Professor Georg Held

Georg Held is Principal Beamline Scientist at Diamond Light Source and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading. His research interests concentrate on fundamental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, in particular structure-functionality relationships at surfaces. Key activities are experimental studies of surface geometries and adsorbate-substrate interactions by electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) Spectroscopy in vacuum and under near-ambient-pressure conditions. His current research focusses on the surface chemistry of small bio-relevant molecules (e.g. amino acids) and water on metal surfaces, fundamental aspects of chiral modification of metal catalysts, as well as catalytic, electronic and geometric properties of model and industrial catalysts (in particular size-selected nanoparticles) under reaction conditions. In addition, he is actively involved in developing instrumentation for soft X-ray synchrotron experiments across the “pressure gap”.