The Tutors

Dr. Günther G. Scherer studied Chemistry at the Technical University Munich (Diplom-Chemiker) and obtained a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Technical University Berlin in 1975, while working with Prof. Heinz Gerischer and Prof. Frank Willig at the Fritz-Haber Institut of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

After working as an IBM World Trade Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California, he joined the Battelle-Institut Frankfurt (Dr. G. Sandstede) with a scholarship from the German National Science Foundation, working on electrochemical oxygen reduction. In 1980 he moved on to the Brown Boveri Research Center, Baden, Switzerland, where he was involved in an R&D project on large scale water electrolysis, and from 1986 to 1989 he continued to work at Ingold Messtechnik, Urdorf, Switzerland, heading a research group on electrochemical sensors. 

In 1989 he joined Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland and started PSI's activity on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs). From 2002 to 2013 he was Head of the Electrochemistry Laboratory of Paul Scherrer Institute. 

MER. Dr. Jan Van Herle obtained a chemistry degree from Basel University (Switzerland) in 1987 followed by a masters degree in Information Science in 1989. The same year he temporarily joined ABB in Baden for a SOFC demonstration project led by Dr Ulf Bossel, in preparing for his PhD. 

In 1993 he obtained a doctoral degree from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) with a thesis on SOFC cathode reaction mechanisms. After a postdoc 1994 – 1995 in Japan (Tsukuba, Prof. H Yokokawa, Prof. T Kawada) he returned to EPFL as scientific collaborator in SOFC research at the Chemistry Department, focusing on electrochemistry and materials. 

In 2000, he cofounded HTceramix, a Swiss SOFC company, and completed a masters degree in Energy Technology at EPFL, to join the Laboratory of Industrial Energy Systems (LENI, EPFL, Prof. D Favrat), as a lecturer and group leader of SOFC research, focusing on fuels and stacks. J. Van Herle has coauthored more than 90 journal publications, 50 conference papers and comanaged over 40 projects in half of which he was the main applicant. 

In 2008 he was promoted to MER at EPFL (Responsible for Research and Teaching).