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Group Members
Kaloian Koynov
Group Leader
Kaloian Koynov studied physics at the Sofia University and received his diploma in 1993. In 1997 he received his PhD from the same university for a work on cascaded nonlinear optical processes and their applications for all-optical switching in the group of Solomon Saltiel. Then he spent a postdoctoral year in the Institute for Fundamental Electronics, University Paris Sud, France, studying grating couplers into semiconductor waveguides. In 2000 he joined the department of Wolfgang Knoll at the MPI for Polymer Research as a postdoc and EU Marie Curie Fellow. Here, he worked with Christoph Bubeck on the nonlinear optical properties of thin films of conjugated polymers. Since 2006 he is a group leader in the department of Hans-Jürgen Butt at the MPIP, where he leads the Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy group. In addition, he is in charge of the service laboratory “Mechanic / Dielectric Properties” that provides numerous possibilities for characterization of macromolecular materials.



Yaolei Xiang
Postdoc
Yaolei Xiang got his bachelor's degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China in 2014, majoring in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and a doctoral degree from Peking University, China in 2019, majoring in Solid Mechanics. From 2019 to 2021, he worked as a postdoc with the support of the Boya postdoctoral fellowship program at Peking University. In October 2021, he joined Dr. Kaloian Koynov's group as a postdoc to study charge effects in droplet sliding by using ultra-fast high resolution microscopy. His research interests are electro-sliding on solid surfaces, wetting on structured surfaces, and flow control mediated by the liquid-gas interface.




Sascha Schmitt
PhD Student
Sascha studied Chemistry in Mainz. For his master thesis he studied PEG hydrogels with simultaneous static and dynamic light scattering in the Seiffert Group in Physical chemistry department of Mainz. For his PhD he joined Kaloian´s group to investigate nanoparticle formation with FCS and TCSPC and study the behavior of drug nanocarriers in full blood.
Besides to his work at MPI-P, he like to do sport and crafting.




Karina N. Catalán
PhD Student
Karina was born in Santiago, Chile. She received her Bachelor and Master’s degree in Physics at the Technical University Federico Santa Maria in Valparaíso, Chile. During her Master’s thesis she worked on the design and construction of an electrospinning chamber for the fabrication of polymeric nanofibers whose swelling properties were further studied with an afm with ambient control. Since 2021 she’s performing her PhD studies at the MPIP studying wetting and dewetting properties of polymeric coatings using fluorescent probes.
Besides work, Karina loves doing sports, traveling and playing musical instruments.

Besides to her work, she likes dancing and painting.





Yazhi Liu
PhD Student
Yazhi obtained her bachelor’s degree in Polymer Chemistry in 2016 at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Since 2014, the third year in undergraduate study, she joined Prof. Tongwen Xu’s research group, carrying out highly hydroxide conductive ionomers with fullerene functionalities. She continued her master’s degree in Applied Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Tongwen Xu and Prof. Zhengjin Yang at USTC. For her master thesis, she studied hyper-branched polystyrene copolymer makes superior anion exchange membrane. Now as a PhD student, she is working on photoresponsive materials at the MPI for Polymer Research.







Diego Ignacio Cortés Garcés
PhD Student
Diego obtained his Bachelor's and Master degree in Physics in the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso Chile. During his master thesis, he made his research at the MPIP, using AFM to study capillary and friction forces in the group of Michael Kappl. His experience as researcher also includes AFM to study mechanical properties and cell adhesion measurements. Currently, he is doing his PhD with the supervision of Kaloian Koynov, using high precision optic instruments to study wetting interactions and drop charging.
Outside his work as researcher, Diego enjoy Music and art in general.





Jingning Cao
PhD Student
Jingning studied applied chemistry at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. For his bachelor’s thesis, he investigated on photoresponsive properties of organic field effect transistors by introducing photosensitive organic molecules under the supervision of Prof. Laju Bu.  In 2021, he joined Prof. Si Wu’s group at University of Science and Technology. Now he is a visiting student in Kaloian’s group, and his main research interest is photoreponsive hydrogels. Next to work, he likes to cook and listen to classical music.

    
    
Andreas Best
Lab Engineer
Andreas Best takes care of the equipment in the Fluorescent Correlation Spectroscopy Lab and supports students and postdocs in using it. Furthermore, he helps researches in the Physics at Interfaces department to design and build new experimental setups and writes program codes for data evaluation.






Andreas Hanewald
Lab Technician
Andreas Hanewald takes care of the equipment in the Mechanical Laboratory and supports various rheological and tensile tests service measurements at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. Furthermore, he performs DSC measurements and computer administration for the Physics at Interfaces department.




Former Members
name former position
Ye, LijunPhD student
Straub, BenediktPostDoc
Agasty, AiritPhD student
Yordanov, StoyanPostDoc
Negwer, InkaPhD Student
Hesami, MahdisPhD Student
Schultze, JenniferPhD Student
Penghiang, JiaPostDoc
Lange, Anna KatharinaMS Student
Prantl, EphraimMS Student
Xie, JingPhD Student
Bresing, ValentinaMS Student
Schäffel, DavidPhD Student
Doroshenko, MikheilPhD Student
Cao, ZhaolauPhD Student
Vagias, ApostolosPhD Student
Wang, DapengPhD Student
Lbova, AnastasiaPostDoc
Dostert, Karl-Heinz MS Student
Fischer, Janina PhD Student
Gui, Xiahui PostDoc
Raccis, RiccardoPhD Student
Sheng, YanPostDoc
Juhati, AzharPhD Student
Cherdhirankorn, ThipphayaPhD Student