EnergyDays

Karsten Reuter did his doctoral studies on theoretical surface physics in Erlangen, Madrid and Milwaukee. Following research experiences at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (MPG) in Berlin and the FOM Institute in Amsterdam, he headed an independent MPG junior research group. From 2009 to 2020 he was Chair for Theoretical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and has been appointed director of the Theory Department of the Fritz Haber Institute in 2020. He recently held visiting professorships at Stanford (2014), MIT (2018), and Imperial College London (2019), is a distinguished affiliated professor at TUM and honorary professor at the Free University and Humboldt University in Berlin.

Wiebrand Kout (1977) founded Elestor in 2014 to fill the need for large scale, low cost electricity storage. Kout is responsible for the development of the company’s core technology, intellectual property and product planning. Wiebrand has pioneered three hydrogen electrochemical systems: the PEM fuel cell (at NedStack), the electrochemical hydrogen compressor (at HyET) and the Elestor hydrogen bromine flow battery. He’s convinced that “bidirectional powerplants” are the enabling technology for an affordable energy transition.

David Smeulders holds an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from TUDelft and a PhD in Physics from TU/e. He worked for several years at the Dept. of Civil Engineering and Geoscience in Delft where he was also Director of the Geo-Technology Laboratory. Since 2010 he is full professor Energy Technology in Eindhoven at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. He is also Scientific Director of 4TU.Energy. He was member of the sounding board for the parliamentary inquiry committee ‘Gaswinning Groningen’.