affiliation with KIT since 1998, initially joining the Institute of Technical Chemistry before its evolution into IKFT, and received her formal professorship appointment in 2021.

Her academic foundation includes chemistry studies at the University of Karlsruhe, the École Européenne des Hautes Études des Industries Chimiques de Strasbourg (now École Européenne d'Ingénieurs de Chimie, Polymères et Matériaux), and Emory University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Karlsruhe in 1997 with research on selenium- and tellurium-bridged cadmium clusters and completed her Habilitation in Inorganic Chemistry at Heidelberg University's Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences in 2012.

Prof. Behrens' research centers on synthesizing advanced nanomaterials, including functional nanohybrid systems like ferrofluids and ferronematics, alongside developing nanoparticle-based model catalysts to decode synthesis-structure-activity relationships in catalytic processes. This work integrates inorganic chemistry, materials science, and industrial catalysis to engineer next-generation materials for practical applications.

She contributes to the broader scientific community through her membership on the Advisory Board of the ProcessNet section Nano- and Mesoscopic Systems (FGr-NMS) under DECHEMA (Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology), influencing strategic directions in chemical engineering research.