Rigaku Battery Forum 2025

Prof. Dr. Anke Weidenkaff is a leading expert in materials science and is currently a full professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt, where she leads research into sustainable materials and resource efficiency. She has also held key leadership positions, including Executive Director of the Fraunhofer IWKS and President of the European Thermoelectric Society. In addition to her academic and research contributions, Prof. Weidenkaff was a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), which advises the German government on sustainability and environmental policy. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the ETH Zurich and an M.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Hamburg.

Michael Strobel holds a M. Sc. in Chemistry and Management from the University of Ulm and brings over seven years of combined expertise in technology and sales. As a Technology Consultant at P3, he advises clients across the entire upstream battery value chain — from raw material extraction and refining to the production of precursor and cathode active materials, as well as recycling. Previously, he served as Area Sales Manager at AMETEK and later at Bio-Logic, where he specialized in electrochemical high-precision instrumentation for battery research and material development. In this role, he supported leading research institutions and industrial partners across southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. With a blend of scientific acumen and commercial insight, Michael excels at translating complex technologies into actionable solutions tailored to his clients’ needs.

Dr. Franz Schmidt is Group Leader for Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) in the Business Line Smart Effects at Evonik, based in Hanau. He focuses on particle design for pyrogenic oxides, particularly as additives to enhance battery materials. After earning his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Dresden (2010–2013), where he specialized in material synthesis and Methanol-to-Olefin catalysis, he joined Evonik in 2013 to work on the HPPO process (Hydrogen Peroxide to Propylene Oxide). Since 2017, he has led the development of metal and mixed metal oxides for applications such as silicones, catalysts, adhesives, electronics, and batteries. He holds over 20 patents in material synthesis and battery applications.

Dr. Gerald Kada is the founder of 10-9 Consulting, providing nanoscopy solutions across various industries, from materials science to medical applications. He also works as a Business Support Officer at Keysight Technologies, overseeing projects and budgets for battery research. With a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Biophysics, Dr. Kada has authored over 30 peer-reviewed papers, accumulating more than 3,000 citations and an h-index of 24. His expertise includes microscopy applications, technical training, and scientific consulting. In addition to his research, he explores nanoscale structures through artistic SPM imaging.

After undergraduate studies at the University of Heidelberg, Dr. Robert Bücker obtained a PhD degree in experimental quantum physics from the Vienna University of Technology. In 2013, he joined the department of Prof. Dwayne Miller at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg and the University of Toronto, where he worked on developing novel techniques to visualize the atomic structure and dynamics of beam-sensitive biological specimens using electron diffraction and microscopy. In 2020, he continued this line of research as a postdoc within a shared project between the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Group of Prof. Meytal Landau) and the Leibniz Institute of Virology (Group of Prof. Kay Grünewald), studying aggregation dynamics and polymorphism of functional amyloid fibrils using cryo-electron microscopy. Returning to diffractive methods, in 2022 he joined Rigaku as product manager for electron diffraction, steering the development of the XtaLAB Synergy-ED, Rigaku’s fully integrated solution for three-dimensional microcrystal electron diffraction (3D ED/MicroED).

Dr. Sebastian Recknagel is a chemist with over 30 years of experience in inorganic and trace element analysis. Since 2012, he has led BAM's Division 1.6 "Inorganic Reference Materials" and headed the Working Group I.11 "Metal Analysis" since 2005. He began his career at BAM in 1996, focusing on certified reference materials for metals. Prior to BAM, he worked at the Hahn-Meitner Institute and earned his Ph.D. in 1992 from TU Berlin. Dr. Recknagel has played a key role in advancing reference material development and quality standards in metal analysis.

Since 2002, Dr. Schramm has been the Managing Director of FLUXANA GmbH & Co. KG in Bedburg-Hau. The company offers services and products for X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). He studied chemistry at the University of Duisburg and built up the company with its own lab. Today, he leads the company and helps develop new solutions in XRF. Member of GDMB and 3 DIN committees for XRF.

Carmen Kaiser Brugmann is an analytical chemist with over 20 years of experience in XRF analysis, particularly in cement and industrial applications. Working for PPC Cement (in South Af rica) as a chemist and XRF specialist, she provided application support for the XRF instruments company wide. As an application scientist for Rigaku, Carmen is responsible for method development, verification and validation of XRF methods, conducts demonstrations, customer training and hosts workshops and webinars.

Dr. Rafael Müller holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Zurich and a Diplom in Chemistry from RWTH Aachen. With a strong background in inorganic synthesis, electrochemistry, and operando spectroscopy, he focused on advanced energy materials and catalysis. Since 2019, he has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, specializing in multimodal operando analysis of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Dr. Ulrich Ehmes holds a doctorate in Electronics and Electromechanical Engineering from TU Darmstadt and an MBA from IEDE Business School. With extensive experience in lithium-ion battery technology, he has led numerous strategic and technical projects in energy storage, manufacturing, and business transformation. He is currently CEO of theion GmbH in Berlin, a start-up für Lithium Sulfur batteries targeting to reduce cost to 1/3, weight to 1/3 and CO2 footprint to 1/3, compared to state of the art batteries. In former positions Dr. Ehmes led 14 years the main production site of Leica Camera AG in Portugal, and was 4 years CEO of Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché. He is currently also the MD of his consulting company SETA Consulting GmbH in Schaffhhausen.

Yuji Shiramata joined Rigaku in 2010 and has worked in both the XRD Application Laboratory and the System Design Department. He is currently involved in product and application development for the battery market within the Product Marketing Department. He is also pursuing further education at Shimane University, where he is enrolled in the Graduate School of Natural Science, specializing in the Environmental System Science Course, with an expected completion date of March 2027. Previously, he earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Materials Engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology between 2006 and 2010.

Dr. Stephan Wollstadt graduated in materials science from the Technical University of Darmstadt. His doctoral thesis was on cathode materials for solid oxide fuel cells. He joined Rigaku Europe SE in 2022 as an application scientist for X-ray diffraction and Rietveld analysis. His special fields of interest are construction materials, mining and battery materials

Dr. Johannes Kasnatscheew is currently leading the “Materials” division at MEET, where he oversees a team of over 20 researchers. With extensive experience in project administration, supervision of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, and lecturing, he plays a key role in advancing battery technology. Previously, Dr. Kasnatscheew held leadership positions as a group leader at MEET and a postdoctoral researcher and project manager at Forschungszentrum Jülich. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Münster, where his research focused on failure mechanisms in high-voltage lithium-ion batteries.

Prof. Dr. Tom Nilges is a professor of inorganic chemistry at the Technical University of Munich since 2010. He studied chemistry at the University of Siegen, where he completed both his diploma and PhD with top grades. He has worked at several universities, including Regensburg, Münster, and as a guest professor in Bordeaux. In 2007, he received his habilitation in inorganic chemistry, which is an important step to become a professor in Germany. His research focuses on battery materials, low-dimensional semiconductors and 2-D materials with metals like lithium, sodium, copper, and silver. Over the years, Prof. Nilges has received several awards, including one from the International Thermoelectric Society, the Rudolf-Hoppe lectureship, and a research grant from the Dr. Otto Röhm Foundation.

Dr. Patrick Harte studied Chemistry at the University of Münster (2013–2018) and obtained his Ph.D. from the MEET Battery Research Center in Münster (2018–2022). Since 2022, he has been working at the Fraunhofer Research Facility for Battery Cell Production (FFB), specializing in quality assurance and measurement technology in battery manufacturing.

Florian Kößler is doing his doctorate in the field of agile battery cell production at the wbk Institute for Production Science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). For the past two and a half years, he has been leading the Agile Production Systems research group at the Chair of Machine, Plant and Process Automation of Professor Jürgen Fleischer. Together with his team, he is making battery cell production more flexible, based on modular robotic cells designed as local dry rooms (microenvironments). He and his team are using optical and mechanical measurement methods to speed up ramp-up and reduce scrap. In addition to automated, scalable and flexible battery cell production, his research group also focuses on automated disassembly of batteries, electric motors and fuel cells. Florian Kößler previously studied mechanical engineering at KIT, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees.

Stipe Mandic is a Senior Project Manager for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems at VDE Renewables GmbH in Alzenau, Germany. He started this role in September 2024. Before that, he worked as a Project Manager in the energy sector at VDE in Frankfurt for more than three years. Earlier, he gained experience as a working student at the VDE Testing and Certification Institute and at EnBW, where he supported customer service and metering services. He studied Energy Economics at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, earning both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree.

Steven Oeckl studied mathematics at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and received his diploma in 1999. He earned his PhD in 2014 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology I of Saarland University under Prof. Dr. Alfred K. Louis on "Reconstruction Methods with the Approximate Inverse and a New Formula for Inverting the X-ray Transformation". In 1999, he began working as a research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in the X-ray Technology Development Center EZRT, focusing on reconstruction methods in computed tomography and multidimensional image processing. In 2009, he became the head of the Algorithmics group in the Department of Process-Integrated Testing Systems PRP, where he worked on the realization of a market-ready computed tomography system for process-integrated component testing. In the summer of 2015, he took over the leadership of the PRP department and reorganized it under the name Production Monitoring PMO. The vision of the PMO department is autonomous X-ray inspection.

Ramil Gainov holds a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from Kazan Federal University. Ramil started his work in nuclear resonance spectroscopy (NMR, NQR) and gamma-ray spectroscopy (Mössbauer effect) applications, including the implementation of these instruments in industrial use, e.g. approbation of the miniaturised Mössbauer spectrometer MIMOS-II designed for NASA's Mars rovers for geological exploration. Since 2013, Ramil transitioned to polarisation techniques for neutron tomography and spectroscopy instruments, as well as X-ray computed tomography. Since 2017, Ramil is focused on various X-ray Imaging applications, as metals, batteries, ceramics, minerals, and hybrid materials. With experience ranging from lab-scale CT systems to large-scale reactor facility at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Ramil is excited to work on finding the optimised solutions for customers and partners.